P-38 Association President's POV

Bob Alvis, President of the P-38 National Association, was privileged to be a part of the crew for the P‑38s during the "Wings Over Camarillo" air show, and spent most of his time on the flight line.

He asked me to pass along some of the observations he made during the show:

"An air show with two P-38s is a little like a great concert. Everybody loves you, and they never want it to end."

The depth of knowledge of fans of the 38 is stunning. Just the sheer number of people that came out just to see the 38's was overwhelming. I'm so proud to be President of an organization that has such a huge fan base of great people.

The pilots that day Steve Hinton, John Hinton and Jeff Harris, could not be better ambassadors for the P‑38s. They were always right there with their planes, pressing the flesh and making time for every one. Anyone who had a question or two (or three) or wanted to have a photo taken with them, got it, whether they were 9 months or 90 years old.

I'm in awe of the WWII P‑38 vets who still show up at these events, most of who don't even know an organization like ours exists. (They do now!) All of these heroes have such great stories to tell, and yet they haven't shared them with anyone -- I hope in the near future we can change that.

Believe it or not, one of the best moments at the show for me was when Steve Hinton was looking through the current issue of our membership publication, Lightning Strikes, and saw the photo on the back cover. I can't ever remember seeing Steve so excited. Turns out that the photo was of the P‑38 that went on to become "California Cutie," and Steve and his mechanics had worked on that plane but had never seen a WWII-era photo of it. [Ed note: If you don't know the story of this particular airplane's fate, you can read about it here.]

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Tangerine is back!

If you read our blog, you'll already know that we received word from Christian Gurling at the Tillamook Air Museum that not only is Tangerine now back in the air, she is tentatively scheduled to be part of the Hillsboro Air Show (a suburb of Portland, OR) this weekend, Aug. 29 & 30.

Obviously, if you have the chance, go see her spread her wings again. We've also added a new photo on our website. You can find it here. And if you doubt it, here she is in the air again.

This brings to SEVEN the total number of P‑38s now participating in air shows around the country.  This keeps getting better!

Normandy Paint Scheme

Q: What color were the P‑38s that participated in D-Day?

A: These P-38s were painted with the famous "invasion stripes" which marked many of the allied aircraft during the Normandy invasion, helping to easily identify them as friendlies during the battle.

The X-P38

The prototype. This was the first P-38 built and flown. It had it's debut flight on Feb 11, 1939, but did not go into full-scale production until 1942 -- after the "kinks" got worked out by Kelly Johnson and the design team at Lockheed.

Its initial flight was very impressive, speedwise, as it made it from California to New York in about 7 hours, unheard of in those days. Unfortunately, the pilot Ben Kelsey crashed just short of the runway in NY and the plane was a total write-off (you can read more about the crash and see photos and newspaper articles from that time at the bottom of our home page).

You can check out some of the original Lockheed performance documents at this website, including charts and diagrams of things like "time to bank 90°, speed at altitude and rate of climb."

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New P-38 Wallpaper

We just had a request from one of our members who had lost his P-38 wallpaper (the picture that shows up on your computer screen when you turn it on), so we thought it might be time to point you to the directions on our website if you'd like to add a P-38 photo as your desktop wallpaper.

We now have two pictures from which to choose, as well as directions for adding it to your PC. You can find the info here.

     Second-Guessing Editors

One of the undesirable realities of the writing game is the propensity of editors to change – even to reversing the meaning – of the written word. I have recently been subject to this unhappy experience by an otherwise publisher of high-quality prestigious aviation prose. It would not bother me so much except that the editor did not amplify or clarify my text, but actually changed the conclusion I reached about our beloved P‑38 in direct contradiction of the many examples I carefully included to support my conclusions, and I want to clear the record about my intent to those of you who would question my position.

Let me be clear at the beginning that the series to which I contributed is of the highest quality in the business. Some other publishers aspire to mediocrity, but this operation is consistently on the high road of accuracy and quality. Sometimes an inevitable slip occurs, but like the observation about the P‑38 in the Mediterranean, it is better to have a ship that has a few things wrong with it and goes like hell, than one that has a few things wrong with it and does not go like hell.

But, getting back to the issue at hand, I sweated out getting information for more than thirty color profiles, and was proud of the accuracy of my culling out colors, nose art and serials. Some know-all spotted the manufacture’s serials on the noses of two P‑38s and changed the USAAF serials peremptorily from J‑15 models to J‑25 subtypes. The slip would not have been so obvious except that I made the clear declarative that there was no substantial evidence that any J‑25 models were received into the subject fighter group. Indeed, the 8th Air Force decided to transfer out all P‑38s in June 1944, and stopped receiving the type before J‑25s began arriving in England sometime in July. The 105 examples of the type were in all probability delivered in a block to the tactical 9th Air Force, where they were used on primarily low level missions.

