AMA News: District X-2007/04
Veterans Day Warbird Fly-In (November 11, 2006)
On November 11, 2006, the First Weedwacker Aero Squadron of Santee, California, honored its local veterans from all branches of the service during its annual Veterans Day Warbird Fly-In.
The San Diego County Association of Model Clubs and the First Weedwacker Aero Squadron of Santee, California, honored Carl Gwartney Jr. at the 2006 Veterans Day Warbirds Fly-In. Carl Gwartney, 86, distinguished himself as a glider pilot in World War II and received many awards and decorations for his military service between 1942 and 1946. He learned to fly at the age of 18 and accumulated more than 300 flight hours before enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942.
Carl completed his flight training in August 1942, was assigned to fly CG-4A gliders, and was sent overseas with the 29th Troop Carrier Squadron. He served in Tunisia, Morocco, and Sicily. His squadron flew the 82nd Airborne into Sicily, where 35-mile-per-hour winds scattered the troops across the terrain. In that same action many of the U.S. gliders loaned to the British were lost at sea and 23 U.S. C-47s were shot down by inadvertent friendly fire.
Carl’s squadron was shipped to England in August of 1944 in preparation for the Market Garden operation. On September 18, Carl’s CG-4A was the 17th glider to land in Holland during Market Garden. Upon landing, his orders were to return to base as soon as possible for another glider mission. Carl spent 21 days walking, hitching rides, and fighting his way back.
Shortly thereafter, Carl was transferred to Blackpool, England, in preparation for the invasion of Japan. Thankfully, these preparations were curtailed on August 15, 1945, with the Japanese surrender and the end of World War II.
Carl Gwartney Jr. received numerous awards, decorations, and battle stars for his service and today is a proud member of America’s "Greatest Generation." He is an active club member and an avid RC flier.
Till next time ... Keep ’em safe and keep ’em fly’n.
RC Bees of Santa Cruz
Alan Brown, club secretary of the RC Bees of Santa Cruz County, reported on the RC Bees of Santa Cruz:
The RC Bees of Santa Cruz is a small club in northern California. Located on the Monterey Bay, most of our weekday fliers are retirees.
One Thursday morning a couple of weeks ago we had such an eclectic collection of model airplanes show up at the field that we felt compelled to put them all out on the runway and take a couple of pictures.
The aircraft included:
- Uproar
- Israeli L-39
- North American Navion
- Westland-Hill Pterodactyl
- P-51
- Grumman F9F
- Sik Stik (at least 30 years old)
- Antoinette
- S.E.5
- Fokker D.VII
- Lincoln Beachey Curtiss Pusher
- Graupner Elektro Kädet
- Miniature helicopter
- Piper Super Cub
In front of the Antoinette there's a Long-Eze modified with two electric ducted-fan motors!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
