(please click image, click second time for even larger)

In September 1940 the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) ordered the first major production-line modification to its single seat pursuit fighter, the P-40. The updated production run was designated as the P-40B, of which eventually 131 were built. Production began in January 1941 at the Curtiss plant in Buffalo, New York. In March of that year a P-40B with chassis number 16073 carrying serial number 41-13297 was delivered to the USAAC and assigned to the 6th Pursuit Squadron, 18th Pursuit Group, Oahu, Hawaii.

In October 1941, seven months after delivery, that same P-40 was involved in what has been misstated by some as a wheels-up landing requiring her to be placed in a maintenance hangar for repair (see photo and explanation below). She was still in the hanger undergoing repairs when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. That seemingly minor twist of fate most likely saved her from being destroyed.

Following repairs she was returned to flight worthy status. Then, on January 24, 1942, in another ironic twist of fate, with only nine months of service and 56 hours of flight time, while on a routine training flight the plane spun out of control. The pilot, Lt. Kenneth Wayne Sprankle, was unable to pull out from the spin, crashing into the side of a mountain, killing him. In that the crash occurred in a rather inassessible area of the island, powers that be decided, after recovery of the body, to simply leave in place what was left of the aircraft.

Recently Kent Lentz, former cofounder, president, project manager, and chief builder of the no longer active Curtiss Wright Historical Association - Project Tomahawk Inc. has been in contact with me in order to correct some of the errors and misinformation regarding the -297s resurrection. Project Tomahawk came into being about five years after cofounder Mike Fortner acquired some of her remains and a usable engine in 1985. Lentz, through his own personal involvement from 1989 until -297s first flight on January 12, 2007 has offered, in his own words and presented below, many new and valuable insights into the historical aspects of the restoration/remanufacture of the plane.

The good news is however, since this page went online, the aforementioned and once no longer active Curtiss Wright Historical Association - Project Tomahawk Inc., has been fully reactivated in a new format and new location, and done so under the auspices of two of the Association's most influential original founders. Please see:

PROJECT TOMAHAWK: The Resurrection of P-40B S/N 41-13297

Before moving on, Lentz, in calling the P-40B '-297' as used in the paragraph above and in what he presents below, is refering to the the last three digits of its USAAC serial number. He says the 284 as seen on the fuselage is its BUZZ number. According to Lentz those numbers were assigned and painted in LARGE white characters on the sides of the A/C so that the exuberant young pilots who were BUZZING the beaches of Oahu while showing off to the girls thereupon could be ID'ed and properly chastised. As to the resurrection and completion of the P-40B Pearl Harbor survivor Lentz writes:

In 1985, -297s remains were 'rediscovered' and after a preliminary analysis it was determined that although there was major damage to the airframe and engine, it was definitely worth recovering. Remember that at this time, there were no Tomahawks known to exist. Common opinion held them to be an extinct type. ANY T'hawk was better than NO T'hawk. Some parts were recovered in 1985, followed by a second mission prior to 1989 when most of the rest of the airframe and engine were collected. Project Tomahawk obtained the airframe material, but the engine disappeared into a black hole.

In 1989 restoration of the recovered P-40B began after a number of concerned enthusiasts got together and on 5 Feb. 1990 formed a not for profit corp. called the Curtiss Wright Historical Association - Project Tomahawk Inc. in Torrance CA and operated under the name 'Project Tomahawk.' In every case possible they used original parts indigenous to the plane itself. Much of the airframe, although not airworthy, was incredibly valuable as pattern material. Secondly, before resorting to the use of newly manufactured parts they incorporated as many parts as possible from the two straight P-40s that had crashed in the Sierra Nevada mountains 60 miles due east of Fresno CA on 24 Oct. 1941 and were recovered by Project Tomahawk over a three year period-1989/'92. P-40s 39-285 and 39-287 had gone down while on a cross country mission to participate in an air defense exercise over Seattle WA. During the leg of the flight from March Field to Sacramento, the flight of 19 A/C flew into heavy weather over the Sierras and five planes were lost. Three of the pilots made it out after epic trials, and two died crashing into the mountains.[1] None of the material recovered from the Sierra crash site and used on -297 came from P-40 39-200 shown on the G. Pat Macha link.(see)

