Check here to see what's been added.
August 19, 2008: Added pictures of Lts. John Lally and Cornelius Montgomery to the page Men of VMTB-143 (1945). Added pictures to the page Clark Johnson, courtesy of his namesake nephew Clark Johnson.
Apr 27, 2008: Added a photo of Lt. MacKenzie to the page VMF-512, courtesy of his daughter Abby. Added a portrait photo of Lt. Leidecker to the page Men of VMTB-143 (1945). And added 14 new Bureau Numbers to the Corsair table of VMF-512 on the page Corsair Markings from Ron Spjeldet's pilot log book.
Jan 29, 2008: Added IDs for VMF-212 officers on the page Col. Campbell's Photos. Added pictures of Stanley Danielson and Eugene Ryder to the pages Sgt. Con Ward and 143_Enlisted. Added a new photo from 1952 to Vic Tatelman's Photos and added a website reference to his WW2 career on the page Vic Tatelman's B-25D.
Jan 23, 2008: Sadly added the names of Sgts. Seamands and Payne to the deceased list on the page Men of VMTB-143.
Dec 28, 2007: Corrected the spelling of VMF-512 pilot's name on the page VMF-512. Correct spelling is Kenith MacKenzie, per the squadron's 1945 Muster Roll. (Was spelled Kenith McKenzie).
Dec 24, 2007: Noted the death of Sgt. Seamands on the page VMTB-143 Photo Albums.
Nov 26, 2007: Made new web pages VMTB-143 Photo Albums, MCVG-2 Photo Albums and USN Photo Albums. The majority of their content was previously at the bottom of the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945. The split off was long overdue and hopefully makes it easier to find the veterans' contributions. Added new photo contributions about John Worlund and KO Misamore to the VMTB-143 Photo Albums page. Added more images to the photo album pages of Fritz Liebich and Casey Stalnaker on Panerai Replica VMTB-143 Photo Albums page. Added new content for Col. Campbell on the MCVG-2 Photo Album page.
Nov 21, 2007: Added a new page Tom Liggett's Photos.
Nov 13, 2007: Made several changes related to VMF-512. There's a new page Hellcat markings; the 512 veterans' photos were split off from VMF-512 and made into a new page VMF-512 Photo Albums. Added new photo material from 512 pilots Ron Spjeldet, Jack Moss and Rod Johnson to this page. Lt. Johnson's collection numbers over 150 photos by itself. Added photos of JD Hembree and Joseph Januszewski to the page VMF-512.
Oct 27, 2007: Added a new page devoted to the TBM-3s of VMTB-143 called TBM Markings. Nose art, bureau numbers and the white recognition stripes are featured.
Sept 28, 2007: Added a new page Corsair Markings describing markings and nose art of VMF-512 Corsairs. On the page VMF-512 I corrected the F4U standard war load.
Aug 14, 2006: Added a photo gallery of studio portraits of some VMTB-143 officers to the page Men of VMTB-143.
June 25, 2006: Added a photo contribution for Lt. Robert Cox to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
June 13, 2006: Added Lt. Virgil Koenig's photos to the VMF-512 page
June 4, 2006: Unfortunately the Guest Book was being attacked regularly by internet parasites spreading porn links and messages. I've had to remove the option which allowed anyone to make an entry via the internet. Visitor's comments are encouraged but now made via an email to me.
May 16, 2006: Added new content to the page Vic Tatelman's Stories about the naming of Dirty Dora.
May 13, 2006: Added a new web page Vic Tatelman's Stories. Mr. Tatelman writes about Dirty Dora II.
April 10, 2006: Added Lt. Morris Hitson's photo to the page VMF-512. Added a large photo contribution for Capt. Stalnaker to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
Feb 26, 2006: Made substantial changes and added new images to the page Alex Raymond's USMC Art. My thanks to Carol Liebmann and Scott Fulwood for their contributions.
Feb 25, 2006: Added new photos to the page John Loisel's P-38. Scroll down to the paragraph "In 2006...".
Feb 24, 2006: Added more photos to Press Adams' gallery on the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945 . Also on the same page added new photo sections for Art Elias and Eldon 'Fred' Fulwood.
Jan 24, 2006: Added another picture of my father to the Home page. Corrected the spelling of Chancel Hall on Men of VMTB-143 (was Chancal). Added names to Vic Tatelman's Photos.
Sept. 6, 2005: The format of the Guest Book was changed and it now shows the most recent comment at the top. My thanks to Bart Liebmann.
Aug 31, 2005: Added photo section for Robert Graves to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
Aug 26, 2005: Added photo sections for Ed Leidecker and Thomas Faull to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
July 27, 2005: Added Sgt. Boyd's funeral card and more pictures from Lt. Whalen to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945. Added a crew assignment table to the page VMTB 143 1945.
