F9F Panther

My first jet flight was in a Panther. No pre-experience in a T-33 or other dual jet trainer... just get in and go !!!

I have about 50-75 hours in the Panther.

I think I sent you a list of what I flew .... SNJ Hellcat Skyraider F4U-4 Corsair Panther Cougar Banshee Fury F8E Crusader TV-2 T2V and 3 helicopters.

Corporate: GII, Sabreliners, Learjets and Citations.

Stopped flying for a living when I was 66.

Had a great exciting and interesting life.

Wanted to fly since I was about 5-6 years old.

Hey Mike ... I was at K-6 when this happened and I will brief you on what happened when I check with a fellow pilot who may have been on this raid or a member of the squadron.

At K-6 ( about 50 miles south of Seoul, Korea, our air group was composed of 2 F4U-4 Corsair squadrons and 1 AD Skyraider squadron.

I flew 53 missions as an AD pilot and at the time of this raid I had finished my combat tour and was one of the air group's debriefing officers.

Our jet air group was at K-3 in the southern part of Korea. It was composed of 2 Panther squadrons and 1 Banshee photo squadron.

Here is part of the story and will try to get details as I get them.

The squadron was on a big raid in North Korea and on the way home the weather at K-3 was deteriorating and they figured that they would not have enough fuel to make ADF approaches to K-3 with all of the returning aircraft so they diverted some of them to K-2 in the middle of South Korea.

Well... the weather there was also bad and they had to make a formation ADF approach. The flight leader thought he had a malfunctioning ADF so passed on the lead to his section leader La Fleur.

I think the original flight of 4 got 2 more aircraft attached for the approach to K-2. I will try to find out how many Panther aircraft were diverted to K-2.

So many stories and so many sad stories.

Yeh .... I recognize some of the names of friends and celebrities.

Did you see the one of Ted Williams a famous baseball player and Neil Armstrong ( there is a picture of him ), the first man on the moon.

From what I heard, Ted Williams (there is a picture of him ) 1952 Korea was about 6 feet 4 inches tall and did not want to eject because he thought he may lose both of his lower legs on the instrument panel when he ejected.

My friend Charlie Sewell went on to be a test pilot and after he retired was a test pilot for Grumman in the F-14. He died in a crash ferrying a TBM ( for a friend ) from Long Island to Connecticut or from Connecticut to Long Island. He had engine failure shortly after take-off. Charlie would fly anything.

Hope you get some feedback from my friends.

Thanks for the reply Mike. You are doing such a fantastic job putting all of this together for now and the future. I will also forward this to all my aviation friends.

The Sept.10,1952 tragedy:

The lead pilot passed the lead to his section leader LaFleur who had made an instrument penetration at K-2 returning from one of his previous missions.

For some reason, misread his altimeter or what ever, the wreckages showed that he pulled up and still hit the mountain and Tail-end Charlie also pulled up and hit the mountain and the middle four hit the mountain in formation.

Will keep passing on all the info that I can get.

Thanks for the toast .. and I return it to you.