By 2002, after twelve years of painstaking and meticulous work, with a major portion of the costs borne out of the pockets of a few, much work on the upper half of the fuselage was completed and the nearly complete engine cowling fabbed by Bob Cunningham in England had been acquired, the Project was moved to Matt Nightingales California Aerofab facility in Rancho Cucamonga, CA and finished under the auspices of Stephen Greys 'The Fighter Collection' museum at Duxford England. It required another five years before Steve Hinton made -297s first flight on 12 Jan. 2007. There were a few squawks to be rectified before the A/C was disassembled and shipped to Duxford in mid '07 where she is/was based until her upcoming/recent transfer to the Collings Foundation.

NOTE: As an aside, for the edification of the reader, The Fighter Collection is not part of The Imperial War Museum. Please note that -297 was NOT SOLD to TFC. After Stephen Grey settled a couple of outstanding debts pertaining to Project Tomahawk, the project was 'transferred' non profit to non profit.

One last thing, in terms of historical accuracy, Lentz adds that no one he has met in his entire life has EVER referred to the H-81s (P-40/P-40B/P-40C) as Warhawks. He says, and I quote, "I haven't seen the term W'hawk applied to H-81s 'til recent years. It's kind of revisionist and, I think, muddles the study of the planes place in history. We didn't name it PT 'cause we didn't know the diff."

Below is a graphic of the 284 P-40B in the sand off the tarmac taken sometime after the landing incident of October 28, 1941 in which 1st Lt. Cecil J. Locke Jr. ground looped (it was NOT a wheels up landing as is so often misstated) thereby causing the aircraft to be in a hangar undergoing repairs on December 7th. The photo below it shows a destroyed P-40 in front of Hanger 4 in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM A PLAQUE AT WHEELER FIELD :

On the 7th of December 1941, Wheeler Field was the primary fighter base in the Pacific and a key target of the Japanese attack. At 0800 hours, waves of enemy planes bombed and strafed the flight line, the barracks and hangars. The resulting losses were 83 aircraft destroyed or damaged and 97 personnel killed or wounded. While the bulk of American fighter planes were caught on the ground, six pilots managed to get their aircraft airborne during the attack and, against overwhelming odds, scored the first American victories of the Second World War.

FIVE OF THE SIX USAAF PILOTS THAT GOT OFF THE GROUND DECEMBER 7, 1941
(please click image)

TAYLOR AND WELCH, THE DECEMBER 7, 1941 PEARL HARBOR P-40 FLY BOYS
(for video click image)

ON DECEMBER 7, 2013, THE 72nd ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR, IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT THE P-40B PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR THAT HAS BEEN HOUSED IN ENGLAND SINCE BEING RESTORED AND RECIVING FLIGHT STATUS HAS BEEN PURCHASED ANONYMOUSLY AND WILL BE RETURNED TO THE UNITED STATES AND BASED AT THE COLLINGS FOUNDATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. PLEASE SEE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE:

VETERAN P-40B WARHAWK FOR THE COLLINGS FOUNDATION

HOW JAPAN COULD HAVE ATTACKED THE U.S. IN 1937

P-40: FIGHTER IS A REBUILT PIECE OF WWII HISTORY

P-40: DEVELOPMENT, EVOLUTION, AND VARIANTS

THE FIGHTER COLLECTION: P-40B BU No 41-13297

CLAIRE CHENNAULT AND HIS FLYING TIGERS

CURTISS WRIGHT P-40N-5-CU No 42-104949

JACK NEWKIRK OF THE FLYING TIGERS

THE GHOST AND THE HAUNTED B-29

THE COLLINGS FOUNDATION P-40B

NORTH AMERICAN AT-6 TEXAN

THE LADY AND THE TIGERS

ABOUT THE WANDERLING
P-40 SITE CO-AUTHOR ALONG WITH KENT LENTZ

CURTISS-WRIGHT P-40

FLYING TIGERS
THE ORDEAL OF LIEUTENANT STONER

GHOST P-40

GHOST P-40: LORE, LEGENDS AND HER WHEREABOUTS

A LIVE JEEP, A DYING G.I., AND THE SUPERNATURAL
(please click image)

