Grumman TBF Torpedo Bombers, as Fire Bombers, Natrona County International Airport

Grumman TBF Torpedo Bombers, as Fire Bombers, Natrona County International Airport

There are WWII vintage Grumman TBF torpedo bombers serving as fire bombers post-war. These aircraft were kept at the Natrona County International Airport up until the 1980s, when they were stripped of their skins and stored. Within the last five years, there were sold and moved to a new location.

I'm not sure when this photo was taken, other than that I can see the back end of our 1965 Mercury Meteor off to the side. We had that car until 1973. I'm also not too sure who took the photo. Given the odd angle, and the height of it, I suspect I did as a kid.

Sikorsky H-19 Helicopters over Japan, mid 1950s

Helicopters over Japan, mid 1950s

F-84 Thunderjets in Japan, mid 1950s

F-84 Thunderjets in Japan, mid 1950s

Flying from Casper, Wyoming to Salt Lake City and on to San Francisco, mid 1950s. Curtiss CW-20

Flying from Casper, Wyoming to Salt Lake City and on to San Francisco, mid 1950s

These photos were taken in one set, I think. I know that the Salt Lake to San Francisco photographs are part of a set my father took on a journey that ultimately went to Japan, with stops at Hawaii and Wake Island. I suspect that the first few photographs, showing a Western Airlines airliner at the Natrona County Airport, are part of this set. I'd also note that I think all of these photos depict Curtiss CW-20 (C-46) aircraft, but I don't know if they all depict the same one.

Note the sailor who was also boarding in the first photograph. Then, as now, there were a lot of servicemen traveling at any one time.

F-86D in Japan

F-86Ds in Japan

Note the drag chute being used on this F-86's landing.

F-86Ds in Japan, mid 1950s.

These photographs were taken by my father, during the Korean War, at the Air Force base where he was stationed.

Boeing 377 Stratocruiser on Wake Island, mid 1950s

Wake Island, mid 1950s

My father took this photograph on a stop over on Wake Island in the 1950s. This photo would have been taken either going to Japan, or coming back from Japan. The airliner is the commercial B377 Stratocruiser, an airliner developed from the wartime B-29.   The B377 is in Pan American Airways colors.

Wake Island is now a wildlife refuge.