[ARC5] Famous PBY Found

[Mike Hanz]

I know Coco Solo very well.  I was the last Public Works Officer for the 
facility before we downsized and turned everything over the the Army in 
1974.  It irritated me that we had to maintain four seaplane ramps on 
the active Naval Facilities list right up to the end, even though there 
had been no seaplanes to use them for decades.  Walking through the vast 
base was a trip back in time, with a Naval Station, Naval Air Station, 
and Naval Submarine Station all adjoining each other.  One of my prized 
possessions is a shop made machinist's V-block that was made by one of 
the tool and die makers, proudly engraved by the maker with his name and 
the dates 1942-1944 (the same time period you were there, Sandy).  I 
found it on a window ledge of the empty torpedo shop, swathed in 
Cosmoline.  I often wondered why he placed an end date on it...duty 
station, perhaps?

73,
Mike  KC4TOS

On 8/12/2015 10:52 AM, Sandy wrote:
> Bravo, Bravo!  I remember the "hoard" of PBY's at Coco Solo base in 
> Panama Canal Zone where i went as a kid 4 years old just after "Pearl 
> Harbor Day".  We spent 4 years there and returned to New Orleans just 
> before "VE" day.  Years later I got some rides in them in Brazil doing 
> radio maintenance on oil platforms in the Amazon River delta area.  
> Consolidated aircraft had a factory in New Orleans that made parts for 
> them during the war.
>
> I am sure some of the old PBY's restored in New Orleans' "Lakefront 
> airport" are maybe still flying in Brazil?