Warbird Information Exchange

I was doing some clean up on the Commemorative Air Force Wikipedia article today - removing some of the defunct units - and it had me wondering, what CAF units were there that don't exist anymore? Here's what I came up with based on what I removed:

• Big Country Squadron - Abilene, Texas
• Big Thicket Wing - Conroe, Texas
• Carolinas Wing - Southern Pines, North Carolina
• Cleveland Wing/Buffalo Heritage Squadron - Cleveland, Ohio/Akron, New York
• Dew Line Squadron - Amarillo, Texas
• Keystone Wing - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• New Mexico Wing - Hobbs, New Mexico
• Ohio Valley Wing - Columbus, Ohio
• Sea Control Squadron - ?, Rhode Island
• Third Pursuit Squadron - Upland, California

Consider this a follow up on my closed aviation museums thread.

EDIT: Removed Swiss Wing and New Zealand Wing, as both may still be active.

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CAF Wildcat is based in Upland. I think there was a CAF unit in Chino at one time, or maybe that was Warbirds of America.

West Michigan Wing - Grand Rapids, MI (KGRR)

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The Aggie Wing (or was it a squadron?) It operated the T-6 "101" that became the West Houston Squadron's "Ace in the Hole"

Saludos,


Tulio

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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????

The infamous Douglas Bader wing in the U.K.

Is the Golden Gate Wing still in existence in anything other than name only?

Many years ago there was a unit in a Nashville, Tennessee. Maybe it was called the “ Music City Wing.” Nashville’s first billionaire donated his executive configured and very nice a Lockheed L-18 Hudson. It was a ZHoward 250 conversion. Two of his pilots put the deal together. However, they had very little money, only enough to repaint it in RAF markings.
The squadron didn’t make it and the aircraft was flown back to Midland for Re-assignment. Later it went to Colorado where it was promptly destroyed by a “loss of control” accident during takeoff. It cartwheeled on the left wing.

Is the Swiss Wing a recent development? I know they were active as recent as March 2020. They put out a newsletter with a detailed account of the crash landing of the B-17G "Black Magic", s/n 42-31989. The ball turret gunner was George Hintz, the brother of Loren Hintz (re Finding Loren).

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I think I made a mistake with that and the New Zealand one. They're actually probably still active and I was actually corrected on that point over on Wikipedia. When I was determining which ones were active, I was looking at the map at the top of the CAF Unit Map page and they weren't included for some reason. (The New Zealand wing also has no website or location listed on their profile.) However, they are listed further down the page. My bad.

EDIT:
Infamous?


Was the accident on 3 October 2004?

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Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

I left Abilene back in 2004, at that time the Big Country Squadron was rebuilding a post war Beech 18 (IIRC one of the "Super 18s" with squared wingtips and deeper fuselage) and painting as a C-45.
Members in town had several aircraft...including a Bf-108 and a BT-13 (blue and yellow, but the blue was too dark...a navy blue).
They had a great facility on a small General Aviation field, not the main airport.

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I believe there was a wing in the Tri-Cities area of TN (Kingsport) that had a L-Bird about a decade ago. It didn't last very long.

CAF-Great Lakes Wing used to operate the Ju-52 (now with Jerry Yagen) and C-47 "Black Sparrow" (which the last time I saw was sitting engine-less at Basler).

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Was their a connection to these units other than the Buffalo group got the Cleveland Wing SNJ? I'm sad to hear the Buffalo group is now defunct. Where did the SNJ get assigned?

Wasn't there a Motor City Wing or Squadron in Detroit that had a static Buchon?

They never had an aircraft, but the was a CAF Wing in Akron Ohio called the Ace of Spades Wing. They existed in the 80s and spawned the MAPS Air Museum.

Jim

The San Francisco Bay Area Wing got rid of their T-6 long ago. They have no aircraft and are barely hanging on with few members.

How about the Old Dominion Squadron in Virginia?

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They had a T-33 that Stu Eberhardt ferried back to Texas when the Wing relinquished it.