History Comes Knocking Pt. 3: Fated Flight Of The F-5E

During the summer of 2011, two individuals were cleaning up a property near the Bird Creek bridge, when one of them made an uncommon discovery. While moving some piled up pipe and fence posts, an old relic from the past emerged from under the junk pile. Most likely bewildered as to the find, the person that found the piece took it, and placed it in his garage, where it would stay for over a year, until the fall of 2012. One evening this past October my wife was on Facebook exchanging messages with another person in Barnsdall. As I came into the room my wife asked if I was interested in a piece that came off a plane, possibly a P-38. She told me the person who has it wanted to bring it by the house, cause they thought it may have come from a crashed P-38 and wanted me to take a look at it. Once again, the excitement was starting and the thought of what kind of piece was it that this person had? I replied to my wife to send them a message to bring it by and I'll look it over. Within the hour a truck pulled up in front of my house. As I walked out the front door to greet the two people in the truck, I tried to tell myself that this piece they had in their truck bed probably was not from the P-38 but from some other plane and I shouldn't get my hopes up.
 As the tailgate on the truck came down, I looked over to see what they had brought. As I stood there and looked, it only took a split second to see that this was no ordinary piece of aviation. I could tell in an instant this was a WW II era propeller blade. I ran and got a tape measure to make some quick measurements and to get a feel for the size of the prop assembly as a whole and found it to be the right length and width. On closer inspection , I found that it was an aluminum blade which I felt made the find more significant. When asked if this could have been on the P-38 that crashed years ago, I said it was a good possibility but more research was needed to find out for sure. I asked them what they were going to do with it and they said they were going to give it to me since I liked planes. To me it was a mild shock but there was no way I was going to turn this down.I thanked them for the blade and told them I would let them know my findings after I made a few contacts with some other people.

The next day I took photos and measurements of the prop blade and looked for any markings that may have been on it. I came up empty on any marking or identifications. All I had to work with was the set of photos and dimensions of the blade. It wasn't looking very good at this time but I wasn't going to give up. My hunch was that it was either a B-25 or P-38 prop blade cause of the rounded tip of the prop.

Prop blade of the possible F-5E. The length of which is over 5' 6" and 11.5" wide. The base still has the bearing stack and spacer intact and blade retaining nut intact.

 At this point it was a toss up. Armed with very little information I began contacting aviation restoration groups with no luck. I then remembered the article I read a couple years back about the crashed F-5E and scrambled to find the web site, remembering the paragraph he wrote about finding other information on the plane crash and to contact him if they had found some. Possibly the author could help me out since he knew so much about the crash near Barnsdall? It wasn't long after that, I sent an email to the author Clint Daniel, along with the photos that I took of the blade to see what he thought of the chance of the blade being from the crash. His return email wasn't as good as what I had hoped for. Clint Daniel is an aviation archaeologist with many years experience in the Pacific digging up WW II crash sites and he thought that with the prop being in as good a shape as it was, it couldn't have been involved with the crash in 1945. He asked me if there were any ID numbers on the blade? I didn't find any on the inspection of the blade the first day I had it so I didn't send anything along with the email. A week went by and the prop blade was just laying on my driveway, I would look at it from time to time trying to think of a way to ID this piece of metal. I went over it again and again in my head until it came to me. The only place I never took a close look at was the base of the blade where it enters into the prop assembly. With decades of muck on the base I couldn't tell if anything was on it or not. Looking for a wire brush to clean up the base, I soon found out my wire brush was missing, I quickly made a trip to my dads house to borrow on from him. When I returned, I began the process of clearing the dirty years away from the base. It wasn't long before I took a look and seen three numbers emerge from the filth. It had taken about ten minutes to clean the base and when I finished, there they were. Every single number and letter was still visible for identification. It was now party time! New photos were taken of the ID numbers and another email was sent to Clint Daniel. His return email was more promising saying there was no doubt it was from a P-38 but it seem to be from a J model P-38. Unless there was a way to find the prop blades origin and what model plane the P-38 started as when it was built, the chances were slim to connect it to the crash.
It was time to call in the big guns and get some research. I contacted the Smithsonian's Air and Space Research group to help me out. I sent in the planes number 44-23602, the ID numbers and some photos of the prop blade. For my wait, I received an envelope three weeks later with all the information they had on the plane except for the maintenance records, which had been lost to history.

