Warbird Information Exchange

Hagendorn's Latin American Air Wars says differently (ref Chapter 35), as do two of the mercenary pilots who flew for the FAS.

All three sources -- two of them firsthand -- say there was one there and operating during the week of the 14th.

Randy
The photo was provided apparently by an ex FAH officer.
As far as the B-26,D. Hagerdon says in the book that by October 1969 a couple of FAS pilots were being checked in the B-26.
The book also contains a couple of mistakes (reffering to FAH aircraft).One is about the Curtiss Condor FAH-7 c.1944,when this aircraft actually crashed in 1941 and its remains dicovered until 1998.
Another mistake is the mention of the T-33 FAH-222 "c.1969".This aircraft was adquired until 1975.
The other mentions a Corsair with the nickname "Tarranas".In this picture,the nickname (Cantarranas) is partially covered by a gun door.

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not directly a '100 hours war' warbird - but related.....

this is N4222A, the Cavalier COIN demonstrator seen here in 1968 around the time when it went South to El Salvador for a demo-tour in December 1968..... this led to the purchase of the Cavaliers for the FAS...



Martin

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Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

Not really. The FAS bought their Cavaliers in December '67, a year earlier than the photograph. The first ones were delivered to the FAS in September '68, more than a month prior to the photograph.

I interviewed the gentleman who was the pilot of N4222A when Hagedorn took that photo in Panama. He indicated that he had taken the airplane to display to a South American potential customer. His response that his destination after the fuel stop was El Salvador was to cover where he was actually headed.

If he were ACTUALLY going to El Salvador, he would easily have been able to fly there from Sarasota without a refuelling stop in Panama.

I couldn't ever get the pilot to reveal who the customer was or where he went, citing a security agreement he signed at the time which was still in effect.

thanks for the clarification Randy..... every day I learn something new is a good day....

Martin

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Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

The late, great Bob Love was another of those Mercenary Pilots. He shot down 3 Corsairs if memory serves me correctly.

None of the three American mercenaries shot down any Honduruan aircraft, according to the other two that I interviewed.

Bob Love did (he is not in that photo). Bob wanted to add some kills to his tally from his days in the F-86 during Korea. So he shot down some Corsairs.

I'm curious as to where you heard this.

Love is not in that photo because those are not the three American mercenaries I'm talking about (at least Red Gray and Jerry DeLarm aren't).

I personally interviewed the other two surviving American mercenaries who flew in the Soccer War. None of the three -- Bob Love included -- shot down any Honduran aircraft.

Love exclusively flew with the other two mercenary pilots I interviewed as his wingmen. If he had shot down any Corsairs, these two gentlemen would have seen it happen. It CERTAINLY would have been a remarkable-enough event that one of them would have remembered it happening. Neither of them did, and specifically commented on not having shot down any aircraft -- there was a significant monetary bonus in their contracts for shooting down Honduran airplanes that they were actively trying to obtain. In addition, Love (specifically) was out gunning for the Honduran pilot Maj Soto to avenge the death of the FAS pilot Soto had shot down on the 17th of July.

For whatever their reasons...the pilots you interviewed are mistaken. Bob shot down several Corsairs. This information comes directly from Bob himself and not through an interview. He shared many of his stories with his friends.

As a matter of fact Bob said he went down there because he wanted an "even dozen" in what he called "The Sport of Kings". He already had 6 kills in Korea when he went down there and his motivation was not the money. He was one of the best mustang pilots ever and an F-86 ace to boot...... he wanted the action. Those who knew Bob know that he was the real deal no bull-**** fighter pilot. You must also be aware that not all of the pilots who went down came home at the same time. One of the "exclusive" wingman you might be referring to came home after the first encounter with a Corsair's 20mm. When the golf balls started whizzing by...it stopped being fun... and Bob said he went home. Bob told him that the last thing you wanted was one of those 20mm to explode in your cockpit so "keep your cockpit away from the 20mm".

John
All those amazing stories exists only in somebody's imagination.
Again,no honduran aircraft were lost in the conflict.Period.
All the honduran aircraft,including the Corsairs,are accounted for and you can do your own homework as to where they are now or were during the 80's.
Here's the honduran Corsair list,including their serial numbers and registration.There you will see that all,except two that are at the museum (609 and the fuselage of 617),were sold long after the conflict ended.

http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/waf/america ... af-F4U.htm

Regards

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I just re-read my post and must clarify something.........It was Bob's wingman that went home (Not Bob) after being shot at by a Corsair..Bob said that the other Pilot thought it was going to be lots of fun to go down and shoot down airplanes and didn't take into account what it was going to be like to get shot at and didn't care for it. Bob stayed and blasted away at the "weenies".[/i]

Your records and information are flawed. Bob Love was the real deal and was not a man to make up stories. Think whatever you want..you just learned the real History from the real deal. Sorry it doesn't match whatever you have "researched". Calling Bob Love a Liar pretty much sums up the kind of person you must be. Maybe you should research who he was a little bit.

We are all laughing here at the ignorance of the brilliant record keepers and researchers such as yourselves. Very typical of the type to not believe something happened unless someone records it correctly. Do you really expect the Honduras Gov. to admit getting their Asses shot off? I suppose his six Migs were a figment of his imagination as well. I know exactly who Randy is talking about and Bob told the story of him getting the hell out of there (don't blame him) after the first bullets flew for years before Bob passed away.
Many of us know these real stories..... told from the actual participants. It's just a waste of time sharing them with people who are only interested in stories matching the "paperwork" they read in their "research" of other people's Histories. I could share with you lots of stories R.T. Smith used to tell or Dr. Don Berlin used to tell...... all in our living room over dinner and cocktails.. but Those stories aren't recorded anywhere..so I guess everything they shared with all of us was just in our/their imagination as well.