VBF-13, you are welcome! But I must thank you for the shared memories too. And...apologize for the wrong guess! Half of my "explanation" was wrong: M
was not assigned to Master Field - see below.
As I wrote before, I remember I've already seen all this 2-letter abbreviations and their meaning, but I couldn't remember where and when. I started checking all my books and notes and (Thanks God!) I found the data. Here it is:
1. One or two characters designate the Naval Air Station and the number of the training unit (if more than one). If there was only one training unit a single letter designated the Air Station to which an a/c was assigned (2 exceptions with 2 letters see below): The assigned letters were:
J = Jacksonville
M = Miami
B = St Simons Island (Brunswick)
D = Daytona Beach
ME = Melbourne
V = Vero Beach
F = Fort Lauderdale
L = Lake City
DE = Deland
S = Sanford
R = Banana River
K = Key West (initially)
K = Beaufort, SC (later)
E = Edenton, SC (USMC)
G = Green Grove Springs, FL
C = Cecil Field, FL
2. One letter indicated the type of Operational Unit resp. the a/c type:
F = Fighter
S = Scout Bomber
T = Torpedo Bomber
P = Patrol Bomber
B = Landplane Bomber
N = Miscellaneous Trainer (e.g. Navigation, Instrument etc.)
3. The number after the two letters (painted on the wings in a group with the letters, but sometimes separately on the fuselage) denotes the number of the a/c in the unit. For example:
View attachment 252365
This is the 48-th a/c from a fighter OTU (
F) in NAS Miami (
M).
View attachment 252366
This is the 112-th a/c from the
first fighter OTU (
F) in NAS Jacksonville (
J1).
View attachment 252367
This is the 156-th a/c from a miscellaneous TU (
N) in NAS Deland (
DE).
In other words your dad's "Dauntless" was the
19-th a/c in a
Scout Bomber OTU in
Miami.
Unfortunately the older alphanumeric designations were not that well described and I couldn't find any good explanation. But I'm still searching...
Best Regards!