A YOUNG BOY N' HIS JEEP: ADVENTURES IN THE DESERT

(please click image)

INTERVIEW WITH KENT LENTZ ON THE P-40 RESTORATION
(to watch video click image)

96 YEAR OLD FLYING TIGER CREW CHIEF FLIES AGAIN
(to watch video click image)

MODEL P-40F HANDBOOK OF SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS

F6F NAVY HELLCAT, NAZI SUBS, AND
THE BAJA MEXICO CRASH SITE

RETURN TO:
GERMAN SUBMARINE ATTACK
ON HOOVER DAM

E-MAIL
THE WANDERLING
(please click)

SO, DID THE WANDERLING FLY?

(please click)

As to the subject of donations, for those of you who may be interested in doing so as it applies to the gratefulness of my works, I invariably suggest any funds be directed toward THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT and/or THE AMERICAN RED CROSS.

------ ------------------

For those who may be so interested Project Tomahawk continues to live on in a modified resurrection sort of way. All of the information about it can be found at a fabulous internet site composed of several pages (with photos) written by Ralph Baxter, Co-Founder CWH-PT, Inc. and edited by Kent Lentz, Co-Founder CWH-PT, Inc. who also lentz his expertise in co-writing this site for me. Although the Project Tomahawk site is not linked back to me, chopped liver that I am, it can be found by going to the following:

PROJECT TOMAHAWK: The Resurrection of P-40B S/N 41-13297

NOTE: Kent Lentz has recently informed me that yours truly's P-40 page has been linked back to his Project Tomahawk page --- doggone, and I so loved being chopped liver. What's a guy to do when their only claim to fame simply goes by the wayside?

(please click image)

P-40-B FLYING TIGER No 15452 THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT. SHOT OUT OF SKY ON RAID OVER
CHIANG MAI, THAILAND MARCH 24, 1942. WRECK LOCATED 50 YEARS LATER IN JUNGLE

A day or two prior to my overall departure from Chiang Mai the last time I was there I visited the Tango Squadron Museum at the Air Force Base, Wing 41, situated on the opposite side of the main entrance to the Chiang Mai Airport. I wanted to personally see the remains of the crashed P-40 Flying Tiger that was hauled out of the nearby jungles that the museum had on exhibit. That particular P-40 was also a P-40B Tomahawk like the one chronicled on this page, although a tad bit more beyond repair. Even Kent Lentz might find this one a bit of a task to make airworthy. The once upon a time Tiger carried the manufacture number 15452, tail number P-8115, and fuselage number '69' and was, at the time it was shot down, being flown by a pilot named William McGarry (1916-1990) who had eight confirmed kills under his belt.

It just so happens McGarry and I met during a sand storm one day at a gas station outside a quickie mart in Coachella Valley sometime in the early 1980s while I was returning from a trip exploring around the Anza-Borrego Desert near Agua Caliente Springs in California. I had become privy to what I thought was some possibly relevant information regarding the so-called Lost Viking Ship that at the time I felt was information well worth pursuing. Although the information turned out to be a false lead and quite bogus, the fact that I went to the Anza-Borrego in the first place ended up being quite a little goldmine for me personally in that I happened across McGarry. I mean what could be better, lost Viking ships in the desert and P-40s. More about McGarry and his adventures including being a POW under the Japanese can be found on my Phyllis Davis page or more specifically so the link below:

TANGO SQUADRON AIR MUSEUM, CHIANG MAI

FEI WEING: BIRTH OF THE FLYING TIGERS

THE FLYING TIGERS BOMB HANOI: 1942

CONGO BILL JOINS THE FLYING TIGERS

Footnote [1]

In the above main text the following is found:

"(B)efore resorting to the use of newly manufactured parts they incorporated as many parts as possible from the two straight P-40s that had crashed in the Sierra Nevada mountains 60 miles due east of Fresno CA on 24 Oct. 1941 and were recovered by PT over a three year period-1989/'92. P-40s 39-285 and 39-287 had gone down while on a cross country mission to participate in an air defense exercise over Seattle WA. During the leg of the flight from March Field to Sacramento , the flight of 19 A/C flew into heavy weather over the Sierras and five planes were lost."

