Profile 44 - Harold Thune's F6F

Last month, I announced to my wife, "No more airplanes for a long while." Funny how things work because the ears of Fate must have remembered a comment I made to Steve Heffernan, a historian at the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, FL.

Steve's a native South Dakotan and rightfully proud of his home-state's representation in Washington D.C., Senator John Thune.  He and I were standing in the Naval Air Museum's expansive, Indiana-Jones like warehouse when he pointed to a city-block long rack of cardboard boxes filled with WW2 flight records and announced, "Have you done Thune's dad's Hellcat? His flight records are up there somewhere..."

I replied, "No.  Should I?"  Steve gave me a "Duh!" look and commanded, "Yes, you should!"  Unfortunately, in the blur of the moment (I WAS in one of the Nirvana's of aviation archeology, so things were rather distracting), I forgot my promise shortly afterwards.

11 months later, a newspaper called to get some insight into the 69th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor (why they asked ME, I have no freaking idea) and the reporter asked, "Have you met Senator John Thune's dad, Harold?"

Blink!  I remembered my promise and admitted such to the reporter who promptly got me in touch with Thune's office.  One week later, I'm meeting with the Senator's aides, discussing how to get the elder's records to accurately reproduce Harold's Cat.

And so, I've begun the project of capturing the F6F flown by Lt. Harold Thune of VF-18 (Intrepid). The scan above is my pencil sketch study I made this weekend while snowbound during a camping trip. The Senator's office and I are researching the airplane that Harold flew during a fateful mission in Fall of 1944 where Harold downed 4 Japanese airplanes.

Watch this space - it promises to be a cool story, with lots of interesting details that you wouldn't normally get to see.

I guess I spoke too soon about "laying off the airplanes."

Profile 43 - "315" as flown by Lt. David Carey

Though it needs a few more highlights (to knock down the gray), this is a reasonable-enough rendering of Lt. David Carey's A-4E Skyhawk.  The one he was flying when shot down over North Vietnam, August 31, 1967.

Growing up as a little kid, I had these impressions of the Vietnam War - Charles Manson, Hippies sitting in parks, Walter Cronkite, jungles, helicopters and Richard Nixon.  Don't analyze the package - it was just my tiny brain processing the news.

And all the talk.  Vietnam bad, Vietnam good.

And this pin that my mom wore.  It read, "POWs never have a nice day" the words ringing a frowning face.  To me, at age 5, I wondered what that meant.  No Christmas?  Oatmeal all the time?  Did they sleep on rocks?  Were they beat up?

So, fast forwarding to a day when a friend of mine said that he knew a Naval Aviator who'd been shot down and survived as a POW, I wondered what his "never a nice day" experience was like.  Armed with his phone number, I called Dave, told him I drew airplanes and casually promised to draw his some day.  In answer to my question, he sent me his book, "The Ways We Choose."

That was about seven years ago.  Though I don't quite think he was pining for me to finish, Dave did wait too long for me to fulfill a promise.

I won't - I can't - summarize the book here.  It's more than a blow-by-blow recollection of the infamous Hanoi Hilton.  On top of the facts of nearly 6 years of imprisonment, Dave writes about the psychology of change and positive adaptation to negative circumstances.  Today, he counsels businesses and organizations on how to endure and grow despite their arena.

Though I remain, for now, fixated on the era of propellor-driven aircraft, this A-4E was a welcome challenge and an honor to someone who truly turned a "...never nice day" into success for himself and many, many others.

Fantastic!

So looking forward...

Readers:  work on Dave's A4 will resume shortly!  And believe it or not, the first print is spoken for (crazy to trust in the final outcome at this stage, but that's the passion people have for this airplane for ya).

Profile 43 - "315" as flown by Lt. David Carey

Well, there it is.  The fuselage.  Sort of.

The stencils were added early to help me get a grip around the Skyhawk's subtle curves.  So too were the interior cockpit highlights.

My references - so far - are a "walk around" book on the A-4 series, a drawing done by an unknown artist and a 1/48 scale model.  And each one is frustratingly different.  Frankly, I don't know what panel line to trust.

Oh well - the tail/rudder will come next, along with masking in the wing, elevator and tailpipe assembly.

I'm still 30 days from completion...

Profile 43 - 315 as flown by Lt. David Carey

Update -

Well, so far, I've "Thrown out and started over" 3 times.  I'm barely hanging onto this version.

In case you're curious, see that tail?  It "makes" the A-4's lines.  In the pencil studies, I continually draw it too small and swept-back, like a Grumman F-11 Tiger.   The real-deal's tail is tall and wide, visually 'too-big' for the compact, stunt-plane like lines.

However, when (sometimes it seems like 'if') this one gets finished, I'm sure the point of contention will not be the airplane itself but those stencils painted all over the airplane.

So far, there are at six different ways to write "RESCUE" or "DANGER" or "WARNING" in a 1960's vintage NAVY fighter.  Some have broken letters, some don't.  Some arrows have a notch, some don't.  Some are outlined in solid black, others a broken black line.

I'm hoping Dave has a miracle photo laying around showing exactly what the intake and cockpit stencils looked like.  In the meantime, stay tuned...

Profile 43 - #315 as flown by Lt. David Carey

Up until now, I haven't had the time to really focus on Dave Carey's A-4E.  So, I'm sketching myself back into the groove, getting the feel for the airplane's fantastic lines.  Here's my latest study.  I'm not quite "there" yet.

Anyway, this is the airplane Carey was flying when he was hit by a Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) over North Vietnam, in 1967.  He ejected and began a 5 and a half year life as a Prisoner of War. 

