Newport Field Memories

      CASU-29 was sending maintenance people to Newport Field almost on a daily basis toward the end of the war in support of flight training for Air Group 97.  They were teaching Avenger pilots to perform a glide bombing attack profile, or trying to anyway.  Maybe it was too close to dive bombing and the TBM was not suitable for that.  An F6F from VF-97 was also lost in that summer of 1945 due to engine failure. The pilot bailed out safely, and the airplane glided into a pasture and burned.

     At one time in 1945 there was a group of German POW's stationed somewhere at Newport.  Apparently they did some of the chores at Grosse Ile, and did their own cooking.  Our transport to and from Grosse Ile was by one of those big staff cars that would do 60 mph wide open, and 65 if you cared to pull out the choke.

Signed William Y. Sayers