Warbird Information Exchange

From WrecksNWrelics Yahoo Group

Anyone heard of this rumour?

Q:"How about Herlong Airport?

In 1958-1960 time frame, I remember going back to Cecil Field from a
liberty in Jax. There were several Navy-blue F4U Corsairs parked there,
no one knew where they were going... any ideas, folks?"


A: "Yep !! They were destined for Cuba, but some "spooky"guys put the fritzz on that. The good guys didn`t like Fido(el) and said they could not be delivered. They dug a hole out on the west side of the airport took
the props off and "disposed" of the Corsairs. They were from the
NY USN reserve squadron.And thats ALL I`m going to say about that !!"

Paul

Haven't heard the Herlong Airport rumor, but I do know that as late as the early 1990's, there was a Corsair parked in a vacant lot on Timequana Avenue in Jacksonville. I used to visit Jacksonville frequently, and used to drive by and look at it. Was bare metal if I recall correctly, and was fairly complete. One time I went by and it was gone, and haven't been able to find out what happened to it.

Walt

RareBear,

Any chance you or someone you know took photos of the F4U supposedly displayed on Timequana? I've never heard anything of it, and I would figure such a prominent display would have gotten some press somewhere along the line, especially with Jacksonville being such a major Navy town. The only plane I can imagine this being would have been the FG-1D that came out of El Salvador around the time you mentioned. I thought it was in Miami at the time though.

I visited Hurlong airport yesterday to try and determine excatly where the Corsairs might have been parked. There were about ten of them and they were purchased by a company calling itself Queen City Salvage. Two of them were sold to a buyer in Miami and still survive today. I can't imagine many circumstances that would have neccessitated the actual burial of the others at the site. Jacksonville NAS is only a few miles away from Hurlong and major scrapping operations were taking place there during that time. It would have been far easier and more sensible to follow the standard logic of dismantling the planes once they were of no further use rather than set about digging massive holes. Of course, I wouldn't rule out a sidescan sonar expedition just to make sure!!

The common assumption is that they had been set aside to aid in the Bay of Pigs action should it have progressed in a less dismal fashion than it did. I've spoken with one ex-Navy pilot who took part in the BoP, and he noted the planes were on site at Hurlong before he left, and had been disposed of by the time he returned.

I'm still digging around trying to locate photos of the planes. They stood there for roughly three years next to a major road, and I just KNOW there are more than one group of photos in someone's collection here in Jacksonville.

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

It would be stretching it to say the Corsair I saw on Timequana Ave was on display. The lot was not taken care of and weeds were waist high. There were other aircraft on the lot, but I think they were older jets. It looked like someone had just parked it there and ignored it for a number of years.

I'm sorry I don't have any photos.

Walt

Walt, can you provide an intersection? Timuquana Road?

http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=Timuquana+and+roosevelt&csz=jacksonville%2C+fl&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=

Rob:

Timuquana Rd sounds pretty much like the area/backyard the Mr. E. Ware of Jax had the F4U samples FAH617, FAH692, FAH610 c. 1980s at one time. The bare-metal silver F4U may have been nearby also! F4U Buff/FAH619

_________________
FAH619®

bdk,

It's been a long time since I've been in that area, but I'm guessing it was in the vicinity of Catoma St., and possibly between that street and the Ortega River. The lot was on the north side of the street.

Walt

Aerial view from January 1994 anyone?

http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=17&X=2154&Y=16732&W=1&qs=5250+Timuquana+Rd%7c%7c&Addr=5250+Timuquana+Rd%2c+Jacksonville%2c+FL+32210&ALon=-81.7180293&ALat=30.2474210

The approximate address is:

5250 Timuquana Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32210

Anyone with better eyes than mine see anything of interest?

I knew I was forgetting something.

I managed to visit all of the Naval bases inthe Jacksonville area, but completely forgot about trying to contact Earl Ware while I was there! I'm a complete knuckle head. I've been trying to make that happen for over a decade, now I'm back in Louisiana again (13 hour drive in one day).

Oh well, maybe the company will send me back soon. I drove almost the entire length of Timequana Ave (Hwy 134) and never thought that I might be driving right past Ware's property.

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

As I said in an earlier post, the plane was there in the late 1980's and very early 1990's, but was gone not too long thereafter. I would guess by 1993 or so the lot was empty. If indeed this was Ware's property, it may have been sold off for development.

Walt

I have always been curous about the "Queen City Salvage" corsairs. I hadn't realized they were in Florida. For some reason, I thought that they were in North Carolina (I seem to remember the Warbird Directory listed this). I do know that Charlotte, NC is often referred to as "The Queen City" and kinda connected the dots. Anyone know anything at all about "Queen City Salvage"? The corsairs they had are listed in the Warbirds Directory with last dates in the early 70's!

Cheers,
Richard

Paul:

This particular Corsair was mentioned in the old forum, before it became the WIX, back when Jesus was a corporal...

I obtained this photo when that Corsair was mentioned then, but my memory fails me and I do not recall if it was provided to me by Rob Mears or by someone else.

For this very reason, I cannot give credit to the photographer or the owner of this photo.



Saludos,


Tulio

_________________
Why take the best part of life out of your life, when you can have life with the best part of your life in your life?

I am one of them 'futbol' people.

Will the previous owner has pics of this double cabin sample

GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press "1" for English.
Press "2" to disconnect until you have learned to speak English.

Sooooo, how am I going to know to press 1 or 2, if I do not speak English????

It was me I was given that photo and a few others from an ex-employee at Cupples. Looks like the guy in the cockpit is having a good time, eh?

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

Now fully documented and credited to you, Rob!

Next time I go to St. Lou, I will try to visit that glass factory and see if they have more photos to share.

Saludos,


Tulio

_________________
Why take the best part of life out of your life, when you can have life with the best part of your life in your life?

I am one of them 'futbol' people.

Will the previous owner has pics of this double cabin sample

GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press "1" for English.
Press "2" to disconnect until you have learned to speak English.

Sooooo, how am I going to know to press 1 or 2, if I do not speak English????

This was my entry... "In 1958-1960 time frame, I remember going back to Cecil Field from a liberty in Jax. There were several Navy-blue F4U Corsairs parked there, no one knew where they were going... any ideas, folks?"

I was in VFP-62 as an Aviation Electronics Technician, from 1957-1961. I do know I was aboard USS Intrepid for the 1959 Med Cruise and the late 1960 Med cruise, both with Det.33; the first, Feb 13 to Aug 30, 1959, with three F9F-8P Cougars and the second, Aug 04 1960 to Feb 17, 1961, with F8U-1P Crusaders.
Before each Med cruise we made short Caribbean cruises; the first one must have been in late 1958, was to Barbados. The second one was probably early summer 1960, to Dominican Republic. The capitol city was then named Ciudad Trujillo, after the dictator Rafael Trujillo (renamed Santo Domingo). He was one sweet guy; we were on liberty and as we walked down the street a military jeep wheels up, and a guy in the back swings a .30 cal machine gun towards us and the civilians, jacks a round into it and takes away a whole bunch of civilians, for god knows what. All I know is lookin' down the wrong end of that machine gun...