The two planes of which the parts were recovered from the Sierra crash site, 39-285 and 39-287, were both P-40 Tomahawks of the US Army Air Forces 57th Pursuit Group based at Windsor Lock (Bradley) Field, Connecticut. On October 18, 1941 the Group began a cross country training mission with 25 aircraft, reaching March Field in southern California with 21 operational.

On October 24, 1941 19 of the P-40s left March Field for McClellan Field near Sacramento. The flight encountered severe weather over the Sierras near Fresno with only four planes actually making it to McClellan and fifth one landing nearby. Five of the P-40s crashed. One pilot bailed out over the mountains and rescued. Two pilots bailed out and spent a week in a cabin before being located and two others were killed crashing into mountains. The remaining aircraft were said to have made forced landings in various locations across central California and western Nevada.

As I do for all service members and veterans who served their country honorably in both peace and war, I bow my head with all and full due respect for the lives of the deceased pilots, who, in an albeit ill fated flight, gave their lives in a training mission for a country soon to be at war.

The interesting part here for me particularly, however, after being duly pointed out by Kent Lentz, is that the parts recovered from the two P-40s that crashed in the Sierras and used in the restoration of the P-40 Warhawk Pearl Harbor survivor, were from planes of the 57th Pursuit Group, soon to be renamed the 57 Fighter Group.(see) The 57th Fighter Group is the same Group that figured so prominently in the one day "Goose Shoot" slaughter of over 70 German aircraft that I have presented on a page titled:

P-40 GOOSE SHOOT

"On Sunday, April 18, 1943 the U.S. Army Air Force's 57th Fighter Group stationed at El Djem, Tunisia in North Africa, on a routine mission over Cape Bon had 46 P-40 Warhawks in the air along with 18 British Spitfires flying top cover. Low on fuel and basically returning to base they came across a 100 plane flotilla of German JU-52 tri-engine troop transport planes flying just above sea level over the Mediterranean, escorted by 50 Messerschmitt fighters. Catching the Germans completely off guard, while the Spitfires drew off the Messerschmitts and kept them busy, the P-40s split into pairs diving on the enemy planes tearing the transports to shreds, with an overall kill count of 77 enemy aircraft destroyed."

KENNETH WAYNE SPRANKLE:
April 26, 1914 -- January 24, 1942

Born in Cloe, PA moved to West Lafayette, IN in 1931
Graduated West Lafayette High School in 1932
Member of the Methodist Church
Brothers: Cortes N., W. M. (Morrey), Max
Graduated Purdue University Class of 1938
Entered flight training at Randolph Field, TX in the summer of 1938
A year later received his wings at Kelly Field, TX
Assigned to Selfridge Field, MI (made several trips home)
Lieutenant Kenneth Wayne Sprankle
Transferred to Hawaii in 1941
Survived Pearl Harbor 1941

The November 2000 issue of the Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine had the following information in an article regarding Lieutenant Kenneth Sprankle:

The article reports that the P-40B Tomahawk, #41-13297, was the only P-40B to survive the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 at Wheeler Field in Hawaii. Sprankle was on a training flight on January 24, 1942, when the aircraft spun into the side of a mountain, killing him. The log showed that the aircraft had 56 hours of flying time on it. Rescuers removed his body and the aircraft remained on the side of the mountain until 1989 when it was recovered.

