Chuck Older 23rd Fighter Group

[Franek Grabowski]

Tex, this is great stuff. I see that you have not come across any flying schedule, though.
Here is the sample from Don Lopez's book.
White Able
172 Maj. Richardson
177 Lt. Jones
166 Lt. Tanner
187 Lt. Vurgaropoulos.
The document lists six sections, and such flight schedules were issued before every mission.
This is the only document that ties tail number with a pilot for 23rd FG, that I have ever seen. I would wish that more had surfaced.
I do not know if Don Lopez had more of them, or was it the only one he had preserved.

[Tex Longhorn]

This is the closet I have come to a flying schedule. I got it from the grandson of Jack Canary, who was a North American tech rep in China. Canary also brought back some great color photos from his travels during WWII.

Once the war was over, the 118th was soon disbanded. Wayne Johnson, a pilot with the 118th said he was in the 118th HQ and asked what was going to happen with all the aerial film from the planes and paperwork. He was told to take what he wanted. Wayne filled his footlocker with film and other stuff. He took it to the dock in Shanghai to board a ship home. He took his eyes off of the footlocker briefly and then it was gone.

[Tex Longhorn]

Here is ship 598.

[Tex Longhorn]

I reread the thread and checked the dates for December 1944 missions. Older was with the 118th on these mission as well. Mission reports attached.

Form 34 shows the 118th with the following aircraft at this time:

P-51C-6: 10
P-51C-10: 8
P-51C-11: 5

I can try and post Form 34s if anyone interested. Hard to get good resolution with file size limits.

[Franek Grabowski]

Excellent! I think that it is the same form by another name. I would wish some more had surfaced. So bad lots of the paperwork was lost. I guess each unit had a record of flying, with each aircraft listed, but such files are extremely rare. For a reason not clear to me, pilots did not file their logs with their aircraft numbers either, so it looks the information was lost.