However, that slight delinquency is not so outrageous compared to the complete reversal of meaning made in the chapter that compares the P‑38 directly to the P‑51. All the examples and quotations I use were meant to show that the performance superiority of the P‑51 was more marginal than is generally believed. The P‑51 was only slightly faster and less maneuverable than the P‑38 up to about 24,000 feet, had a somewhat slower climb and was potentially of shorter range. The performance of the P‑38J‑25 was likely to have trimmed the difference between the two fighters up to about 30,000 feet, and the power assisted ailerons of the P‑38 may have given it more advantage in the rolling plane.

My original concluding statement was simply that the performance difference between the two types of fighters was not so marked, but the editor reverted to series policy by changing my words to say, “The P‑51 was a truly great air superiority fighter, and its performance was clearly superior to the P‑38.”

Let me assure my fellow P‑38 admirers that I would never make such a statement. The view of the publisher’s series may adhere to the supremacy of the P‑51, but we who venerate the P‑38 say that the Lockheed was under appreciated. Let the P‑51 hold its crown as a great air superiority fighter, but let the P‑38 have its due at last.

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P-38 Association News

This month has turned out to be the largest increase in membership that we've had for years. I think word is finally getting out about all our activities and the extra exposure we've getting with our air show participation, the internet interviews given by our President, Bob Alvis, and some of our P‑38 pilots - not to mention the continually growing list of P‑38 fans who have discovered this newsletter.

Unlike many organizations focused around WWII (who have sadly had to close up shop), the P‑38 National Association continues to thrive, for which we're very appreciative. The generous donations from our members and the "legacy" donations made to us by the families and friends of our members who have folded their wings, have enabled us to continue our mission of keeping alive the memory of the P‑38 and all those involved with her throughout the war years and beyond. And we thank you.

    Summer in the City

The last couple of membership meetings have had to be cancelled due to the extreme summer heat in Riverside, over 100°. It's a bit too much to ask our members, many of who are now in their 80s, to brave this extreme weather.

But the good news is that the September meeting is on schedule, and we'll have plenty to discuss - everything from the General Membership meeting we held in June through the air show at Camarillo which just took place and at which Bob Alvis was privileged to attend as part of the support staff for the two P‑38s which were there. (Check out the photos from that event at this page of our website.)

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    New Meeting Format

P-38 Association President, Bob Alvis, has some pretty exciting plans in the hopper for us, with more participation in air shows, P-38 Symposiums and an expanded presence in the aviation community. He's also enhancing our regular membership meetings with a chance in format and a change in venue. That means we hopefully will no longer need to hold our meetings in the mobile home which we've been using the past few years. Although it's served us well, we're outgrowing it with the increased participation in our meetings, and it gets a bit toasty in there during the summertime with the temperamental A/C unit -- or at least the electricity that's feeding it.

In addition to the change in venue, Bob has lined up some very cool guest speakers for our future meetings. So, the bulk of the meetings will now be social and entertaining, rather than the (sometimes yawn-inspiring day-to-day management of the organization, which can be handled in separate Board meetings. Then, whatever items are important to share with the general membership, or any matters that need a membership vote, can be handled quickly at the beginning of the general meetings -- before the entertainment portion begins. This new format will make the meetings more enjoyable for all and will give us a chance to have Q&A sessions with our guest speakers. So, if you live in the SoCal area, this is a good time to begin participating in the meetings. It's your Association, and the more members who can be involved, the better. We'll keep you updated.

    Bruce is 97!

We screwed up and missed Bob Carlton's recent birthday, and we didn't want to do the same for Bruce Bauer, who just turned 97. Yep, you heard that right. So, we found a rather nice photo of Bruce taken at the Planes of Fame in Chino with their 23-Skidoo P-38. This photo also appeared in the March 2007 issue of "Lightning Strikes." (You can just click on Bruce's picture to see the whole thing. Although we don't know his name, the man in the photo with Bruce is a WWII re-enactor who was there that day. )

Bruce is a Life Member of the P-38 Association and was part of the original P-38 Lockheed design team. He also STILL manages to show up at our membership meetings and at every air show we participate in, if it's within driving distance. A truly amazing guy! Happy birthday, Bruce.

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P-38 LIGHTNING & PILOT INTERVIEWS

This package is a must-have for any fan of the P-38. It includes a CD and a separate DVD.

CD includes hundreds of photos, many from private collections.

DVD includes:

   Interviews with 11 P-38 pilots (including Kelly's
   Dad, Ed Baquet)

   Conversations with restoration experts (such as   
   Bob Cardin, Project Manger on the Glacier Girl
   Expedition)

A complete P-38 Pilots Manual and history of the aircraft are also included.  Incredible amount of material.  Top notch!