In several recent messages
with Jim Chastain, Bill Wynne & Chuck Varney regarding the designation of
reconnaissance aircraft, I received this tale from Jimbo. The original inquiry
was about the F-3/A-20, F-4 & F-5/P-38s & F-7/B-24s and their reconnaissance
designations.
Being an educated donkey and
for what it is worth, I can go further back than the F-3, for there were also
the F-1 & F- 2 aircraft.
The F-1 was a Fairchild high
winged, single engine version assigned to Photo sections in the 30's. In the
5th Photo Section of the 6th Air Base Squadron, we
had an F-1 at Barksdale. There was also an F-2 which was a photo
modified C-45 Beechcraft. A camera port and brackets to accommodate the
A-8 Mount were placed in the floor, also a removable hatch was
installed in the door to accommodate oblique photography. I missed the pleasure
of flying in that C-1, but trained in the F-2 at Lowrey. I later went on a
classified mission in one to photograph the White Sands area in late
1942.
What I remember of this
flight was, upon our return, the pilot and his copilot flew down to just
above the deck placing that F-2 on auto pilot heading directly toward
a small peak. Both took their hands from the controls and held their
hands in the air and played "Chicken". They waited until a crash was
almost eminent, when the chicken disengaged the auto pilot and manually pulled the controls back just in
time.
In the rear, there was
a fearful and helpless photographer who had given his heart to
God and the rest to those pilots.
Not recently familiar to his
lips, he also mumbled a few prayers which must have been heard.
The film taken on this
mission was not locally processed, but hastily sent directly to
Washington. If only those Jocks knew what possible information
we were carrying.
Jimbo Chastain