Ironically, I spent part of yesterday with former Senator George McGovern.  Most remember him as a front-stage "anti-war" politico of the era.  Far fewer know him as a combat pilot himself, flying B-24s over Europe in WW2.

It's too bad I couldn't have talked to them both over the same table - they're both students of leadership, of history and are patriots.  Maybe some day.

But in the meantime, I look at Carey's Skyhawk with a different eye, knowing he served his nation with so much controversy back home and endured captivity under a rabid enemy.

Though #315 is a few weeks from being finished, I look forward to learning more about what makes Carey tick and representing his machine as well as I can.  As a student of history, I'm grateful for the front seat.

Profile 43 - A-4E Skyhawk BuNo. 152058 AH 315

Well, the airplane above is a departure.

Believe me, I have plenty of WW2 airplanes "to do."  However, this Vietnam-era A4 Skyhawk is compelling.

Her pilot, Dave Carey, was shot down over North Vietnam on August 31, 1967.

You'll like this story - it's one of adaptation and temperance.  Stay tuned.

Profile 42 - "02344" as flown by Jimmy Doolittle and Richard Cole

Of all the airplanes I've ever done, the one above is the most...awesome.  Not 'awesome' in the way Sean Penn in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" said it.  Certainly not awesome in that the art is brilliant - it's ok but not awesome.

The B-25B above is awesome because of the act of her crew.

You can do your own search for "Doolittle Raid," but here's the gist - on April 18, 1942, the United States military conducted the first assertive act against the Japanese by bombing that nation's mainland.  16 bombers with 5 crew apiece, took off from the carrier Hornet on a mission that, at its heart, was a public relations stunt to rile Japanese military leaders and give American press something heroic to write about.

On paper, the odds of real strategic success were ridiculous.  16 bombers were laughably puny, especially since the targets were spread out over the country.  Enemy interception by fighters and flak were to be counted upon. Lastly, landing strips in China were primitive and would have to be found in the dark.  And, much of coastal China was occupied by the Japanese.

In reality, the mission was - to use an oft-used word - suicidal. 

Jimmy Doolittle, the mission's leader, was a famous pilot who'd honed his expertise in the 30's flying racers.   If you know anything about pre-WW2 aviation, you'll understand why he would be called today, "an adrenalin junkie." Plus he was a scientific genius.  Jimmy seemed to enjoy risk like most people enjoy breakfast.

But later, Doolittle published his biography, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again," a title largely driven by his survival of his -as the movie stated - 30 seconds over Tokyo.

All of the B-25s crashed en-route to their landing zones, save for one that managed to land in Russia.  Miraculously, "only" 5 crewmen died.  Three were executed by the Japanese, one died bailing out and one died in a prison camp.  A remaining three managed to make it to war-end and were liberated in August of 1945.  The rest of the Raiders trickled back to Allied lines, aided at great risk by Chinese peasants, militia and soldiers.

With loss of all of the aircraft (Russia didn't give the B-25 back), ten percent casualties and pin-prick damage to the Japanese, Doolittle believed he lead a failure - with is rather surprising consider any 30's air racer knew the value of Hype because in that regard, the Doolittle Raid was HUGE.

The Japanese military leaders were incensed beyond fury and demonstrated their character through an enraged search for the crewmen, killing possibly more than two hundred thousand* Chinese in the process. On the homefront, the pay-back for Pearl Harbor was invigoratingly sweet, helping to fuel a national unity that expressed itself in a herculean materiel machine.

See why this drab bomber is so Awesome?

And I get to meet her Co-pilot, Richard Cole, in a few weeks.

I will be in awe, no doubt.

UPDATE:  a history-geek's moment of awesomeness—A "selfie" as I drive  Doolittle Raider Dick Cole and 352nd FG ace Alden Rigby around town.  The wonderful woman in between is Dick's daughter, Cindy.  In case you're wondering why I'm sitting cross-wise, it's because I was listening in as the three talked politics.

*Anyone resting in the sophistication and civility of the 21st Century is urged to read up on the Japanese occupation of China during WW2.  Two things should become clear.  One, Japan has made light-year strides as a nation in its effort to distance herself from the insanity of its WW2 leadership.  Two, it's going to take continual effort to ensure that kind of evil won't happen again, anywhere.

Profile 42 - "02344" as flown by Jimmy Doolittle and Richard Cole

Insomnia is my friend.  Not.  Maybe.  I don't know.

Anyway, I made progress last night on Dick Cole's B-25B.  At least this far!  On my next sleepless night, this part will be 'masked off' and work begun on the fuselage.

The trick of this airplane is to catch the weathering accurately.  A beat-up, paint chipped bomber looks cool but may not be as the airplane really was.  The facts surrounding the B-25s that flew on the Doolittle Raid are such that the airplanes probably weren't all that trashed.  And when an aircraft was assigned to a Crew Chief, 9/10 were notoriously retentive about the care & feeding of their planes.

However, the 'Raider's' B-25s were used.  The 16 crews that flew on that extreme mission trained with their assigned aircraft from the beginning.  From factory to Squadron delivery, these B-25s experienced perhaps 6 months of wear & tear.  I'm working at capturing the right amount of oil stains, fading and chipping of paint...and of course the passionate service of the aircraft's ground crew.

Then again, I could just do a crumpled olive drab mangle of aluminum - every one of the Doolittle bombers were destroyed on that mission.

Stay tuned!

UPDATE:  Whoops.  Forgot the landing light and the words "ARMY" under the wing.  Bah.