Part of the ID numbers on the prop blade base

The plane was built as a P-38J-25 at Lockheed, in Burbank California and accepted into service on 6/8/44. From there it went to Coolidge Air Field in Arizona to be fit with a radio and dive flaps and photo equipment. It was then flown to Panama on 7/8/44. At this point the history of the plane is unknown till it returns to the states, which was common for all military planes during WW II. It returned to Vandalia Air Field in Ohio as a P-38 F-5E photo recon aircraft on 9/20/44, then to Wright Air Field in Ohio on 3/14/45. Then on 5/31/45, the F-5E would land at it's final Air Field at Coffeyville, Kansas.

The Smithsonian also sent a list of propellers and governors for service aircraft which had the information on the P-38J model with the prop assembly and blade number for the F-5 series planes. With this information, I contacted Clint Daniel by email and sent him the information. His return mail was an overwhelming jump for joy and there could be no doubt that the prop blade was from 2nd Lt. Charles R. Schliefers P-38 F-5E that crashed on July 2, 1945.

So what am I going to do with this piece of Barnsdalls' aviation history? It's hard to say. For over 40 years I've thought about this plane and now I have part of it. I'll just say it's in good hands at the moment and I'll think about what I'll do with it at a later time.

History Comes Knocking, Pt. 2: Fated Flight Of The F-5E

I was around ten years old when I first heard the story of the F-5E crashing just outside of Barnsdall. The location of the crash seem to be a mystery of some sort since most people that told the story could only say that it crashed near Websters Hill. Over the years I was in school, every time I would venture out on a ride west of town with someone I would scan the hills looking for any indication that there may have been a plane crash. Although I knew I was looking at over thirty years of vegetation growth on the hillsides, I was always an optimist as to thinking there was that one slim chance there would be some clue as to the whereabouts of the crash location. As years faded into history, so did my thoughts of the crashed plane until 1980 when I began working for the Petrolite Corporation in Barnsdall. My interest in the subject began to grow again after having an evening chat with Glen Pease, one of the stills workers at the refinery. Glen had been at the refinery for many years and had just as many stories to tell to any of the new guys that had been hired. It was just my luck that one of our small conversations was about WW II. As a history buff, I was all ears about hearing anything about what happened during the war. It was during this conversation that a bombshell was dropped on me that would have me looking for years. Glen casually made a reference that there was a piece, most likely part of a propeller of the WW II  F-5E that crashed outside of Barnsdall in one of the buildings on the Petrolite property. I just looked at him in disbelief without saying a word, but my mind was thinking, what kind of piece was it, where could it be hidden, what building was he speaking of? He then told me that it was a rumor he had heard over the years. That was all that was said about it and he never spoke of it again. My enthusiasm was once again energized and at that time, I was living with my parents in one of the company houses ( BARECO Cottage 19) on the northwest corner of Petrolites property. In the summer of 1981, I purchased a Yamaha 150 three wheeler and used it to help in one part of a two part search. On many occasions I would set out from the house armed with nothing more than a topography map and a tank full tank of gas. My purpose was to drive the oil patch roads west of Barnsdall and if possible cross a few pastures in the pursuit of a crash site that was by now 40 years old. The second part of the search would take place on the grounds of the Petrolite property.  It was here I began a search that would last on and off for years. After a couple years of trying to locate a crash site, I finally came to the realization that it was a lost cause since I didn't have much information to go by. But twenty-five years working evening and night shift can get a lot of looking done for what I thought may be a piece of a plane no bigger than a shoe box. But with every demolished building came the reality that there wasn't any piece of the F-5E anywhere on the Petrolite property. It was now the year 2005 and once again the F-5E was fading into history.

In 2009, I was searching for information online for a story I was going to write when I came across a web site by Clint Daniel. He had written an extensive story loaded with information on the crash of the F-5E. Not only did he have the official crash report by the Army Air Corps  from 1945 with  photos of the crashed plane, he also had a small piece of the plane his dad had picked up while he was at the crash site in 1945. At this point I was thinking to myself...this must of been about the size of any piece that was gathered up that day. Something big enough to put in your shirt pocket and walk away with. At the end of his story he had written a small paragraph stating that he would like to hear from anyone that may have any information about the crash. I was unaware at that time that anyone was looking for the crash site until I read his story. Come to find out he also looked for it in 2008. I  now felt like the story had a final ending, even if the crash site wasn't found, there was a full story online that could finally close the book on this event. But this wasn't the end, and two years later a new chapter was about to be written......

