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"Vandalia (glider testing) 16/8/43" on the id card.
Is it not strange that a U.S aircraft ID card would use European da/mo/yr format?
Miss Barbara may have been assigned to Vandalia, but Vandalia was not glider test. The XCG-16 was towed to Wright or CCAAF, Wilmington, Ohio by Miss Barbara. Many times that kind of new stuff stopped at Wright Field for check-in and photography. However, by that time, CCAAF had a photog lab and the normal series of 45 degree quadrant photos were made there of the XCG-16.
As mentioned, the mountain background XCG-16 photos are Oxnard. The in-flight photos showing the corn shocks on ground were made over the corn fields near to CCAAF. In addition there are a number of various on-the-ground photos of the XCG-16 at CCAAF.
I am not sure that tugs were actually assigned to CCAAF. Seems they would have been assigned to the glider branch and parked at Wright which is only approximately 35 miles distant. I know that up until he went to England first of Jan 1944 Gen Cardenas flew (C-47 and P-38) from Wright to CCAAF for tug work.
The first if not the only B-17 with glider snatch winch installed was #42-30501. Don't know if she had a name. She could have been assigned to CCAAF for short time. She flew to L-M Fayettevile to do snatches of the XCG-10A in 1944 and was used in 1946 at Greenville, SC to snatch 4A, 13A, 15A and 10A gliders. If any tugs were, for the duration, assigned to CCAAF, likely would have been the C-60, two or three C-47 and the B-23 which they used almost daily.
Until it was chucked as a tug, an A-25 was there. Two different B-24 were there for a while. As well, a C-54, P-47, C-46, B-25, two or three P-38, B-17 #43-37881 did, what I call, short-arm (no winch) tow target snatches. One of the P-59A and a P-51 were there in 1945 for what, I do not know.
On the crash of the MC-1: The pilot of the C-60 tug told me the ballast shifted in the MC-1 because it was not properly lashed down. Richard duPont was trying to sell the glider to Congress via the Commerce Dept. He had a load of CA oranges ready to load in the glider to take them to DC for distribution during a special session of Congress. During lunch the ballast was removed so the oranges could be loaded. After lunch the pilots decided they had time to take another flight before starting for DC. The ballast was hastily placed in the glider and not secured. When Gabel tried to release the glider tow line, the release did not open. The glider lurched up, pulling up the C-60 tail and caused the loose ballast bags to shift aft. At this point the tug pilot said he was looking almost straight down at the ground. The glider nosed down, lurched up again, and down again. On the way down the tow line released and the glider went into a flat spin and Gabel could not recover.
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Charles Day,
Silent Ones WWII Invasion Glider Test & Experiment CCAAF Wilmington Ohio
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