"David Kazdan" wrote in message
...
Bill:

Thanks for the comments.

The Air Force Museum in Dayton has a display on enlisted-man pilots. If I
recall correctly, it says the last one retired around 1955--is that, then,
specifically the ones who made the transition to Air Force in '48, and the
Army kept a contingent?

David

I enlisted in the army in 1958 and there was still a lot of people moving
around. My army flight instructor, at Fort Rucker, came from the air force,
so there was a lot of "cross-pollination," if you will. I served, as a
major (in the 1970s - believe it or not) with another major, who was a navy
enlisted man, in WWII, on the USS Bunker Hill, when it was kamikazied, and
he made it out through the ventilation system (and decided that the army
might be safer!) I've been to the USAF museum in Dayton, as part of a
Military Operations Research Society Symposium, and they closed the place
for our dinner. I think that is fair to say that they have spent a lot of
time and effort in the restoration of the aircraft, but much less in the
geneology of the people that were in the units that had the planes. My
guess is that the L-4 series planes and spotters, associated with the field
artillery, stayed with the army. Later the USAF established the Forward Air
Controller (FAC) system that had them using the same type (now L-19s)
aircraft. But I'm no expert, in this area.

Billzz wrote:

I'm another Bill, but thank you, very much, for looking out for the "old
soldiers." The story is very much true. If you see the film, "The
Longest Day," Henry Fonda plays an intelligence person who gets a ride
on an artillery spotter plane to hunt for attacking German tanks. They
are in the vicinity when he asks the pilot to cut the engine so he can
hear the unmistakable sound of the tank treads. He hears them, and then
the pilot re-starts the engine, at tree level. I was told that the story
was true and I do not doubt it as I flew as a spotter in the 1960s in an
L-19 "Birddog" (made by Cessna) the follow-on to the L-4 (and later)
series aircraft made by Piper and their civilian name was Piper Cubs.
The object was to fly as low and slow as possible, to avoid anti-aircraft
fire, while maintaining a stable platform for the observer (it was
usually two people, the pilot and the observer.) At the time of WWII he
was in the US Army, and even though the 1948 act made a separate USAF,
the artillery spotter planes remained with the US Army, in the field
artillery. In Vietnam I was the operations officer (advisor) for a
province and we had both Army and USAF L-19s spotting for airstrikes, and
artillery strikes, respectively. At that time we kept them above 1500
feet to avoid small arms fire, there being no Viet Cong airplanes or
serious air defense. But they were true to their code and never
hesitated to dive right in on some suspected position - and I am sorry to
say that we lost one USAF FAC that way. It is a very strange person that
can operate that close to the ground, looking this way and that, while
marking a map, calling on the radio, and estimating changes in
trajectories for artillery that is not seen. He has my respect. You
have to see the movie.