Part 3 coming soon.

A piece of the P38 F-5E that crashed west of Barnsdall in 1945.
Photo from the Clint Daniel site.

History Comes Knocking, Pt.1: Fated Flight Of The F-5E

The early morning of July 2, 1945 was going to be a clear and warm day for pilot 2nd Lt. Charles R. Schleifer. What started out as a possible reconnaissance survey flight would end fatally two miles west of the town of Barnsdall, Oklahoma as his Lockheed F-5E  would crash into a hillside. The official crash report from the Army Air Corps stated the probable causes for the crash were unknown but after reading the eye witness reports from C. Art Jones and Clinton E. Daniel, and doing research and investigating performance reports on the F-5E, I came to my own conclusion of how the crash occurred. Though my opinion is only my interpretation of the event, I believe it's what happened on that day.

2nd LT. Charles R. Schleifer
Photo from the Clint Daniel site

Lockheed F-5E  Photo Recon Aircraft

While on a flight from the Coffeyville Army Air Corps Field in Coffeyville Kansas, 2nd Lt. Charles Schleifer and an unknown pilot flying another aircraft of the same description  were flying in tandem at an extremely high altitude. Lt. Schleifer was flying in the trailing plane. At 0810, on July 2, 1945,  it's possible Lt. Schleifer wanted a closer look at something below or wanted to test the dive flaps on the aircraft which were a modification on the plane. As eye witness reports state, he pulled out of position, rolled and placed his aircraft into a dive. The plane was diving at a high rate of speed and appeared to spiral as it came down. The witnesses recalled the plane was making a loud screaming sound such as it might be at full throttle. Near the altitude of 1000 ft. the aircraft was trying to pull out of the dive into an inverted attitude. For a few moments the aircraft leveled into an inverted attitude before disappearing out of sight and crashing into a hillside near the C. Art Jones farm. 

Official photo from the Army Air Corps on the F-5E crash
Photo from the Clint Daniel site

After researching the performance characteristics of the F-5E and checking into the modifications of the plane, I concluded  that the aircraft surpassed it's airspeed limits and could not recover from the dive. According to the performance tests, the planes tail section would buffet if passing airspeed limits and cause structural damage. The performance tests included controllability handling  and diving characteristics, which state that at extremely high dive speeds the airplane tends to become rapidly nose heavy and elevator effectiveness decreases, making it difficult to pull out of a dive. Elevators are the flaps on the tail wings that give the plane directional control up and down. According to the crash report the plane was in a 60 degree  horizontal and inverted attitude when it crashed. This leads me to believe in two different scenarios, either the pilot mistakenly pulled back on the yoke while he was inverted to pull out of the dive which would turn him straight into the ground or the pilot lost stability control and lift while being inverted and was unable to roll out of the inversion.

Reports say that after the crash, people from Barnsdall made their way to the crash site, where it was said that the plane disintegrated upon impact and was on fire. During this time curious onlookers were picking up pieces of the crashed plane.  The body of Lt. Schleifer was recovered and sent to Tulsa. That night the local Boy Scout troop stood watch over the wreckage until an Army Air Corps recovery team could be on scene the next morning. 

Clint Daniel, son of Clinton E. Daniel, (witness to the crash), was given a piece of the crashed F-5E over 15 years ago by his dad. Clint Daniel wrote the story "A Mystery Solved 1945-2006"on the crashed F-5E on his web site. This might seem like the end of the story but it isn't. Another piece of the fated flight of the F-5E has surfaced with it's own story which will be told in the later part of this flight into history.

