"Just across the highway from the Vandalia airport was the company that made the propellers used on the P-51's, namely, Aeroproducts. On one occaision we were glad they were so close. One of our crew, who was not the brightest aircraft mechanic in the world, decided one of our Mustang's propeller needed painting. The H model used a lightweight hollow propeller that was very susceptible to becoming out-of-balance. He had so much paint on it, it looked as if it had been put on with a mop. It was so out of balance that one heavy blade rotated to the bottom when it was hung on the propeler stand. We had to send it to the factory to be stripped and painted."

"Sometime in the early 1950's, one of our young mechanics applied for flight training, was accepted and was awarded his wings. His older brother was also an aircraft mechanic and an NCO. Just after he returned to the squadron he flew into the ground and was killed during a bomb run out on the range."

"Old timers may remember the early television performer, Arthur Godfrey. He was a pilot and a very big promoter of the Air Force, being a Colonel in the Reserves. He did many benefits and cut records (before CD's) for the Air Force. He flew his own war surplus C-47 that had been converted into a plush private airliner. He showed up at the ANG facility in Vandalia one morning and received permission to park there for the weekend."

Mechanics and Crew Chiefs bore the enormous responsibilty of making sure that each Mustang was maintained at peak safety and performance. The Air Force took this very seriously as the next two anecdotes show.

"One of our P-51's was in the hangar undergoing inspection. A crew member started to work early one morning and found some cut lines behind the instrument panel and he reported the damage. The FBI was called in and they interrogated all of us, one at a time, in a small interview room. They were very low keyed and asked many questions that didn't seem to make sense. About noon, the agents left with our Instrument Technician and we all thought he was going to lunch with them. He never came back - he had been arrested and eventually served a year and a day in the Federal Penitentiary. It turned out he wanted recognition and cut the lines himself, planning on finding them in the morning and therefore becoming a hero. Unfortunately, for him, someone else found them first."

"My Mustang just had an engine change. I had performed engine conditioning at the tie down, topped off the tanks and released the plane for a test flight. Capt. Darrell Larkin was the Squadron's test pilot and he got in and started the engine when oil came out in great quantities. It was shut down and inspected and we found a cut oil line. The engineering officer suspected possible sabatoge or possibly someone didn't like Capt. Larkin, which was highly unlikely! The FBI was called in and interviewed all of us that worked on the plane. It was finally agreed that a new hose with a cut in it had inadvertently been installed, as the usual procedure was to check out a long length of hose, cut off what you needed and return the remaining piece to the stockroom. Someone had probably started a cut, became distracted and returned the nicked piece to the stockroom. As a result of this incident the stockroom policy was changed and a hose, once issued, could not be returned. If you have never been interrogated by the FBI, you haven't lived!

                                         An early photo of Richard , about to "loan" his plane to a Ohio ANG pilot.

"One Monday morning, a co-worker and I who rode to work together, arrived at the Vandalia facility to be greeted by a sea of parked aircraft. They filled the grass areas between the runways and parking aprons as far as one could see. There was a large hurricane on the eastern seaboard and most of the bases sent their planes west out of harms way. There were planes of all sizes and descriptions; the people who flew them in were not given any notice, had been rousted out of bed and had only the clothes they were wearing and no money. Crew members of both genders, whether they were current in that particular aircraft or not were sent on their way. I don't think they even had a destination in mind, just head west! Members of the base detachment took home as many as could be accomodated. Several of us worked for two or three days non-stop just refueling them and refilling the two tanker trucks which only held 2000 gallons each."

"On one rainy morning at Vandalia, with lots of thunder and lightning, we were preflighting the Mustangs. Most of us had finished and were standing looking out the hangar doors. One crew chief was walking down the line of planes when a large ball of fire (commonly known as St. Elmo's fire) was formed and started chasing him. We all warned him and he took off running, finally managing to jump up on the wing of a plane and scramble into the cockpit in time for the fireball to pass by him. It was a comical sight!"

"One morning at Vandalia I was performing a preflight engine run in a P-51H. It was very cold and there was snow on the ground. I was in the 2nd row of planes, facing the hangar, with the taxi way leading to the runway behind me. I had my radio headset volume turned down, so I didn't hear the tower trying to call me. There was an airliner wanting to pass behind me on his way to the runway, but he didn't want to go through my prop blast and risk getting blown off the concrete. He finaly got impatient and went across in front of me. I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye and it disoriented me. I had the feeling that I was moving and I put on the brakes even harder and chopped the throttle. When I looked up the pilot gave me a big cheery wave of his hand. I thought sure I was moving and heading for the hangar and sure disaster."

As in any military operation, accidents happen despite the best efforts of the crews, as the next section shows.

In June, 1953, one of our F-51's, piloted by Lt. William Wilmer, was taking off and experienced engine trouble. One of the tower occupants saw the plane heading towards the tower and jumped out, breaking his leg in the jump. The plane missed the tower but bellied in on the apron in front of the hangar, breaking the fuselage just behind the cockpit. It started smoking and one of our base detachment mechanics slung a 20 pound fire extinguisher on his shoulder and ran out to the plane. He passed me and I had a head start and wasn't even carrying anything. He arrived at the plane and pulled the trigger and nothing came out; he had picked up an empty extinguisher!

