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WW2 Marine aviator Dick Truesdale died on Feb.3rd at the age of 91. He flew the Corsair with VMF-223 off Bougainville, Green Island, Samar and then Okinawa. After the war, he went to work for Pan American, was furloughed, instructed for awhile in the SFO Bay Area, flew the DC-3 and C-46 for small airlines, went in the USAF and flew the B-29 and B-47 and finally went back to Pan Am where he became a Captain.
It was during his time with Pan Am that Dick started his own business of importing brass railroad models...it was called West Side Model Company & was so successful that he actually had to retire early from Pan Am as it was getting in the way of his business. My late dad and Dick flew the Orient for years and ran into each other often. That's how I heard the story about him retiring early. When I met Dick again in 2007, he repeated it to me. He imported something like 114,000 models into the country and in 1977, grossed over $1,000,000.00 doing that.
I had a lot of respect for him, he was a stand up guy and great pilot.
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