Have You Read The Scrolls

Everyone has some kind of thing they do in the bathroom as they sit on the toilet while doing their business. Some people like to read a newspaper or magazine, others may text or talk on their cell phone while some people just casually sit there until the job is done. I like to look at labels and read whats in products that sit on the sink counter such as, toothpaste, soap, hair spray or lotion. I'm always finding interesting ingredients that go into the products we all use in the bathroom. But there has been one I have been overlooking for some time, until recently. That would be the roll of toilet paper. Back in the day before the advent of Ultra, Premium or Double Roll along with the double, triple and extra cushioned embossed and scented roll there was the single layer, regular and unscented roll. Basic and to the point. It was just toilet paper with no frills rolled onto a cardboard cylinder and placed four rolls to a pack. But I noticed something different as I looked around at the roll on the dispenser hanging off the wall. The cardboard cylinder inside the roll seem to be larger than normal. I thought it was just a fluke and maybe there was a mistake at the factory. Looking down I noticed some other cardboard cylinders in the trash can that were the same size as the roll on the wall. It was becoming clear now that this was no mistake, something wasn't right with this product. Doing some investigating of my own this past week has brought me to a conclusion. Georgia Pacific, the makers of Angel Soft bathroom tissue have stuck it to the consumers. Recently, GP (Georgia Pacific) has changed the packaging on it's Angel Soft toilet paper, with this change there has been another subtle change such as, less sheets per roll. Though the amount on the cylinder may look the same cause of the larger cardboard cylinder, it's really less. Angel Soft regular rolls used to have 150 sheets per roll, they now have 132. This also went along with the slight increase in the amount you pay per roll, so now you get less for more money. Another annoying fact is the crazy advertising they place on some of the Angel Soft Double Roll packages.

The labelling on this package reads 70% more sheets on a double roll. If a single roll is 150 sheets this double roll should have 300 sheets?  HOLD ON! Is my math wrong or should this read 100% more sheets? Isn't this a "DOUBLE" roll?           

                        

 How about this example.

This is their "Thickest" ever! Read the package label on the back and it will tell you it's still 2-ply. It's the same as the original 2-ply. Why is it thicker? But it did add some extra cents to the price.

Here's my favorite.

This advertisement comes straight from GP to the stores that offer Angel Soft:

The new angel soft bath tissue is now the thickest ever. Angel soft continues to bring you the ideal balance of softness and strength at a great value. Longer lasting angel soft triple roll has triple the sheets of our regular rolls, which means even fewer roll changes. Now that’s convenient.

Angel Soft, Double Rolls, [18 Rolls*2 Pack] = 36 Total Count ( Angel Soft )

Brand : Angel Soft , Model :

• Flushable and septic safe
• 18 double rolls
• 264 sheets per roll
• An ideal balance of softness and strength

*********

This is the new packaging that GP has put on the shelves. It boasts of being the thickest ever (still 2-ply as before). It "continues" to bring ideal balance and strength (otherwise known as...it's not changed). Plus it has the triple roll which has triple the sheets of a regular roll. STOP AGAIN! If a regular roll is 150 sheets per roll then shouldn't the triple roll have 450 sheets? Even with the downsized roll of 150 sheets to 132 sheets, this triple roll should have 396 sheets. That's a far cry from the 264 sheets it advertises. Bend over everybody....you're about to get it up the wazoo and pay a little extra for a little less. 

A Bunch Of Ding Dongs

November 16th 2012, the life of the Twinkie came to an abrupt end. Some said the iconic treat would last forever in it's cellophane wrapped cocoon but those that manufactured the creamy confectionery soon found out that what they thought was brinkmanship soon turned from walking a picket line to standing in line for government assistance.  The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike November 9th, disrupting production and deliveries due to their pensions being eliminated and an 8% cut in wage. Management gave them the ultimatum of returning to work by November 15th or the company would be insolvent and the liquidation of it's assets would be auctioned off.

From where I stand, the union and management brought this on themselves. Here's how I see it, you can agree with it or not. When Hostess goes into bankruptcy for the second time since 2009 there's something amiss in the finances. This past year Hostess gave pay increases to it's executives. Take the top wage earners for instance:

Brian Driscoll, CEO, around $750,000 to $2,550,000. 
Gary Wandschneider, EVP, $500,000 to $900,000. 
John Stewart, EVP, $400,000 to $700,000. 
David Loeser, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256. 
Kent Magill, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256. 
Richard Seban, EVP, $375,000 to $656,256. 
John Akeson, SVP, $300,000 to $480,000. 
Steven Birgfeld, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000. 
Martha Ross, SVP, $240,000 to $360,000. 
Rob Kissick, SVP, $182,000 to $273,008.