"Sometime around 1951 our C-47 piloted by Major Edwin L. King and crewed by Master Seargent Kenneth Wiehe crashed in hilly south eastern Ohio while returning an Army shooting unit home from a competition at Camp Perry in Toledo, Ohio. All but one of the members of the Army team parachuted to safety; the single fatality was caused by the last man jumping at too low an altitude. Pilot King, the co-pilot and Wiehe rode the plane in and King, as I recall, suffered broken ankles. The co-pilot and Wiehe were uninjured. Weihe had hunkered down with his back to the cockpit bulkhead."

"In 1953 one of our T-6's crashed in a wooded area west of Vandalia, not far from Route 40 near a resevoir around Englewood, as I remember. Each pilot thought the other had the controls as they were circling low over a farm while taking in the sight of a female sunbather. The front seat occupant was killed in the crash. I went out to the crash site. As I recall, the first responders thought both occupants were dead and made no attempt to extricate the bodies. Only after some time had elapsed did someone hear a groan from the rear seat and he was removed and sent to the hospital. Just about every bone in his body seemed to be broken and he literally slithered out of the cockpit when the structure was cut away. He survived to start a new career selling insurance. I was part of the honor guard rifle team at the cemetary in the Tipp City area for the pilot."

"During the National Air Show at Vandalia in 1953, among the hundreds of planes participating was the largest plane then flying; the C-99 which was a cargo version of the 10 engined B-36 bomber. As it so happened, a fellow guardsman and I were driving to lunch in Vandalia when the C-99 arrived. It needed all of the runway and then some to land at Vandalia. It came in directly over our car and the monster seemed to miss us by inches as it skimmed over the perimeter fence. It was an unforgettable experience. The crew chief later gave me a tour of the plane and the plane's cockpit was so tall that I looked out of it directly into the control tower windows. We climbed up inside the vertical stabilizer and poked our heads out the cutout for the rudder counterweight."

"At this same air show the Navy brought in their last remaining blimp from Annapolis. They needed people to help moor it to their temporary tower, so dozens of us of the base detachment and other "volunteers" were sent out to grab the ropes as the blimp crew threw them down to us. You have probably seen old newsreels of this operation. I can tell you that being under that huge balloon, about a football field in length and blocking out the sun is scary. All you can see is that thing and you're wondering that if it came down rapidly would it crush you! Also if it rose rapidly, would I have time to let go or go up with it? As it happened it did rise about 30 feet at one point, but I let go immediately."

"Our pilots were required to fly a certain amount of night hours a month and I always volunteered to work nights during these times. Airports are so beautiful and serene at night, even with all of the bustle of planes coming and going and refueling. But at night time, due to Vandalia's close proximity to Wright/Patterson Air Force Base, especialy as viewed from the air, it was not unusual for an occaisional Air Force plane to request landing instructions at Patterson and then land at Vandalia. We would go out in the "FOLLOW ME" jeep and bring them to our facility and then break the bad news to them that they were at the wrong airport. I imagine that quite a few pilot careers were affected by this mistake. Most, if not all the planes as I recall, were C-54's."

"During one of our first summer encampments at Aplena, Michigan we still had the P-51 Mustangs. We always preflighted our planes - which meant we had to run up the engines - very early in the morning in order to find problems in time to fix them before operations started. After a couple of days the Commanding General complained that we were waking him up too early so we were not allowed to start our engines before 0800 hrs. For the last day of camp we all got together - even the other squadrons - and decided we would wake the General very early! At 0600 we simultaneously started all 32 engines! The roar was tremedous and the General must have jumped to the ceiling!

I was in the last row of our Squadron with three rows in front of me and the prop wash was terrific. I was genuinely frightened as the plane was moving all around and the airflow over the wings was making me become airborne. I didn't dare shut down the engine or I would have been blown backward into the the other Squadron's planes. We never heard from the General. I kind of think he enjoyed the episode."

"During the time the P-51's were being flown to the bone yard they were equipped with drop tanks. On one flight a pilot either jettisoned or lost a drop tank near the Indiana/Ohio border and it hit and burned down a church. Fortunately it was unoccupied at the time. The church members had been saving for years to build the church and it had just been completed but not yet dedicated. The government built them a new church!"

The transition to jets was a great a challenge and it is easy to forget how dangerous it was for pilots to transition to these new aircraft as this story relates.

"In July 1955 we lost one F-84-E while we were at Wright-Patterson transitioning from the F-51's. I had strapped in Capt. (name withheld) for his first flight and he was intimidated by the new-to-him ejection seat. He would not even put his arms on the arm rests and was very apprehensive about pulling the safety pin before flight and was not comfortable flying the F-84. He was a large man and filled the cockpit to where he could hardly move. It is thought that he experienced vertigo and never regained control."