Cropping up from Martin's Korean A-26's pics thread was some info on a 203 mission a/c 'Old Able' 44-34287
Anybody have any pics of her in Colombia (or possably Cuba due to new s/n)? was she scrapped ?
Here's her story
http://www.13thbombsquadron.org/oldable1.html
Here's the last bit of info
"I left K-8 on June 28th, 1952, and "Old Able" was still making her trips. If she did as well the second year as the first she would have had over 400 missions.
Capt. Reece Black took a picture of Able in August 1952 when she climbed out of the traffic pattern of K-8 on her way home -- honorably retired from battle. Reece said she was so tired and out of trim she was hard to fly. I wondered what happened to her. I thought she was probably broken up for scrap by an ungrateful Air Force.
Not so!
I recently discovered Able was brought home and refurbished. In November 1956 she was given/sold to Colombia in a new life as a "C" model with a glass nose -- designated as FAR #2508. A glass nose. Oh, the embarrassment.
She was sold to Colombia on a political deal on the pretext she would do anti-submarine work, but was eventually used in counter-insurgncy work. She was written off and abandoned at Cartagena airport in March 1963. Oh, the humiliation she must have felt.
Of all the B-26 birds that deserved being dressed up in a museum, it was Able.
She always brought her crews home!"
EDIT. thread title due to Martin's info re. s/n
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