Jungmann wrote:
Hello Folks
I'm a volunteer at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying. A bunch of us are cleaning up an F-86H (possibly an FJ-2?) for display. Not what you could call a restoration--lack the skills and the budget for that, but we're making the old boy as clean and intact as we can.
Going to paint it in 146th Tactical Fighter Wing colors as it would have been at Van Nuys, early 50's. The reason being that the 146th is a descendant of the CalANG 115th Observation Squadron, the first in the state, which was founded at our airport, Clover Field, Santa Monica, in 1924.
Very interesting. I wasn't even aware that the California ANG ever flew the F-86H, but I have seen a photo of four of the 146th F-86H's flying in formation. But it was in the late 50's (primarily 1959) that they flew the F-86H. Apparently the 115th at Van Nuys was briefly designated a Tactical Fighter Squadron for just over a year from Dec. 1958 to January 1960. It was during that brief time that they had the F-86H's before gaining C-97's and becoming a transport unit in 1960. Prior to Dec. 1958 the 115th was a Fighter Interceptor Squadron with F-86A's. Rene Francillon's 1993 book "The United States Air National Guard," mentions the brief period that the 115th of the 146th was a Tactical Fighter Squadron but does not mention the interim assignment of the F-86H between the F-86A and C-97.
Do you have a photo of the airplane you are working on? I assume it is truly an F-86H (and not an FJ-2 or FJ-3 Fury??) if you are going to put it in the markings of an F-86H.
Good luck with the project.
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