P-51 Pilots Treasures Scattered On Ebay

[Jack Cook]

This is the cr*p I hate. Taking a great group of memoribila of one vet
and scattering all over ebay a breaking it up. I this case it's Lt Lee Eisenhart of the 339th FG
http://stores.ebay.com/Mitchells-Memorabilia-Company

[Robbie Stuart]

WTF! That ain't right!

[Zachary]

I noticed the auctions on eBay too. He had some great memorabilia saved from his days in the service. Dutch was a great supporter of EAA and came to AirVenture whenever he was able. One of the EAA TV crews interviewed him for the Timeless Voices program a few years ago:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/lin ... 1425899721

Zack

[groundbound]

I'm sitting here hoping that's not his family doing that to all his memorabilia. Bad enough when someone outside the family gets to it and does this, but family doing it would be awful. Why not donate that lot to a museum who could preserve it ALL IN ONE PLACE, for all to see.

[bdk]

Sounds like time for you guys to start buying!

[Robbie Roberts]

I'm sitting here hoping that's not his family doing that to all his memorabilia. Bad enough when someone outside the family gets to it and does this, but family doing it would be awful. Why not donate that lot to a museum who could preserve it ALL IN ONE PLACE, for all to see.

That sounds great, but it seems anymore most of the museums are so overwhelmed with veteran's donations, that they literally don't have the space to store them, the time or personnel to catalog them, or the means to preserve the vast amount of donations, and often end up selling much of what is donated! Unless the person is of extremely great historical(local or national) notoriety, such as Spaatz or Doolittle or Arnold, museums often aren't that interested.

This is what I have heard from friends who work at museums. Sad, but it is true. I agree- it is a shame to see this stuff distributed out after a passing, but it is better, in my opinion, to go to an interested collector, be it for money or not, than to just contribute it to the landfill, as many others do(This old crap? Why would anybody want that? Nobody would want that stuff...)

Robbie

[steve dickey]

Jack do you have any photos to share of this gentleman or his P-51?

[tom d. friedman]

another bunch of historic stuff consigned to an online dumper, very sad, & quite obvious.

[Jack Cook]

1Lt Lee "Dutch" Eisenhart 504th FS 339th FG on his P-51B s/n 42-106933 5Q+G "Bonny Bea" July 1944 Fowlmere, UK

1Lt Eisenhart after downing a FW-190 on June 29, 1944.
Gun camera film for sale on ebay

[steve dickey]

Thanks Jack.

[bdk]

Is that the original film that actually came out of the gun camera on that mission or a copy of the film?

[Lynn Allen]

Jack's 2nd shot looks like Daniel Craig aka Bond, James Bond climbing out of his Mustang...........

Lynn

[Randy Haskin]

1Lt Eisenhart after downing a FW-190 on June 29, 1944.

Interesting -- it certainly appears in the photo that he's wearing Lieutenant's bars, yet "CAPT EISENHART" is painted on the side.

[JDK]

I thought everyone believed capitalism was the great white hope, and that money was the answer to all questions?

More seriously, it's a pity, I agree with Jack.

While Robbie's point re- museums is, to a degree true, I don't think people shouldn't offer where appropriate, just don't go for the obvious. Local museums often will do good work with a 'local boy' and in this case, for instance, the Imperial War Museum would've been a good recipient, and quite likely have been able to do something good with it in the American Air Museum at Duxford - Fowlmere was a DX satellite field.

[res6kgcr]

Friends,

I agree with Robbie Roberts it is up to enthusiasts like WIXers to save the memorabilia of the “Greatest Generation” from the landfill or worse the government.

So putting my wallet where month is, here are some Lt. Lee “Dutch” Eisenhart photos from his training days at Rice AAF CA.

Some interesting points about the markings.

1. The squadron insignia was not officially approved or was not use when the 339th Fighter-Bomber Group was in England. It looks more like something for a dive bomber unit from which the 339th was reorganized from.

2. The squadron insignia is applied left and right handed on the entry door with the bomb nose forward.

3. This is the only field code letter I have seen for the 4th AF. All the others 4th AF fighter training units or combat units in training that I know of carry a two or three digit plane number, which makes identifying the unit or field all most impossible. Maybe this was carry over when the 339th move from Walterboro AAF SC, typical 3rd AF fighter fields had a field code letter prefix buzz number.

4. The style of the typical military clip block grid font buzz number has been modified by moving the center stroke of the letter/number up one grid space. I don’t know if this was true for this squadron or only this painter for other ships in the group are painted in the typical style.

Tom Michel