July 25, 2005: Updated the page VMF-512 with new content and photos. Added an image to the page Top Gun F-5E.
July 17, 2005: Updated the home page to reflect the history of the USS Gilbert Islands and her 2 Marine Corps squadrons, VMTB-143 and VMF-512.
July 12, 2005: Added a new page Vic Tatelman's Photos. See photos of his famous 'Dirty Dora' and 'Dirty Dora II' Air Apaches B-25s.
Dec 31, 2004: Released the web page VMF-512 and 5 pages of related images from individual contributors.
Dec 24, 2004: Added new biographical notes for the contributors on the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
Dec 20, 2004: Added four photo contributions to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945 and added new photos to Charlie Hoke's section. Added new enlisted man images to the page VMTB-143 1945. Added a new image to the page Alex Raymond's USMC Art.
Dec 11, 2004: Added a new page, Tom Liggett.
Oct 1, 2004: Added new names to the page VMTB-143 1945.
Sept 6, 2004: Added photos from Ft. Scott National Cemetery to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
May 16, 2004: Added new images to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945 and the enlisted man's gallery on VMTB-143. Added a new page, Alex Raymond's USMC Art.
March 31, 2004: Added new images to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
March 28, 2004: Added a new page with maps and photos detailing the 1945 journey of the USS Gilbert Islands. Get there via the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
March 27, 2004: Added new images to the enlisted man's photo page accessed from the VMTB-143 1945 page.
March 16, 2004: Added new images to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945, and to the enlisted man's photo collage accessed via the page VMTB-143 1945.
March 12, 2004: Added photos from several contributors to the pages USS Gilbert Islands 1945 and VMTB-143 1945. Added photos to John Loisel's P38 page and Will Van Dyke's FJ-3 page.
Jan 31, 2004: The copyright notice on the homepage was being ignored. In response to seeing electronic images from this website appear elsewhere without my permission (and without any acknowledgement as to the source) I have reluctantly added a copyright notice to the images themselves. The notice applies to the electronic images on my site, which I created myself.
Jan 23, 2004: Added a sad note to the page Top Gun F-5E.
Jan 18, 2004: Added new images to the Enlisted Men's photo page on VMTB-143 1945/2003.
Dec 5, 2003: Added more images to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
Nov 1, 2003: Added more images to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
Oct 16, 2003: Added images of 475th FG and 432nd FS insignia to John Loisel's P38 page.
Oct 12, 2003: Added new content to the pages USS Gilbert Islands 1945 and VMTB-143 1945/2003.
Sept. 27, 2003: Added more images to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
Sept. 23, 2003: Added new content to the pages USS Gilbert Islands 1945 and VMTB-143 1945/2003.
Sept. 19, 2003: Added 2 new images to the P-47N page. Added Pilot Log pages to USS Gilbert Islands 1945 page.
August 26, 2003: I've added more content to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
July 14, 2003: Added additional content to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945.
July 3, 2003: Added additional content to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945. Added photos of enlisted men to VMTB-143 1945/2003 page
June 29, 2003: Added many new pictures to the page USS Gilbert Islands 1945. Added photos of enlisted men to VMTB-143 1945/2003 page.
June 19, 2003: Added squadron photo and updated the list of officer's names on VMTB-143 1945/2003 page.
May 31, 2003: Added new information courtesy of Tom Cleaver for the camouflage pattern on Tuck's Spitfire Mk.Vb page.
May 11 2003: Added new information about Alex Raymond's "Rip Kirby" comic strip to John Lally's TBM page.
May 9 2003: Added the page VMTB-143 1945/2003. If you were in the squadron on the USS Gilbert Islands tour please look here and send me a note.
Apr 8 2003: The original Plane Fun web site outgrew the 10Mb limit for free web space at Cox Cable and was moved to this site.
Apr 4 2003: I added a wartime photo of the P-47N "2 BIG and TOO HEAVY" to the P-47N page. A new paragraph was added to Vic Tatelman's B-25D page.
Feb 22 2003: The What's New? page was added.
Feb 5 2003: The host website servers at Cox Cable went down and all the web pages were reentered. The dates on all pages went to Feb 5 even though there were no changes. Guest comments entered in Jan 2003 were lost.
Feb 1 2003: Pages added were
USS Gilbert Islands 1945
Clark Johnson
Dec 28 2002: Pages added were
B-25J Betty's Dream
P-51D
A-36 Apache
P-40N Warhawk
P-47N
F-106 Delta Dart
Nov 25 2002: The site opened with the initial pages
Home
Viewing This Site
Vic Tatelman's B25D
John Lally's TBM
John Loisel's P38
Will Van Dyke's FJ-3
Top Gun F-5E
A-10 Warthog
Tuck's Spitfire Mk.Vb
Guestbook