Lake Michigan, Naval Aviation Graveyard

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Lawrence, KS is about 40 miles west of me and is where a pilot painstakingly restored a rare F4F Wildcat plucked from Lake Michigan to flying condition. It was beautiful. Once the US Navy got wind of it though, they claimed it still belonged to them and wanted it for their collection. 
 

The restorer resisted, but the Navy invoked a little-known law claiming they could repossess government property. The owner was compensated, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t made whole on his time and expenses for the project. 

[watab kid]

i just watched every minute of that - thank you , my wifes side of the family were navy - they would appreciate this a lot , my side of the family was army air corps my father spent time in seattle , pratt kansas , and chanute field in IL where he married my mother before deployment to saipan , much like the navy we were training our bomber crews all over the meddle of the country , again thanks - so much of this is now being lost in some ways as these men/women are old [my father would have been 100 last november , had he lived to see 911 - in many ways im glad he didnt , it might have been pearl all over for him , 

 

i have a project im working on here as my wifes father is now gone and i inherited all of hiis records and memorabilia , there is a lot of it , my father served 5 years in WWII , hers served over 20 years in korea and the cold war on subs mostly then a surface stint in VN and a land based sub duty in japan [where my wife was raised] he accumulated a lot of material , im trying to preserve what my MIL assembled and put into displays what he received in that service , a lot of stuff ...most too nice to ever be discarded or lost , 

the matchbooks and trinkets from the philippines and japan most might throw out as lost memories , but the cast metal submarines and such , not so much -  im trying to see if i have examples of every class he served on orif there are all the classes represented in his service below the surface there are quite a few of them , the plaques and such are another issue as we dont have wall space for all of it , gonna be a bit time consuming i think , 

 

 

[Canton Chris]

Thank you S. Joe, that was well worth watching!

[Subdeacon Joe]

10 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

Lawrence, KS is about 40 miles west of me and is where a pilot painstakingly restored a rare F4F Wildcat plucked from Lake Michigan to flying condition. It was beautiful. Once the US Navy got wind of it though, they claimed it still belonged to them and wanted it for their collection. 
 

The restorer resisted, but the Navy invoked a little-known law claiming they could repossess government property. The owner was compensated, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t made whole on his time and expenses for the project. 

 

I vaguely recall reading an article about 25 years ago about someone finding some cannon barrels - I think M-1841 6 Pound Field Guns - somewhere in the Sierra Nevada.   The Army found out and reclaimed them as US Army property.  

[Subdeacon Joe]

6 hours ago, watab kid said:

i just watched every minute of that - thank you , my wifes side of the family were navy - they would appreciate this a lot , my side of the family was army air corps my father spent time in seattle , pratt kansas , and chanute field in IL where he married my mother before deployment to saipan , much like the navy we were training our bomber crews all over the meddle of the country , again thanks - so much of this is now being lost in some ways as these men/women are old [my father would have been 100 last november , had he lived to see 911 - in many ways im glad he didnt , it might have been pearl all over for him , 

 

i have a project im working on here as my wifes father is now gone and i inherited all of hiis records and memorabilia , there is a lot of it , my father served 5 years in WWII , hers served over 20 years in korea and the cold war on subs mostly then a surface stint in VN and a land based sub duty in japan [where my wife was raised] he accumulated a lot of material , im trying to preserve what my MIL assembled and put into displays what he received in that service , a lot of stuff ...most too nice to ever be discarded or lost , 

the matchbooks and trinkets from the philippines and japan most might throw out as lost memories , but the cast metal submarines and such , not so much -  im trying to see if i have examples of every class he served on orif there are all the classes represented in his service below the surface there are quite a few of them , the plaques and such are another issue as we dont have wall space for all of it , gonna be a bit time consuming i think , 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Canton Chris said:

Thank you S. Joe, that was well worth watching!

 

 

Thank you, gentlemen.   I'm just passing along things I stumble across that I think may be of interest to others.

[Chantry]

Most of the planes probably flew off the only two freshwater, coal-fired, side paddle-wheel aircraft carriers ever used:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sable

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wolverine_(IX-64)

 

 

 

 

[Trailrider #896]

I remember driving by Chicago Vocational School sometime after WWII, when there were a plethera of Navy fighters and maybe dive bombers inside the barbed wire fencing,. They were apparently there to train aircraft mechanics. Don' know what ever happened to them all. Maybe dumped in Lake Michigan?

[Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L]

Awesome video! I had no idea of this program or the recovery efforts.

[Utah Bob #35998]

During WW2. They trained B17 and B29 pilots in Hillsborough County in Florida. I had a teacher in High School who had been stationed there. They had a saying. “One a day in Tampa Bay”

[DeaconKC]

2 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

During WW2. They trained B17 and B29 pilots in Hillsborough County in Florida. I had a teacher in High School who had been stationed there. They had a saying. “One a day in Tampa Bay”

The "One a day in Tampa Bay" came from the introduction of the B-26 Marauder. Known as the Flying Prostitute because of it's small wing area, it was an absolute hot rod and if not flown at full power when taking off and building up enough airspeed, would often stall and crash on take off.

Once they quit trying to baby it, it became the medium bomber with the lowest combat loss rate in Europe.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

On 2/8/2024 at 6:55 PM, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Just now had the chance to watch this excellent documentary in its entirety.
 

I happened to be at Pensacola NAS Aviation Museum in 2015. Because my dad was a Navy pilot, I got a personal tour of the grounds beyond the main museum. I wasn’t expecting that because all I had asked was to see some planes awaiting restoration that dad had flown and stored outdoors, but unavailable for public viewing. On that tour I got to see the F4-U Corsair featured in this video undergoing restoration. I’m gonna have to look it up to see if done and on display.*
 

thanks for the post, Joe. 
 

*Apparently it’s at a restoration shop in California. I’ve no idea of what’s happened since 2015, as it had just been acquired when I saw it. They were very excited to have it then, so I’d love to know the story since.

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by Abilene Slim SASS 81783