Dick Truesdale passes (Westside Model Company)
| March 07, 2015 02:36PM |
I just learned that Dick Truesdale died last month in Arizona. Born in 1923, he lived to the age of 91.
What he accomplished in those years is noteworthy. Modelers here will remember all of the imported brass that he brought back from the Orient.
Dick told me that it was something like 114,000 models. He & my dad were Pan American pilots at that time and Dick joked with my dad that the business was doing so well, that he, an airline Captain, had to retire because it was interfering with his business. Dick said that he grossed over a million dollars from this in 1977.
What Dick also should be known for is that he was an aviator. He grew up in Paso Robles and Dinuba, both CA towns. When WW2 came along, he ended up out in Baker, just east of Barstow and did some flying there.
He apparently then got his wings in the Navy, but wanted to see action as soon as he could and petitioned to switch services into the USMC. Once he did, he got a few hours in the infamous Brewster Buffalo, then the Douglas SBD that he liked, but ended up with over 700 hrs. in the Chance-Vought Corsair.
Dick was assigned to VMF-223 which had been the first Marine fighting squadron on Guadalcanal. By the time that he got there, the Army was using Henderson Field as a P-38 base. While laying over and waiting for transport up to Bougainville, he made friends with an Army pilot and ended up in the cockpit with the guy sitting out on the wing giving him instructions on how to get it off the ground. Good fortune left him here as another Army officer saw what was going on and put an end to that. Dick always regretted the lost opportunity to fly the Lightning.
Dick later flew out of Piva Yoke and Piva Uncle, 2 parallel fighter strips in Bougainville. They'd go up the Slot to Rabaul and bomb and strafe the Japanese airfield at Kerevat. Dick said that he'd be sitting at the end of the runway waiting for oil temps to come up and his plane captain would rush out in his jeep with a fried Spam sandwich for him. That and sometimes a Coke which he continued to like all his life.
Next was Samar in the Philippines where he bombed gun emplacements. The Marines were proud that they were hanging 1000 lb. bombs under their Corsairs, but Lindberg visited them and said that they could carry more. They changed the shackles and went to carrying a pair of them. I asked Dick how this worked and he laughed and said that they blew a lot of tires.
By 1945, his outfit was flying off of Okinawa in the new -4 model Corsair. Dick said that the extra 100 horses and 4 bladed prop made a big difference in performance. He escorted P-38 camera planes over Japan until the war ended.
After that, it was Pan Am, then being furloughed, an instructor at San Carlos, CA, the C-46 and DC-3, then a stint in the USAF flying the B-29 and B-47 and then Pan Am again.
If you ever met Dick, you couldn't help but like him. He was a man's man but humble too. He'd look you square in the eye and had a firm handshake. His word was good. I thought the world of him and am grateful for the visits and lunches that we had in 2007-08.
He leaves behind a wife and family that loved and admired him. It's easy for me to see why.
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2015 01:33PM by Tom Moungovan.
What he accomplished in those years is noteworthy. Modelers here will remember all of the imported brass that he brought back from the Orient.
Dick told me that it was something like 114,000 models. He & my dad were Pan American pilots at that time and Dick joked with my dad that the business was doing so well, that he, an airline Captain, had to retire because it was interfering with his business. Dick said that he grossed over a million dollars from this in 1977.
What Dick also should be known for is that he was an aviator. He grew up in Paso Robles and Dinuba, both CA towns. When WW2 came along, he ended up out in Baker, just east of Barstow and did some flying there.
He apparently then got his wings in the Navy, but wanted to see action as soon as he could and petitioned to switch services into the USMC. Once he did, he got a few hours in the infamous Brewster Buffalo, then the Douglas SBD that he liked, but ended up with over 700 hrs. in the Chance-Vought Corsair.
Dick was assigned to VMF-223 which had been the first Marine fighting squadron on Guadalcanal. By the time that he got there, the Army was using Henderson Field as a P-38 base. While laying over and waiting for transport up to Bougainville, he made friends with an Army pilot and ended up in the cockpit with the guy sitting out on the wing giving him instructions on how to get it off the ground. Good fortune left him here as another Army officer saw what was going on and put an end to that. Dick always regretted the lost opportunity to fly the Lightning.
Dick later flew out of Piva Yoke and Piva Uncle, 2 parallel fighter strips in Bougainville. They'd go up the Slot to Rabaul and bomb and strafe the Japanese airfield at Kerevat. Dick said that he'd be sitting at the end of the runway waiting for oil temps to come up and his plane captain would rush out in his jeep with a fried Spam sandwich for him. That and sometimes a Coke which he continued to like all his life.
Next was Samar in the Philippines where he bombed gun emplacements. The Marines were proud that they were hanging 1000 lb. bombs under their Corsairs, but Lindberg visited them and said that they could carry more. They changed the shackles and went to carrying a pair of them. I asked Dick how this worked and he laughed and said that they blew a lot of tires.
By 1945, his outfit was flying off of Okinawa in the new -4 model Corsair. Dick said that the extra 100 horses and 4 bladed prop made a big difference in performance. He escorted P-38 camera planes over Japan until the war ended.
After that, it was Pan Am, then being furloughed, an instructor at San Carlos, CA, the C-46 and DC-3, then a stint in the USAF flying the B-29 and B-47 and then Pan Am again.
If you ever met Dick, you couldn't help but like him. He was a man's man but humble too. He'd look you square in the eye and had a firm handshake. His word was good. I thought the world of him and am grateful for the visits and lunches that we had in 2007-08.
He leaves behind a wife and family that loved and admired him. It's easy for me to see why.
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2015 01:33PM by Tom Moungovan.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
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