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August 1942. "Aviation cadets in training at Corpus Christi, Texas, Naval Air Base." Kodachrome by Howard Hollem, Office of War Information. View full size.
That's a fantastically done photo. I can smell the slighty funky smell coming off the sodden, wilting Gulf breeze (what there is of it). Smell and feel the heat on that duralim skin, spiced with the trio of lube oil, sweat and sickly 180 octane av-gas. The impatience of these three as they endure the photog setting up the shot instead of being up in the cooler skies. The paint,even then,looks baked and finger smeared, reminiscent of beaters drove too long without a wash 'n' wax.
Damn fine work.
In shipboard operations it landed on the water and was winched aboard. The wheels we see are beaching gear, attached in the water so the machine can be brought ashore and removed, also in the water, prior to a water takeoff. There was a landplane version without the float.
The Kingfisher was used extensively on Seaplane Tenders such as my father's ship, the USS CURTISS (AV-4). The Curtiss held two of these float planes in a hanger. The planes were set into the water using one of the Curtiss' huge cranes which were also used to raise and lower anything from supplies to PBY's for servicing, fueling and to retrieve film from the PBY's after they overflew islands. My father's ship had admirals quarters aboard and saw the likes of "Bull" Halsey, Chester Nimitz, Secretary of the Navy William Knox and Lt. Col. Evans Carlson legendary leader of "Carlson's Raiders" of the USMC. The Curtiss served as flagship for Commander, Naval Air, South Pacific.
The Curtiss received seven battle stars for service in the Pacific theater starting with the attack on Pearl Harbor where she was damaged and including Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam and Okinawa where she was hit by a Kamikaze killing many men. My father was one of the "Plank Owners" or part of the first crew on the Curtiss when it was commissioned out of Philadelphia shipyards in 1940.
Vought OS2-U Kingfisher. Instructor pilot is in the rear gunner's station. These planes usually flew off cruisers and battleships and were launched by catapult.
it takes to identify this unique amphibian, probably not very long.
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