Kent Lentz, co-author of this website and meticulous in his research and knowledge of P-40s generally and Pearl Harbor survivors specifically, especially so the one so covered by this website, offers the following in regards to the above Smithsonian article:

"The Smithsonian Air & Space article as says that -297 was the ONLY P-40B that survived the 7 Dec. attack. That quote SHOULD read 'The only P-40B that survived the attack that STILL exists in any way, shape, or form.' Although even that may not be accurate, since there may be some wreckage offshore or buried on the island somewhere. Seems as though I read somewhere that a bunch of the wreckage was dozed into a big hole at the end of the Wheeler Field main runway and then the runway was extended."

P-40: THE OBSOLETE WAR HERO

When the P-40B in question was sold to the The Fighter Collection she was registered as G-CDWH. That registration was cancelled January 2, 2007 and reregistered in the U.S. as N80FR (presumably just for test flights after rebuilding). The registration G-CDWH was restored April 17, 2007 and delivered to Duxford July 2007, painted in the 1941 Pearl Harbor color scheme with code 284.

(please click image)

Leading up to and during World War II the plane of choice in artist/cartoonist Milton Caniff's comic strip Terry and the Pirates was the Curtiss-Wright P-40. In the strip Caniff created a fighter pilot he called Flip Corkin. Corkin was based on a real life P-40 fighter pilot with the then rank of Major, Philip G. Cochran, shown above on the left in a characterization by Caniff with Terry of Terry and the Pirates.

Most of the Corkin character's adventures circulated around the use of P-40s in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II with the planes so illustrated carrying all the markings of the Flying Tigers --- albeit usually shown with the later U.S. Army Air Force insignia rather than National Chinese insignias --- while interacting mostly not so much with pirates or the Dragon Lady, but the vicious and vile World War II type Japanese and a variety of Asian warlords --- of which from my own personal experiences in later years more modern versions of those early warlords were still found to exist, re the following:

MEETING WARLORDS, ET AL

The real life pilot, Philip G. Cochran, however, before any CBI affiliation, earned his reputation as the squadron commander of "J" Squadron also known as the Joker Squadron flying P-40s in North Africa as part of the 33rd Fighter Group. He also flew P-40s for the 57th Fighter Group as a member of the 65th Fighter Squadron known as the Fighting Cocks.

Hardly does anyone ever put P-40s and aircraft carriers together. However, Cochran's P-40 equipped "J" Squadron, arriving off the coast of North Africa flew from the deck of a flattop as well as being the first to catapult P-40 Warhawks from the deck of a aircraft carrier and recover them in Casablanca. Re the following from the source so cited:

"While the idea of catapulting the P-40s may have been a cutting edge idea, the actual execution of the plan would prove to be less than simple. Although the ship was equipped to accommodate aircraft operations, the P-40s were not able to operate off a ship because they were too heavy. After stripping the Warhawks of ammunition, navigation equipment, and excess fuel, Major Cochran (squadron commander) and his deputy flight lead were catapulted from the ship, breaking both the catapults in the process, thus leaving 34 pilots to determine how they were going to launch. Throughout the remainder of the day, all but three aircraft were able to make it to Casablanca; two aircraft went down where the pilots were recovered and one went down without the pilot being recovered.

"The invasion was in its early stages, and organization systems were fragile if not nonexistent. Finding no assignments and no place to go, Cochran decided to keep the group together and headed off in the general direction of the war. By inquiring locally as they flew short hops, they eventually found an Army infantry unit at a flat spot in the desert who were more than happy to have their own air cover.

"Cochran immediately set up a training schedule for his recruits, commandeered infantry trucks to find supplies, fuel, and ammunition from wherever they could be borrowed or pilfered, and in a few weeks had a cohesive fighting squadron. Being formed outside of Air Force jurisdiction and having no official number, they dubbed themselves the 'Joker Squadron,' and adopted bright red scarves are their symbol."(source)

If you recall, the parts recovered from the two P-40s that crashed in the Sierras and used in the restoration of the P-40 Tomahawk Pearl Harbor survivor, were from planes of the 57th Pursuit Group, later renamed the 57 Fighter Group, and Cochran, as mentioned, flew P-40s for that very same Fighter Group as a member of the 65th Fighter Squadron known as the Fighting Cocks.

