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buddy Jim McGarvie and I had to check
ourselves out in the Ryan and we enjoyed
flying it around southern California.
“Chino Airport was a few hours
drive or quicker in the aero club Cessna
172 [squadron guys would say, ‘You’re
flying a what?’]. In my free hours, I either
showed up at the A-4 squadron to beg
flights to build time or would teach at the
base aero club. Amazing as it might seem,
student cross-country flights often ended
at Chino. Go figure!
“Along the line, an auction was
announced. To be held at Chino, a P-51
would be auctioned [this was 1972].I made inquiries and showed up pre-
pared to meet the expected sales price
of $35,000. The bird needed a complete
restoration but I reckoned I could get
that done in a few years. Well, that didn’t
go well and I went home empty-handed.
Shunned, I decided not to wait for the
next deal and joined the Confederate Air
Force as a sponsor of a P-51. This meant
that if I could get my butt to Harlingen,
Texas, I could start my checkout. And oh,
by the way, ‘do you have 200+ hours in
the T-6?’ I continued flying any Texan I
could rent or train in, but it took a while.
“Finally, the CAF unit in Atlantashared about flying careers. The hallways
had ‘professional bulletin boards’ with
displays of every current USN aircraft
and lots of articles. The school theater
would cycle through both current and
historical movies on USN aviation at war.
My bunkroom always had three photos
— a P-51, an F4U, and a Phantom II.
“My time after commission was ‘fully
occupied.’ Two tours in Vietnam and lots
of moving around. During long hours of
boredom, I continued my studies on the
history of fighter aircraft starting with
the pursuits of WWI [Richthofen had 88
kills, not 82!]. My goal for 2023 is to tour
the European gravesites of WWI and
WWII fighter pilots.
“My Warbird efforts took a break
until my final year of active duty when I
was assigned as an instructor in the F-4
squadron at NAS Miramar San Diego
[Fighter Town USA]. There was a T-6
based in San Diego and I started my
Warbird flying training in my spare time.
Of course, I had tailwheel time in small
stuff but the T-6 was a different beast.
Plus, while sitting in an FBO while my
student did his first solo, I toured the
hangar to find a beautifully restored Ryan
PT-22. The FBO owner/pilot had lost
his medical and was lamenting not being
able to have his bird flown to airshows
and be judged. Offering to help, my besta ‘Cessna.’ If we landed at a joint-use
airport with perhaps Air National Guard
planes nearby, there was usually one
of us in the cockpit that could tell you
what those planes were — me! Years
ago, many airlines had a majority of
ex-military pilots in their ranks but times
change and there are fewer ex-military
pilots available and many are now of
retirement age. So, the mix changes.
“For me, things were different. I was
born at the end of the war and grew up
around USAF bases. As usual for a lot
of kids, I had an absolute fascination
for things that fly — and I still do! At
age eight, I started with plastic models.
Age ten brought rubber-band powered
models. Age twelve meant U-control
and the beginning of my huge photo
collection of fighters from WWI through
the 1960s. Age 15 brought RC models
and working at the USAF aero club
fueling and washing those ‘new’ trainers
— Piper Colts.
“Flight lessons also started and my
flying career commenced. But always, on
non-flying or school days, I was reading
and studying on historic military aircraft.
I vowed, somehow, I would fly a P-51
Mustang. At age 18, college interfered
and off I went to school at the US Naval
Academy in Annapolis. During our brief
summer breaks, I would flight instruct.
“From Day One at the Academy,
students declared their service intentions
and Navy Air was, of course, my stated
desire. As an aerospace major, I stayed
on course and reveled in all the Navy
Air environment on the school grounds.
Perhaps a third of the staff were aviators
so there was no end to experiences
Sabre C-122 during its last days with the
Argentine Air Force.
When originally acquired from the USA, the Argentine Sabre wore a natural metal finish
such as seen on C-103.
Doug Matthews with his
freshly restored Corsair.