More planes than pilots?

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More planes than pilots?

Postby H » Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:45 pm

Not the ultimate reason --
"In 2015, while diving in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific Ocean, Brandi [Mueller] discovered something that was never supposed to be uncovered, and it would shed new light on a worldwide event…
The [@ 150]-plane graveyard includes many models of historic American aircraft, including: Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, F4U Corsairs and TBF/TBM Avengers. After a little research, she discovered the reason for the Dauntlesses being dumped. Apparently, the Dauntless model was replaced by the much faster Curtiss SB2C Helldiver in the early 1940s. After the war ended in 1945, the excess planes were dumped into the ocean."

Decades ago, thousands of gallons of milk were poured into the ocean to maintain its higher cost at market; another segment here echoed my thoughts:
"It is a reminder of the wastefulness [of] our 20th century relatives... rather than recycle the metal from the obsolete aircraft, they chose to dump them into a watery grave. The Marshall Islands, as it turned out, were a perfect place to do so…"
Truly, our tax dollars at waste. Remove the weaponry, the military gear and... hey, these are operable aircraft... dump their carcass? How much is put into the renovation of the survivors! Surely there were many of the common citizenry who would have even paid at least a 'shipping fee' for an airworthy aircraft.


8-)


P.S. The site I got this from seems to strain my malware/adware programs, so beware:
http://www.lifedaily.com/story/diver-un ... e-pacific/
H
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Re: More planes than pilots?

Postby Shadowcaster » Thu Aug 17, 2017 4:54 am

Interesting article there, I remember watching a video on the fall of Saigon and seeing Hues being pushed overboard

Image

Not as many as in the Marshall Islands, but people are more important than machines.

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Re: More planes than pilots?

Postby Flacke » Thu Aug 17, 2017 6:49 pm

As those Hueys filled with refugees and soldiers came and landed on the ships they had to dump them to make room for more landing Helos. Sad, but necessary.
Some Pilots ditched their Hueys right next to ships and forced the Sailors to rescue them from the water. Those were tough days, I remember it well.
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