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Post by Mark O on Apr 8, 2013 10:08:22 GMT 9
Got home from work this afternoon, and found this photo inside a plastic bag, and sitting on the lid of my laptop. Turns out it was given to my wife by the man in the photo while she was at work today. He and his wife are guests at the hotel she works at. She said the guy was incredibly nice, and in amazing shape for a WWII vet in his 90s. She noted his wife is very frail, and also in her 90s. She told me the guy saw my wife working, and asked her to sit down for a minute. (Apparently, 90-year old men hit on my wife all the time!) As they were chatting he gave her the photo. My wife insisted he sign it, and said he got very tickled over that request! Unfortunately we really can't read his signature, but he wrote "49th FTR GP" above his signature. As you can see it was printed on paper -- obviously from a scan -- and cut with scissors. The photo is only about 2"x2", and isn't the clearest, so I scanned it at 600 dpi, and tried to clean it up a bit. Obviously the aircraft is named "Outta This World", and note the Texas state outline with a big star right in the center. (That's right on for where Abilene is!) I can't tell what the symbol is under the word "World", or the writing aft of it. No, I could not find any references to this aircraft on the internet. From the looks of the photo I am guessing it was colorized from a black and white print. I asked Penny if she could find the guy again tomorrow, and ask for his name, and squadron. I'm off tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a call to come meet him if he is still there! The cool thing was when my son (#2) asked his mom why she got that. Penny said that is why she goes to work! To meet people like the couple that gave her the photo. Oh, and why was it in a plastic bag you ask? My wife works in a restaurant, and didn't want it to get damaged, or soiled there. Enjoy! (P.S. The 49th Fighter Group consisted of the 7th, 8th, and 9th Fighter Squadrons in WWII. Major Richard Bong flew with the 7th, and 9th FS when he got his 40 kills.)
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MOW
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Retired: USAF, Civil Service
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Post by MOW on Apr 8, 2013 13:13:09 GMT 9
I see the plane photo.
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Post by Jim on Apr 8, 2013 14:11:02 GMT 9
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