By Bill Laux (then LTJG, USN) Patrol Squadron FIFTY (VP-50), under CDR C. J. “Dino” Economou, was scheduled to begin the last PBM-5S2 deployment from NAS Alameda, CA, to NAS Iwakuni, Japan, on 2 January 1956, to relieve VP-48, which was also deployed from Alameda, and which operated the newer P5M-1 flying boat. The practice [...]
Winter 2011
History of the Mariners and Marlin in the U.S. Coast Guard
Official History USCG (uscg.mil) Martin PBM-3/5 Mariner The Coast Guard acquired 27 Martin PBM-3 during the first half of 1943. In late 1944, the service acquired 41 PBM-5 models and more were delivered in the latter half of 1945. Ten were still in service in 1955 although all were gone from the inventory by 1956. [...]
Fall 2011
It’s wearisome, but Air Patrols Vital To Interdict Foe’s Seaborne Supplies
By Don Dedera, Arizona Republic, April 4, 1966 ABOVE THE GULF OF SIAM— To port broods a snappish tropical squall, and to starboard loom the opaque peaks of Phu Quoc Island. Between the two ominous shapes, the little Martin P5M seaplane pursues a hairline radar course, across a chart tangled with disputed international boundaries. For [...]
Fall 2011
Hurricane Flying
by Taylor McConnell During 1943, Patrol Bomber Squadron VP-206 (later VPB-206) was stationed at Coco Solo Naval Air Station, Panama. Flying Martin “Mariner” PBM-3s’s, we were engaged in tracking down German U-boats in the Caribbean. But part of the Squadron was deployed to an advanced base in Corinto, Nicaragua, on the Pacific Coast. From there [...]
Summer 2011
1950 PBM Mariner Aircraft Art
by Ned Norris My brother Jack Norris known as “Jock” in VP46 had joined the Navy 2 years prior to me. When the Korean War broke out in 1950 I was completing my sophomore year in college. I joined with hope of serving with my brother. After completing my schools I was assigned to the [...]
Spring 2011
The $5,000.00 Photograph
Irvin S. Copper The young guy in the helmet, goggles, and white scarf, was me as a Cadet in January, 1944. It was a photograph taken by the Navy just before we received our wings as U.S. Naval Aviators. The photograph was made for the Navy files, in the event I became a war hero [...]
