Flying Leathernecks Museum

Me Too……..

Hey,

I was at the Leathernecks museum on the 8th June… 😀

Unfortunately, the skys were grey due to the ‘June Gloom’ during my visit, but I still managed to get a few good pictures.

John

Thanks.

The one in 1986 might have been this one, but it did not have the wing-mounted radome on then.

Since the engine and cowling were removed for the repairs, I might have confused the type, but the article in the base paper called it a “-1D”. [You know reporters, though… even supposedly aircraft-familiarized ones]

I was only in the hangar a couple of times, and rarely used the base’s main gate after it was placed for display, so I don’t remember getting a close look after it was completed.

The squadron that finished (and marked) it was VMFA 531, then flying F/A-18s. They were formed in 1943 as VMF(N)-531, the first USMC night fighter squadron.

As -121 didn’t fly the night-equipped Corsairs, it is more appropriate for this -5P to carry -531 markings (if it still does). I still grumble though, as all the publicity on it being restored by a USMC squadron only mentioned -531 and -121 not at all!

Bager1968,

The number on the rear of this Corsair is 122189, which from your post, I assume to be the genuine identity.

Here are a couple more pictures of it, but I apologise for the quality as it was not easy to photograph under the canopy in the mid-morning sunlight.

I remember another Corsair well… my squadron, VMA(AW)-121 [A-6E Intruder] started the restoration on it in 1986 [in our copious free time], but were unable to finish because we deployed into the Pacific Ocean on the CV-61 Ranger.

Another squadron on the base (MCAS El Toro, in Irvine Ca) took over the job.

The disappointing part was that it was originally to be painted in the colors we used in the Solomons when we were flying them as VMF-121 [highest kill total of any USMC squadron in WW2]… and when we got back, she had been painted in the other squadron’s markings!

Oh well, Ce est la Guerre (forgive the atrocious attempt at French).

MCAS El Toro was closed in the 1990s, and relocated all squadrons to NAS Miramar (which became MCAS Miramar when all the US Navy squadrons went to other USN air stations).

I could have sworn that the Corsair we were working on was an F4U-1D, but all of those in USN/USMC custody are 2 FG-1Ds [BuNo 92013 & 92246] in the National Museum of Naval Aviation; Pensacola, Florida. They also have an F4U-4 [# 97349].

The only USMC ones are F4U-4 [# 97369] & F4U-5P [# 122189] (both listed as “USMC Museum” with no location given), and F4U-5NL [# 124447] (Marine Corps Museum; Quantico, Virginia).

That info is from Flight Journal Special Issue:F4U Corsair (winter 2004), so it should be fairly accurate.

This raises the questions… as this MCAS Miramar Corsair is obviously a -5 variant, which one is it? And which one was the one in 1986?

Any help would be appreciated.

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