 This looks like Bain capitalism at it's worst. Cut pensions and wages for the workers and increase wages and benefits for the executives, then use bankruptcy as a bargaining tool during contract negotiations. In March of this year, Brian Driscoll, CEO for Hostess resigns his position in fear that the company will go bankrupt again and be forced to sell off its assets.This is  when the Union should have done their financial homework by reading the yearly financial report each company has to furnish to it's stockholders. There is a time to strike and walk a picket line but this wasn't one of them. Union members thought the first time bankruptcy bluff was the same the second time around. Most seem to go on the assumption that the company would fold over and give in to their proposals. If they would have been more financially schooled on the profitability of their company they would have made concessions to their already dismal outlook.
 For 30 years I was a member of a Union and they have their good and bad points. I've been on strike and walked a picket line in the cold and I can say it's not a glamorous thing to do. I've been through layoffs, downsizing and hour reductions. I've seen company buyouts and management changes. I'm sure those Union members at Hostess have seen the same things over the years. What I don't understand is that they knew this was coming and they decided to go forward with the strike and risk all they had as far as wages and benefits go. A strike is never a good thing to do unless you know in all certainty that you have the upper hand  otherwise your just walking on the street with no paycheck. Who's to blame for the Twinkie demise and the fall of Hostess........everyone that worked for the company. There was no right or wrong side but there are winners and losers and the winners will walk away with money in their bank account while the losers walk away to the unemployment line. So be the death of the American "Twinkie" icon.

Will the Twinkie live on? Possibly under the guise of another snack company but if it does will it hold the same iconic state of it's past? We'll just have to wait and see, until then, gather up your boxes of golden creamy treasure cause the once mighty Hostess which was ran by a bunch of Ding Dongs and Twinkies has been chewed up and devoured by it's own greed and lack of restraint.

Rest in peace, Twinkie the Kid

Life's A Ditch: If You're Water

It's time once again to voice my opinion on something that has turned the corner of Third St. and Highway 11 into a flood zone. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about doing things within the city limits and as I can tell, what began as a project to remove a building has turned one of the lots on Third St. into a storm water diverting monster. Anyone familiar with the area will know that Johnny Kelley owns the lots between Third and Forth St. along Highway 11 where Kelley's Trucks and More has a business. A couple years ago the church building that sat on the corner of Third St. and Highway 11 was razed. After the removal of the debris, fill material was hauled in to raise the level of the lot to be level with the highway leaving the property line on the north and east sides lower than the lot on which the material was laid. The lot is now used for parking vehicles and trailers from the Kelley business. The leveling of the lot has changed the water drainage flow which takes in all of the water shed from Fifth St. to Third St. along  the north side of Highway 11. What used to be a ditch along the north side of the highway  to Third St has been removed in front of the Kelly property and all water flowing to the Third St. drainage whistle now diverts from in front of the Kelley business north up the alley until it reaches the property line where the fill was ended to level the property. the water then travels east passing through the yard of Lori Mayfield where it pools to form a small lake in her front yard. When her front yard fills to capacity it begins to flow east over Third St. and onto the properties  of the Catholic Church and down my front walk and driveway. There is a huge drainage whistle that sits at the corner of Third St. and Highway 11, very little of the water drains into it cause the ditch on the east side of the Kelly property was removed and now is used by vehicles as a place to turn around. In fact there are no ditches that go to the drainage whistle at that corner. Any remaining ditch that does exist doesn't drain cause of the elevation. The city recently came down and tried to remedy the problem by placing an undersized whistle in front of Mayfields property and hoping that the water would run north to the Chestnut drainage whistle. In all effort this was a major FAIL which was realized in the last rain. it doesn't take an engineer to see that water doesn't flow uphill. Why try to make water go uphill for 150 ft into a half plugged whistle on Chestnut when you can go 50 ft. to a 36" whistle that's not plugged  and all you have to do is dig a ditch that was once there, before it was covered over. From what I've seen this type of thing happens all over Barnsdall. Do the city workers or council not know the requirements for doing the job right the first time? If so, then this water drainage problem on Third St, or any other street would have never happened. The (BCO) Barnsdall City Ordinances cover many things on this subject. None of which I know of have been followed. from the diverting of storm water to other properties to using the wrong size whistles on drainage ditches. So what have the families in this area done about the situation? They have talked with the Mayor and city workers numerous times and what have they received in return...more storm water.

I'll tell ya.....life's a DITCH!!!

Water coming across Third St onto the front walk

Water coming from across Third St. down the driveway.

A few days after the rain  the water is still standing. Also note the new turn around that people use instead of going through the car wash.