Warbird Information Exchange

If you find anything - let me know. I'd be for helping out!

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

So far no luck trying to get info on line from either SA or Boerne papers. Guess I will have to go down to the morgue personally and look it up.

For the Squadron logo, looks kind of like the FTD Man (Murcury), have not found one that looks like that yet.

If you are AC hunting around Boerne, try this one while you are at it. Though if it hit one of those limestone hills at speed, it will just be little pieces!

(web location) http://www.check-six.com/lib/Coast_Guar ... alties.htm
Date of incident: 19 December 1938

Crash related deaths:
LT Perry Smithson Lyons (CG Aviator #29)
ENS Clyde H. Teague, Jr.
AMM1 Rupert H. Germaine
CPL George C. Latham, US Army (passenger)

Air Station the aircraft and/or crew were assigned to:
Coast Guard Air Patrol Detachment El Paso, TX

Aircraft type and Coast Guard tail number:
Waco J2W, V157

Location of the incident: Boerne, Texas - 30 miles north of San Antonio, Texas

Description of the incident:
The aircraft left El Paso about 4 p.m. on Monday, 19 December 1938, bound for Houston. It crashed in flames near the town of Boerne at 10 p.m. on Monday night. The cause of the crash was never determined.

Looks like 411th Bombardment Squadron. Equipped with the B-18 from 1937-1941. Based at Langley from 1 September 1936 until Sept 1939 when it went it to Miami Municipal Airport until April 1941.

Info from Combat Squadrons of the Air Force World War Two published by the Office of AIr Force History in 1982. It has drawings of nearly every squadron emblem and a breakdown of the aircraft and bases from inception.

Hope this helps.

See its only been 24 hrs and already we have doubled the odds of finding a late 30s warbird. Just imagine Ryan that B-18 and Waco lined up behind the AT-10 waiting there turn for restoration. Maybe then I could go find that Stuka!

I pulled out my trusty "Air Force Colors" Volume 1 1926-1942 by Dana Bell and found this:

The limbs are positioned just a few degrees differently, but I think the airplane was in the 21st Recon Squadron.

Scott

So it WAS the FTD man, er, um.... Mercury!!

That looks like a handy book. Must grow library, must resist, must grow library, must resist!!!

so, it was from the 21st Reconnaissance Squadron at Langley Field, Virginia, which did operate B-18s at the time the pic was taken. They recieved the planes in 1937 and the photo was taken in 1938.

Thx for the help

Looks like I should have read the entire reference in Combat Squadrons of the Air Force instead of just looking at the heading. The 21st Recon Squadron became the 411th Bombardment Sq on 4/22/42 and continued to use the same emblem.

I have two photos of 21st Recon B-18s somewhere. One shows an early airplane with the insignia placed just like your photo, and the second shows a three-ship formation of B-18As in '41 with the squadron emblem on the aft fuselage and the national insignia on the nose like the Navy did on their patrol planes. The national insignia was painted on the nose so as to avoid confusion with naval folks--the primary mission of the 21st during that period was off-shore reconnaissance.