The 57th Fighter Group is the same Group that figured so prominently in the one day "Goose Shoot" slaughter of over 70 German aircraft that I have linked to elsewhere on this page.

33rd FIGHTER GROUP P-40 DURING CARRIER TEST TAKE OFFS, OCTOBER 15, 1942
(please click image)

ABOUT THE WANDERLING
WHO, ALONG WITH KENT LENTZ IS A CO-AUTHOR OF THIS SITE

"The question is constantly asked: Why would a man of Zen so purported to be as I am as found in Dark Luminosity and elsewhere, have any interest in P-40s or any other aircraft for that matter, at least at the level I seem to have?"

-----

THE WANDERLING'S FIRST FLIGHT USED A HAND-BUILT FLYING MACHINE FROM A LILIENTHAL DESIGN

"It was only a short time after returning from the desert during the summer of 1948 that I, just before school started and around age 10 or so, removed the flying machine my uncle and I built from the hanging position of it's construction lair and hauled it up to the rooftop of the second story building across the street. Then, holding onto the machine for dear life, I jumped off.

"At first the craft seemed easily able to maintain the same two-story height advantage over quite some distance. But then, partway into the flight, instead of continuing in the direction I wanted, it began tipping lower on the right and turning. Without ailerons or maneuverable rudder controls and with inexperienced over-correcting on my part creating an adverse yaw followed by a sudden stall, the ensuing results ended with a somewhat dramatic drop, crashing into the porch and partway through the front windows of the house diagonally across the way."(source)

As a young boy growing up I seemed to be somewhat more attuned to comic book and radio premium offers than some of my peers, spending an inordinate amount of time conniving ways to obtain, send for, receive, and play with such offers.

One of those premium offers revolved around a foremost interest of mine at the time, my favorite World War II fighter aircraft, the venerable P-40 Tomahawk or Warhawk depending on who flew them and where, the most notable of course being the Flying Tigers. Over a roughly two-year period near the end of the war the Kellogg's cereal company, in a marketing campaign tied in with the war effort, began putting easy to assemble flyable balsa wood model war planes into boxes of their breakfast cereal PEP.

The inside-the-box free Kellogg's PEP premium offer consisted of a small flat sheet of balsa wood with the parts of the plane printed on it inserted inside a paper envelope. Directions for constructing the planes were printed on the envelope along with a brief description of the aircraft itself. Kellogg's claimed thirty different models, although the number varied from eight to twenty-one to thirty. There may have been a thirty plane run over the span of the promotion. Of course the one I was interested in was the P-40 which meant if I didn't get one right off or trade for one, most likely I ended up having to buy 3,000 boxes.

(for larger image, to read instructions, etc., click image)

REASON ONE:

The not always so highly respected World War II American fighting machine, the Curtiss-Wright P-40, given such a high priority of importance in my writings is based on two, possibly three things. One, as you can tell from the above experience, flying seemed innate to me. As for P-40s specifically I liked them from a very young boy because I liked the Flying Tigers --- or at least the idea of Flying Tigers. I loved the "all plane plane" sleekness and look of the P-40, especially so when the nose was endowed with the almost comic book like fierce looking red-with-white sharp teeth and eyes of a tiger shark. What could be better? So too, as a young boy I bought into the legend circulating at the time that the Japanese feared the tiger shark and just the sight of the P-40s was so intimidating that the Japanese pilots would lose their edge in battle. Although that aspect of the legend is far from substantiated, the kill ratio has a tendency to support such a belief.

One day in one of the two classes in high school that Kent Lentz and I shared, instead of me doing something that remotely resembled anything close to school work, I was sketching in class like I always did, only this time I was making a rather intricate drawing of a P-40 Flying Tiger, one of my favorite fighter planes. The drawing caught Kent's eye and as it was, turned out to be his favorite planes too --- that is, ever since just like me as a kid, he had seen the black and white 1940s movie Flying Tigers starring John Wayne. It was odd that this guy who was a hero or legend because of his 32' roadster would even talk to me let alone have an interest in P-40s, but he did, enough so that we became close enough to call each other by our first names when we passed each other in the halls. At the time a real feather in my cap. As for the movie the Flying Tigers, Lentz and me, from the L.A. Times article so cited:

"To a child growing up in wartime Los Angeles, the world--with its wailing sirens, blackouts, and palpable fears of invasion--was a frightening place. Torrance resident Kent Lentz remembers that when he was 6, a John Wayne film called 'The Flying Tigers' temporarily eased his anxiety about World War II, holding out hope that the United States would win what was then a losing fight.

