I found this forum and thread while researching 2LT John Dains, and just HAD to join. My dad, the late Lt. Col. Stephen W. Prime Sr., was a propeller mechanic with the 47th Pursuit Squadron at PH on 7 Dec 1941. (He was a sergeant at the time, but retired from the USAF in 1963 as an LTC. He died in 1969.) For years I've been intrigued that so little is known about Lt. Dains. If there is anyone here who can steer me to photos, obits, etc., I'd be obliged. Ironically, I live right by Barksdale Air Force Base (and also cover it in my work as a military reporter) and that is where the 47th, now the 47th Fighter Squadron with the Air Force Reserve's 917th Wing, is now based. I'm in touch with their historian, Staff Sgt. John Snowman, and they have very little on Dains. I'd at least like to get a memorial to him placed with the unit. Any help getting info would be appreciated.
Also, has anyone here heard of a B-26 belly-landing in Cross Lake here during World War I? It's supposedly still there, silted over. I know someone who eyed it going in, and the director of the museum at the base has spoken to at least two pilots who remember the silhouette of the plane under the lake surface being visible at times for at least a year or two after the war.
I have access to all my paper's microfilm and will happily (and freely) do lookups for coverage of crashes, etc.
Best to all, John Prime, Shreveport, LA
David_Aiken wrote:
Aloha All,
Here is a trivia question: How many American aircraft were airborne DURING the Pearl Harbor Attack...?
To set some rules...let us state that "airborne" means "wheels off the ground"...area: within say 300 miles of Oahu..."during" means time so let us say: 0755-0955 [tho Japanese forces were over Hawaiian Territory until after 1300 hours!] Hope that solves some questions.
If you are reading this board carefully, that Myers OTW [said to be airborne during the attack] was owned by Marguerite (nee Hunter) Gambo [later known as "Ma" Wood], and often she said that she was flying that plane...her student's logbook confirms that she was actually flying an Aeronca 'tandum'.
So how many US planes? There is a spoiler at:
http://www.pearlharborattacked.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard4/ikonboard.cgi?s=40f2f8373dc1ffff;act=ST;f=14;t=413 and in Stan Cohen's EAST WIND RAIN [Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Pub; 1994 and later editions] page 96-97.
Good luck,
David Aiken, dai toa senso kokan senshi: Shinjuwan Sakusen sensei