Need Help

[rooby roo]

My wife was adopted at age 3 and we're trying to trace her birth family history. Her father's military records are believed to have been destroyed by a fire in 1973 at the national records center. In an effort to locate additional records elsewhere, we need to provide them with any information we can find that might enable them to track down any other records of his service.

Does anybody know what kind of plane this is?

[Roy Smalley]

My wild guess Grumman F6F wildcat. Army Air Corp, obviously WWII. At the time the photo was taken the plane was not in combat...note no discharge arround the 50's. Not a carrier based plane. Ground. Either in the European theater or in training US...? Or Philiphines ground before invasion????? Training in England??? Or preparation

The name "LIL" is important because some veteran might remember that detail...but it appears to be in chalk and that might mean just for that photo. Obviously a pilot or a pilot in training....from the tan I would say a lot of flying time in the hot sun. So summer.

The partial numbers are important....you might have the photo enhanced and enlarged and see if any numbers or names or anything could be recognized....even partials. And the adjacent plane.

Get hold of some old Army Air Corp Vets...with the photo....that is the best bet. Follow their leads.

Good luck and let me know what you find out.

[rooby roo]

Great ideas and suggestions, Roy. Thank you very much.

The photos I've found of wildcats all show the landing gear on the fuselage and a 3 blade prop. This plane has a 4 blade prop and the gear is on the wings. The closest I've found so far is a P47 Thunderbolt. From what I can see in this photo, this plane is a razorback and the early Thunderbolts were razorbacks, while most were bubble canopy cockpits. But the landing gear in this photo looks a lot like the early T-bolts.

Look at this page and tell me what you think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_P-47_Thunderbolt

more later

THANKS!