Amazing what you learn at the Stunt hangar!!

[Tom Luciano]

Hi All,
      On Christmas day I was going through some old club pictures with my father from the late sixties early seventies and I came across our old club logo of the Union model airplane club in Union N.J.  So, I thought it would be cool to use it as my icon on my posts. After my first post with the logo I had a comment from a former club member that he liked the logo. What followed was an e-mail I never expected and was very interesting so I figured I would share it with all of you.  It is truly amazing the people you meet in this hobby

Tom

Tom
I am interested in the Squadron Emblem on your Stunt Hangar posts.  It
looks like the one the 75th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Presque Isle
AFB Maine used in the 1950's. 

I was stationed at Presque Isle Maine from 1954 to 1957 in the 76th
Fighter Interceptor Squadron which was the part of the 23 Fighter Group.
The 23rd also had the 74th Squadron at Bangor ME.  The 23 Fighter Group
were given the Squadron and Group insignias of the Flying Tigers.

The attached picture is of my "new" work bench with the 76th Squadron
Emblem on the wall.  A little history on the Emblem.  In 1955 I hand cut
the stencils to make these metal emblems and had 2 on the front fenders
of my Olds 98 powered 48 Chevy Fleetline.  The Squadron CO wanted to have
some made and I got to paint them on the top of the Operations Status
Board.  I used a pump fly sprayer to "Spray Paint" the colors. 

Clancy

Hi Clancy,
   I will give you what I know about that logo. It was designed by one of our club members back in the sixty's  by the name of Roe Bittle we had Tee shirts, decals, and patches with that logo. We were the fighting UMAC'ers. That logo was dropped in our club somewhere in the mid-seventies when our club went completely R/C. On New Years day I will be attending the GSCB snow bird meet with my father and some other famed union members of the past such as Larry Scarinzi. I will discuss this topic with them I'm sure they will have some history on this. Unfortunately Roe had past about ten years ago. There is so much history in this club and so many notable flyers.
 
Thank you for your interest,
Tom
Tom
The original 75th Squadron Emblem had machine guns on the sharks front
fins as the original airplanes  were P-40's and  was changed to  rockets
because we had up graded to F-89's which did not have any machine guns.
It did not need them since each F-89D carried 104 2.75 inch FFAR rockets
in the tip tanks and could also carry 24 5 inch Tiny Tims under the
wings.  How about that for fire power.  The F-89D used a tracking radar
to guide the pilot in for a kill.  Each 2.75 FFAR (Folding Fin Air to
Air) rocket carried 2.5 lbs of TNT and each Tiny Tim carried 20 lbs of
TNT.  The only choice the pilot had was to select how many passes he
wanted to make.  1 pass fired all 104 rockets, 2 passes fired 62 first
pass and 42 on the second pass or he could select 3 passes.  That way he
fired 42 on the first pass, 32 on the second pass and 30 on the third
pass.

Thanks for the walk down memory lane,

Clancy
Clancy,
  I talked to a few former Union members today and yes, you are correct from what I'm hearing. Roe was a aircraft mechanic with the 75th during the Korean war. I never knew there was actual history to this logo I just thought it was something Roe Dreamed up.
Thank you,
Tom

[Dan McEntee]

. That is pretty cool! Think about the history of some other clubs in the country, who belonged to them and how their logos came about! That is one of my favorite parts of this hobby, discovering the history behind the people in it and the model that they designed and fly1
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Tom Niebuhr]

Tom,
I used to look forward to the annual Memorial Day Meet put on by the Union Club. They had large participation in everything: Stunt; Carrier; Scale; Combat. It hurt all of us when they went to exclusive RC.

Likewise, the GSCB Snow Bird Meet that was held in February went by the way side. Now they just have the New Years fun fly.

[peabody]

Tom...didn't the Snowbird meet share something with Middlesex?
When was the last one? I joined GSCB in 1989 and it was a memory then...
Thanks

[Ward Van Duzer]

Hello,

Another UMAC'er checking in! 1955 thru about '57-'58. Yup, Scarinzi, Reinhardt, Davies, Hunt (Jim that is!), and little Robbie (Bob) running around tripping over lines. Fox .35's bolted to the picnic table with fuel lines sticking down into a can of Testor's 39! And let's not forget the world record control line flight with the fuel line strapped to a flying line to feed fuel continually. Don't remember how long that flight was but I bet Larry will remember! I don't remember our logo in those years, but I picked up a UMAC patch at some show (no idea when) that showed a Corsair coming head on passing low over the mountains and woods...

Ward Van Duzer 

[Clancy Arnold]

Tom
Bet you can not guess who was the most famous pilot from the 75th.

I met him when I first went to Presque Isle AFB, as we were both from Indiana.  I noticed the Indiana license plate on his car.  He was a First Lieutenant and I was a A/3C.  He is from Mitchell, IN

His name is Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom.

Clancy

[Tom Luciano]

Tom,
  It really was a great contest a lot of different things going on ,like you said stunt, combat, carrier, scale, and even balloon burst. We were just talking about it  on New Years Day with Larry and Ken Wills  about how at one meet they had 120 entries in combat they were going all day three circles 2 fast 1 slow.

Rich,
     I'll send you a PM on my contact info, the info you have on me is from when I still lived with my parents. Again we had a great time on New Years to bad the weather wasn't a little better.


Ward,
  Man, I forgot all about that picnic table by the front circle (stunt). You could not even touch that thing it was such a gooey mess from all that spent fuel. The state would probably have a HAZ-MAT team out there to clean it up if it was still there today. I just learned of that endurance flight on New Years, they thought they flew from sun up to sundown nonstop. The logo you have now is our current one from about the mid to late seventies.

Clancy,
   Boy, you gotta love that six degrees of separation thing. Now I can say I know a guy who knew........

I know there are a lot more Union guys out there lurking.
So lets hear some of your tales

Regards,
Tom