"The 1942 movie chronicled the exploits of a band of maverick American fighter pilots battling the Japanese over the skies of South China. For Lentz, the film's most memorable feature was the aircraft the American pilots flew --- the P-40 Tomahawk."(source)

(please click image for full movie)

The above video is a complete start-to-finish version of the original black and white 1940s Flying Tigers movie that both Kent and I saw as kids that in turn so enamored us with P-40s. The movie is complete, free, and online with no sign ups or ads.

REASON TWO:

Secondly, pure coincidence. You can call it karma, fate, destiny, or give it no name at all, but the fact remains that in a peripheral sort of way I had come into contact with Kent Lentz in high school primarily because of the Flying Tigers as I've stated above. Kent, being a huge fan of the Flying Tigers, thus then P-40s, which in turn eventually led him to participate in the complete restoration of one. Years later, me hearing about his restoration endeavors led me to the hanger where the restoration was going on and it was there I overheard a conversation that eventually gave me the answers to a question that had plagued me for a very long time. The question stemmed from the following as found at the source so cited:

Sometime in early to mid 1945 a fully fueled and operable C-47 with no markings and painted in the flat tan desert color of the Afrika Korps --- with a white underbelly --- was found parked under camouflage netting on a remote Nevada desert airstrip that has come to be called in recent times Bonnie Claire Airport, a basically remote forever abandoned X shaped strip with no known history about 125 miles north of Las Vegas. As if it wasn't bad enough once discovered, the unmarked C-47 was eventually traced back as being one of thirty-nine C-47s used in Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy French North Africa in November, 1942, in of which a great number of the 47s were either destroyed, lost, or ended up unaccounted for. The plane was stripped of all except bare necessities, even the landing and anti-collision lights were gone. The only thing inside was 20 or so brand-new parachutes divided and stacked along each side of the cargo bay, double the amount in count of bailout rations and canned water. Sitting neatly in their holders near pilot and co-pilot's seats were flight charts mostly related to Mexico and Baja California along with instructional and operational manuals all written in German.(source)

On the day I went by to see the P-40 being restored several aviation buffs were milling around, each trying to out talk the other about their great expertise and knowledge in things aviation. Among the milling was a high school history and geography teacher from someplace I didn't catch and a ceramics teacher from a nearby high school in Torrance. Their conversation circled around a crashed C-47 that one of them found years before in the San Bernardino Mountains. When I heard one of them say he was just a kid when he stumbled across the wreck of a C-47 in the mountains and it still had parachutes, clothing and other personal effects, thinking it might be a World War II wreck and possibly associated with the unmarked one found parked in the desert in early 1945 my ears perked up. Now, while I wasn't able to talk with the one guy who had found the C-47 for some reason or the other, I did talk to the other guy in the conversation, the ceramics teacher, who filled me in on the gist of their discussion. Once he told me the plane went down in 1952 I sort of lost interest. However, what is important to us here is what else the ceramics teacher told me.

Sometime shortly after the end of the Korean War the ceramics teacher had joined the Air Force and ended up stationed at Castle Air Force Base located in the center of California's San Joaquin Valley. The ceramics teacher told me he had always considered himself an avid aviation buff and having missed being in World War II because he was too young, was constantly badgering the older airmen for war stories. One day one of the older guys told him that near the end of the war he was assigned to a small group of other airmen and a couple of officers on some sort of an organized ground search. Their search ended after several days when they eventually came across what they were looking for. According to the airman the fruit of their search endeavors turned out to be nothing less than a fully fueled and operable unmarked C-47 carefully hidden from the air under camouflage netting out in the middle of the remote Nevada desert somewhere west and south of Death Valley not far from the Sierras. Inside they found a bunch of parachutes, maps, and the operational procedures on flying a C-47 written in German. The two officers, acting as pilot and co-pilot, fired up the engines and took off leaving he and the other airmen on the ground to hike back. What ever happened to the C-47 has never been learned.

