Flight 19 Lost Squadron 75th Anniversary Tribute AM 1/48 TBF-1C Avenger
As noted with Chuck Villanueva's post the lost of Flight 19 to this day remains a mystery.
The Men: Cpt George W. Stivers Jr. was born in Piedmont , Missouri in 1920 and was a graduate of the US Navel Academy. He would serve with the 1st Raider Battalion in the Pacific and saw action on Tarawa and was cited for gallantry while on Guadalcanal. Upon returning to the states became a aviation cadet and when assigned to pilot FT-117 he had obtained 347 flight hours.
PVT. Robert P. Gruebel,was born in 1927 on Long Island, NY and joined the Marine Reserves in 1944. After training he was transferred to NAS Lauderdale and was the bombardier on FT-117. He was 18 years old when lost.
Sgt. Robert F. Gullivan was born in 1924 and held from Northampton, Mass. He was avetern of Guadalcanal, Bougainville and Tarawa. He would make it NSA Lauderdale to train as a gunner and assigned to FT-117 on that fateful training flight.
The Kit: Once again this AM TBF-1c was build OOB with a after market seat and nylon thread for antenna wire. The pilot figures are from the Tamiya Naval Pilot set in 1/48 scale. Lots of little parts to assemble, somewhat of a challenge for me. Once a mask was used for all that glass.
Nice build! Adding the crew photos is a great idea.
Very nice! Clean and a nice paint job.
Great job Tom!
Perfect build, Tom.
Very nice to see those men prepare their flight.
The diorama setting is perfect for your two contributions. Super-nice work Tom.
Great build Tom!
Gorgeous figure work! Love the Avenger build too- congrats!
Great work, Tom. Those figures really compliment the plane.
I’ve really enjoyed looking through these builds in retrospect, Tom. It seems a long time since David came up with the idea for the project. In some ways the year-long delay made it more poignant getting us to a significant anniversary! You’ve done a stunning job on both! I just wanted to thank you again for for stepping in to do the second build - you really brought the mini-group home in style!
Another excellent build, Tom! This time a "diorama style".
I have to admit that looking at your pilots, as they were studying the map, was emotionally moving...
Great job, Tom. Adding the figs was the right move.
Thanks for stepping if for David.
Very nice build and fine work on the figures. The model, diorama and history really add depth to the tribute project. The AM Avenger demands quite a lot of careful work from the modeler and you have done a super job.
Capt. Stivers is a distant cousin of mine, and I discovered this post while doing some follow-up research on him. You did an exceptional job on this and you should be proud of it. Thank you for this wonderful tribute to Capt. Stivers and his crew!