Tag Archives: 23rd Fighter Group

Hunter’s Fountain

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Some 85 years ago this week, the 10,000-ton Dutch Java-Pacific Lijn/VNS passenger steamer SS Jaegersfontaine pulled out of San Francisco on 10 July and, steaming West across a wide and nervous ocean, arrived a little over 8,000 miles away at Rangoon in British Burma on the 28th, making it in a handy 18-knot average.

Built in 1934 at Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Mij NV, Amsterdam, Jagersfontein means “Hunter’s fountain.” She was a lucky ship, but it was a quirky kind of luck.

Among the accumulated cargo and passengers aboard Jagersfontein on her July 1941 trip to Rangoon were 300 young American men, most slim with sharp eyes and short hair, all civilian employees of the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company, or CAMCO. Among them were 99 pilots and 201 assorted ground crewmen and support personnel. Nine of the latter were Chinese-American mechanics specifically recruited from New York and San Francisco’s Chinatowns and rushed through a quick school at Allison Engine Works in Indianapolis on one particular powerplant: Allison’s liquid-cooled V-1710-33 twelve-cylinder V-type 1,040 hp piston engine.

You know, the one in the P-40B Warhawk/Tomahawk IIA

Soon after making Burma, Claire Chennault’s 1st American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers, was becoming the stuff of legend.

Claire Chennault Flying Tiger P-40 Artist Darrell Lum USAF DF-SC-84-04112

However, as it is with every irregular group on the fringes of institutionalized military logic, they soon were disbanded and absorbed by the regulars, and on 4 July 1942 the crumbs that were left became the USAAF’s 14th Air Force’s brand new 23rd Fighter Group, which, all these years later, is still around as part of the now USAF.

Based at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, they have flown the A-10 Warthog since 1992, and recently painted one of their birds in the livery of White 48, the Panda Squadron P-40B flown by Army Air Corps Brig. Gen. David Lee “Tex” Hill, an original Flying Tiger (originally a Naval Aviator) who rolled over to the 23rd as a major in 1942 and would finish WWII with 18.25 confirmed victories, 12.25 of those carried over from the AVG.

The A-10C includes the iconic shark teeth nose art and a literal flying tiger over olive drab, a big departure from the rest of the 23rd’s gray-on-gray Compass Ghost schemes.

A heritage A-10C Thunderbolt II is positioned on the flight line at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., April 28, 2026. The aircraft now displays the distinctive Flying Tigers-inspired paint scheme applied by airmen assigned to the 23rd Maintenance Squadron. (Air Force Senior Airman Savannah Carpenter)

A heritage A-10C Thunderbolt II is positioned on the flight line at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., April 28, 2026. The aircraft now displays the distinctive Flying Tigers-inspired paint scheme applied by airmen assigned to the 23rd Maintenance Squadron. (Air Force Senior Airman Savannah Carpenter)

Ever heard a for real strafing run from a P-40?

In related news, the Soaring by the Sea Foundation jumped through a year’s worth of FAA and ATF hoops required to re-install six working M2 .50 cal machine guns into a restored Curtiss P-40N Warhawk in Flying Tigers’ Adam & Eve Squadron livery and, well, did the thing with live ammo, expending approximately 7,000 rounds across ground testing and two days of airborne firing while under the control of Lt. Col. Ray “Hollywood” Fowler, an F-16 pilot with combat tours in the sandbox.

You better believe there is video.

A Lil Jeep and a lot of swagger

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Capt. Forrest F “Pappy” Parham in front of the famous shark teeth of Little Jeep, a P-40 Warhawk when a member of “Chennault’s Sharks” the 23rd Fighter Group in the China-Burma-India theater of WWII. He went on to make ace with the 75th Fighter Squadron flying P-51s.

The Saskatchewan-born Parham was reared in Minnesota and began his career as an Army enlisted man but retired a full bird colonel in the U.S. Air Force having served through the Korean War. He retired after 28 years, carried the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Unit Citation, Soldiers Medal and two Bronze Service Stars.

He died in Louisiana in 2002 at age 85. As you can tell, he enjoyed a good pipe and an ivory-handled 1911.

Dutch Harbor (Battle of Midway era) Tiger on tap for Atlanta

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One of the Texas Flying Legend Museum’s enduring fleet of P-40s.

p-40e-texas-warhawk-from-the-texas-flying-legend-museum

Texas Warhawk

And she has a great history. From the Commemorative Air Force’s Website:

This P-40E is a cold weather survivor coming out of Elmendorf Field in Anchorage, Alaska. The plane rolled off of the assembly line on January 13th, 1942 as a Curtiss Model H87-A3. The military accepted her as P-40E s/n 41-5709. America was still recovering from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese were marauding up and down the Aleutian Island Chain. On June 3rd, 1942 the Japanese attacked Fort Mears and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians. P-40s scrambled from Fort Randall but were too late to turn the Japanese back. The Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor again the next day, but this time American P-40s disrupted the force, shooting down one bomber. On June 5th, 1942 daily P-40 patrols started up in an effort to prevent surprise attacks.On September 26th, 1942, P-40E 41-5709 departed Fort Randall with 1st Lt. Dennis Crisp at the controls as part of the two-ship, daily patrol. Upon landing in the formation, his wingman landed long and ran into 5709′s tail.

Both planes were write-offs that day and ended up on the scrap heap in Cold Bay after the salvage of all usable parts.

The late Dick Odgers and a team of enthusiasts started excavating the dump at Cold Bay in 1987 and recovered significant chunks of 41-5709 among other wrecks. Odgers sold on his projects over the years, and by 1990 ’5709 was with Don Brooks in Douglas, Georgia. She was ready to fly again by August 25th, 2009, when Eliot Cross, a proven test pilot and air show performer, took 41-5709 to the skies again for the first time in 67 years. After the test flights were done, Ray Fowler, Chief Pilot and Executive Producer of the Liberty Foundation, got a turn at the stick and after several hours of flying the P-40E he convinced the board to purchase the fighter to go on tour with their B-17. They removed the rear fuel tank and installed a seat for passenger rides. Walter Bowe purchased the P-40E in 2013, who in turn sold the fighter to the Texas Flying Legends Museum in 2014, although Bowe remains a regular pilot. The P-40E wears the colors of Colonel Robert L. Scott Jr’s aircraft while he commanded the 23rd Fighter Group in the China-Burma-India Theatre during WWII.

She will be one of 7 P-40s at the upcoming 2016 Atlanta Warbird Weekend Sept 24-25, celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) so if you are in Georgia or can get there, it will be worth it.