REASON THREE:

There is a very valid third reason why I hold P-40s in such high esteem that is not always found to be nearly so highly appreciated by fervent followers, supporters, and aficionados of the venerable World War II U.S. fighter aircraft. True, my P-40 Warhawk page is pretty straight forward, sticking to the facts, and I have kept it and most associated links that way specifically, especially so out of respect to Kent Lentz who most graciously offered so much his input and knowledge --- and as well, for all those out there who truly appreciate P-40s

However, in regards to P-40s and my personal approach to them, on other P-40 pages I sometimes have a tendency to stray into other areas. Those areas are not always everybody's cup of tea. For me though, as my life seems to unfold, those areas are way up there, edging into the realm of the spiritual for some, and leaning toward the prospects of time and any possible travel thereof for others. The best example I can provide for those reading this at this time is to go to what I have presented in Footnote [2] of my Goose Shoot page wherein a handful of P-40s shot down over 70 German planes fleeing North Africa in 1943.

Plus, as far as P-40s and myself are concerned, I am probably the only person anyone is ever going to run into who is still alive that was caught up being strafed by a P-40 under military conditions. For more please see:

GHOST P-40: LORE, LEGENDS AND HER WHEREABOUTS

PEARL HARBOR P-40 GHOST SHIP

(please click image)

THE WANDERLING

DR. MARGARET 'MOM' CHUNG
FLYING TIGER RECRUITER, ADVOCATE, PHYSICIAN

FLYING TIGERS AND MORE
THE BOY IN THE MAN REMEMBERS THE LEGEND

THE LADY ON THE DOCK AND THE PBY

KENT LENTZ KNOWS HER

THE LADY ON THE DOCK
(please click image)
PBY BLACK CAT ATTACKING AT MAST HEIGHT IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

PLEASE SEE THE FOLLOWING FOUR CHENNAULT SITES AS WELL: GEN. CLAIRE LEE CHENNAULT . 1 GEN. CLAIRE LEE CHENNAULT . 2 GEN. CLAIRE LEE CHENNAULT . 3 GEN. CLAIRE LEE CHENNAULT .4

CAPT. MIDNIGHT, P-40 TOMAHAWK OVER PEARL HARBOR
(please click image)

FLYING TIGER PAINTING BY DONALD O'ROARK, AKA THE PLANEPAINTER

SCENE FROM THE ORIGINAL TERRY AND THE PIRATES AS DRAWN BY MILTON CANIFF DATED JANUARY 27, 1935.

At the end of the summer of 1953, just as I was about to start the 10th grade or so, the August - September #6 issue of the comic book Mad came out. Inside #6 was a story, drawn by my all time favorite non-animator cartoonist Wallace Wood, that spoofed or satired big-time the long running comic strip Terry and the Pirates, with Wood in his spoofing, calling it Teddy and the Pirates.

Although I had followed Terry and the Pirates a good portion of my life, and knew how Milton Caniff, the artist-cartoonist of the strip, presented Terry's world that he and his so-called Pirates lived in, Wood's top-half opening drawing below, showing his version of an underbelly far east like milieu, real or not, that exemplified the Asian atmosphere along with the rest of the story hit me like a hammer, with me, the teenager that I was, sucking up his version as my version and as my version, the real version. Ten years later, thanks to Uncle Sam and his friendly Selective Service, found me in Rangoon, Saigon, and Chiang Mai, as well as other such places, even meeting Warlords. Those ten years after high school, especially in and where I traveled, having gone from a teenager to an almost mid-twenties GI, my vision not only didn't wane, but was bolstered and grew. Notice the tommy guns, stabbings, hand grenades and exotic women.

WANDERLING AND THE PIRATES

(please click image)

TERRY AND THE PIRATES