Grissom Air Museum

U.S. Vair Force

August 27, 2015

Joy and I decided to have a weekend getaway in Bloomington, Indiana. We took our '65 Corsa convertible on the trip and tried to stay off the freeways. It was a memorable weekend and we had a wonderful time. On the way south, we stopped at the Grissom Air Museum in Peru, Indiana. Situated next door to Grissom Air Reserve Base, the museum has a great collection of warbirds, and the Executive Director, Jim Price, generously offered to let us take pictures of the Corvair near the planes on display.

These would be those pictures.

The Corvair with a B-47B Stratojet.

C1-A Trader, a Navy workhorse.

Cessna U-3A Administrator

F-84F Thunderstreak

KC-97L Stratotanker. What an awesome aircraft! Based upon the B-29, this plane is enormous, and just cool.

Boom operator's station.

Dwarfed by the tanker.

Tucked in under the KC-97L.

Must have been a commanding view from the office.

C-119G Flying Boxcar

This C-17 was doing pattern work from the runway at the base, and so it shows up a number of times in this set.

I scanned a number of my dad's slides a few years ago, including this one of a Flying Boxcar. Here's what I wrote about it:

"Leaving Korea, 13 November 1957"

The aircraft is a Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar. This particular unit was ordered by the USAF in 1953 and assigned serial number 53-3154. It was later converted into an AC-119K Stinger gunship and saw action in Vietnam. Painted in camo, it was named "The Pea-nut Special" and, directly below the aftmost two cockpit windows, prominently displayed a large painting of Lucy Van Pelt, fist in the air, yelling "Good Grief."

I'm not making this up. On the better resolution copy of this picture on my computer, you can zoom in on the serial number directly below the pilot's window. Google "C-119 53-3154" and you'll find pictures of Pea-nut, bearing the same serial number.