Warbird Information Exchange

Hope y' all have a great day with lots of good stories!!!!

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If Jay Norton is there, be careful if he stands up to offer a "Toast" like he did at the banquet last year!!! That was a hoot!!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm

Thanks, these are good shots. My nephew and his family are in Denton. This plane looks very stock and would make a great Vietnam War subject.
Where is the registration on the plane? Is a temporary registration placed on the aircraft when being ferried?

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Afghan Chat Room and Got Toons

Randy and O2 Lady: Jay wasn't there, but we had some really good toasts anyway on the boat tonight!!! We sure missed you. Will have to fill you in tomorrow. I got a new camera today just for this event and now have to figure out how to load the pics from it. Shouldn't be too hard, right? I mean 10 yrs old do it all the time, I 'm sure. But we had a great turn out, good times, and a grand boat cruise on Eagle Mtn Lake this evening. Hawkeye got some of the best video he has shot to date probably of the guys talking about their experiences. Our restoration team was in awe of the Nims and my impression is that the Nims were in awe of what the team has done so far with the airplane and what we hope to do with it to tell their stories. Goodnight! JR

It has the normal registration in small letters under the horizontal stabilizers that is allowed for vintage airplanes like the K. It is totally stock 99.9% K model. The original radios are in it and work, but we have to "hide" some modern nav/coms/gps receivers to where we can operate in today's environment. There are a number of books already written dealing with the A-26 in Viet Nam and more coming out. We are collaborating with one author already about the airplane and its history. Also have had some magazine inquiries. I think you will see more as the airplane nears being ready for flight. From the stories we heard today at the reunion of the guys who flew, serviced and armed them, it would make a great movie. Thanks for asking Nick. Regards, JR

Here is the group shot of the A26 Vets and some of our restoration team in front of K yesterday during the reunion. It was highly successful and a grand time was had by all. Not sure how many wounded or prisoners were taken last night, but I don't think we lost any of our troops although several threatened to dive in when we threw some feed out for the big school of catfish that make their home beneath the boat at the marina. The water churns like Stripers rounding up shad against the island out on Lake Texoma. A beautiful thang!!! JR

Here is the afternoon story-telling crowd. While they were sharing memories, Hawkeye was diligently videotaping the session and our team members were greatly enjoying the opportunity to see what these guys did at NKP with the K models. It was absolutely spell binding. Kudos to everybody who participated yesterday!! JR

Two of our special guests, Lindsay and Scott remember old times on the flight line at NKP fixin airplanes and loading ordnance. One of the more interesting stories was about the disconnecting of battery cables on the airplane while doing so. Seems somebody saw a cable hanging down out of the wheel well and thought it had been disconnected. When he went to check, it was a snake that had crawled up inside with just its tail hanging out. You can imagine the consternation when one of the guys tried to get it out and it whipped into the chest of the guy standing next to him. Fortunately, nobody was injured... if you don't count pride... the guys' and the snake's!! Scott remembered the day they all got the orders to fill in the gaps in the PSP runway with tar because they were getting too many windshields cracked and pitted from the use of prop reverse. When all of the guys got to comparing the dates they were at NKP, it was discovered that some were there at the same time and haven't seen each other since they left NKP. In some caes, that would have been over 42 years ago. Now that's a reunion!! JR

While the A26 guys were here, we asked them to sign our magnificent prints of the A26 that were done by Taichi in Japan. Taichi got those to us just in time for the reunion. Pictured are Tim Black on the right and Bruce "Gus" Gustafson. They formed a strong bond as a pilot and co pilot team at NKP in the "best airplane they ever flew"! We duly noted that they always seem to end up sitting in the same relative positions no matter where they go!! We want to thank Taichi for all of the beautiful art work and the vets who honored us with their signatures. This was an unexpected treat for all of us. Thanks, JR

Hawkeye wanted to make sure that Maury Bourne got a special place to sign on the Taichi poster. He is one of the few to have a successful bail out of an A26 during the VN era. It was an incredible story. Mr. Bourne lives in the Ft Worth area so it was a special treat that he attended the reunion and we hope to have him back more often! Next to Mr. B is Jack Albright and Joe Maynard, both Nimrod pilots.

Hawkeye brought the fixins for burgers and dogs while Big Mike and Bryan got the grill going. Wow, what a great meal. There is just nothing better than a cookout and good friends.

We got a chance to visit after the meal and get acqauinted with the wives who accompanied the A26 vets to the reunion. We want to thank the ladies for coming and sharing their other halves with us one more time. It is always special for us to get a chance to talk to them. Our restoration team members were so in awe of your guys!! They will be inspired by this no doubt!! Thanks so much. JR

The real JR introduced the restoration team members to the Nims at the beginning of the program yesterday. We were pleased to also have Don and Joyce Vogler join us. They are at the left end of the front row. Don's dad flew with the Nimrods back in the day. Joyce found where dad's airplane was on display in Korea and got Don interested in starting the A-26 Legacy Foundation. They provided the new Nimrod t shirts and hats today which depict our airplane on the back instead of dad's airplane. Will get some shots posted next week of these. We appreciate this so much. They have been helping us and collaborating on the restoration. Many thanks to the Vogler's for hangin in there with us. JR

Yes, that is Darth Tristan from Star Wars modeling the latest Nimrod hat and T shirt which were delivered to our team by Don Vogler who heads up our sister organization, the A-26 Legacy Foundation. They designed the new shirts with K's profile and name on the back. Will post one of the back when we can get Darth Tristan to "cooperate". Why is it that two year olds and pilots have so much in common?? JR

They designed the new shirts with K's profile and name on the back...............
=======Jim, if you've got those shirts, put one of those aside for me also in addition to the On Mark shirts. We'll settle up when I get there. The count-down has started up here. Weather here has been crappy, overcast, and windy. Hope it's better in Texas when we get there!

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Randy Ryman
Project Big Eagle
NKP Thailand 1966
http://www.coastcomp.com/av/florence/florandy.htm