Talk:Commemorative Air Force

message: George W. Bush (later president 43) grew up in Midland.
When CAF moved to Midland, George H. W. Bush was president 41.
Co-incidence?
On the other hand, Midland probably has a dry climate suitable for the preservation of historic aircraft. —the preceding unsigned comment is by 203.12.97.47 (talk • contribs) 04:29, 24 November 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: * has pic
* has multiple links, internal and external
* has sections headings and refs
* has sub-headings
Meets one of the four.LanceBarber 05:06, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Updated to B-class and mid importance, meets all for LanceBarber 07:35, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rating now Start 

message: Aren't all the members (officers? disciples?)named as honourary Colonels? Think it is worth a mention, but I'm not sure of my facts. Epeeist smudge 14:27, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Almost right... but those "Colonels" pay BIG bucks, thousands, for the rank, and plus they have to be certified pilots, and pay for the training for the aircraft they will be flying.   Someone will have the answer for us. LanceBarber 07:20, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

text: Not so, Lance. Anyone with money can become a "Colonel." $160/year. CAF membership page All members are "Colonels" expressly so that no member outranks another. Uncle Milty 15:48, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  colonels 

message: Wiki-commons do not have much on CAF, is there anyone out there that would like to donate and upload some pics of CAF's aircraft so we can enhance the article.?? LanceBarber 07:20, 15 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  photos 

message: This article does an incredibly poor job of addressing the controversy surrounding the CAF's name and the organization's history.  While the name "Confederate Air Force" was indeed always used as a tongue-in-cheek moniker, the association with the Confederacy and the 'South' in general was much stronger than depicted in this article.  An entire 'myth' was developed about the CAF and its founder and leader, Colonel Beauregard CULPEPER--   not "Throckmorton," as the article currently inaccurately and oddly states.  Culpeper was a white-bearded, General Robert E. Lee look-alike.  The women's auxillary was known as "Culpeper's Angels." Early Air Shows (before the 'Airsho' age) featured raids by "yankee" aircraft.  CAF colonels' uniforms had a large confederate flag on their back, and a common variant of officers' pinned-on 'wings' was a set of wings with a rebel flag in the center.  The organization was not racist, openly or otherwise, but it was overwhelmingly white and southern, and made no apologies about its symbolic association with southern heritage, which to members was all in good fun.
As the CAF expanded further and further beyond Texas and the deep south, and as public sentiment in the U.S. about depiction of Confederate imagery changed, the flag and other items were perceived by some members to become liabilities.  Generational change played a role in this as well, as the actual WW II generation began retiring from active membership and younger men largely took over.  The flag on the uniform was the first to go.  Older members still proudly wore their old uniforms at Airshos, but newer members were issued grey uniforms with no flags.  The airman's 'wings' were then changed, and finally all Confederate imagery was removed from official material, although the name remained.  Colonel Culpeper receded further into the background and was, de facto, retired as well.
Finally, after acrimonious debate, the name was changed.  Many members, maybe even a majority, opposed this nod to political correctness, but the organization's leaders were concerned that in the 21st Century, the ability to attract needed revenue and the public's good graces was more important than historical legacy.  The "Al Sharpton" argument factored prominently in this decision, as in--  it only takes one Al Sharpton to choose to make an issue out of the name for the CAF's reputation to be permanently trashed. 
That was it.  The old name was gone, the organization had radically changed, the old Headquarters at Harlingen had been abandoned for Midland, and the Airshos were changed as well. The end of an era.
A final point--  CAF planes did NOT feature a USAF star and roundel on one side and a Confederate flag on the other, unless a few planes were painted this way in the earliest days of the organization.  I have seen pictures of the P-51 and P-38 in old, white CAF schemes with a stylized CAF logo featuring the flag on the tail, but those dates from the 1960s when the CAF was still very small.
When I get a chance, I'll revise the article.
How I'd love to go back in time and see one of the late 1980s Airshows, when the emphasis was on large-scale WWII recreated battles and the CAF was still chock-full of German aircraft for the recreations; incredible! 169.253.4.21 (talk) 21:42, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree 100% with your point, and I'll add this to it.  The whole idea behind the name was, as the founding members were beginning their search for aircraft (along about the time they were bidding on the two F8F Bearcats surplused by the Navy--they began by attempting to obtain at least one example of each major fighter type used by the U.S. Army Air Forces and Navy/Marines), they (as the article mentions) discovered no attempt was being made by the U.S. Government to coordinate the preservation of any WWII type aircraft for museum purposes.  What they came across was, literally, wholesale mass distruction of the vast aerial armada the nation had produced in the form of surplus sales to salvage scrap metal dealers.  All of the original members had been, in some capacity, associated with these aircraft during the war, and their mass distruction sans any sense of posterity angered them.  Also, the group were all "southern gentlemen" from the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, and it struck them that the orders to destroy the aircraft had come from the "Yankees" in Washington, D.C.!  Thus the notion of a "rebellion" against those orders spawned the association with the Confederacy.  I can't remember how many times I read this story in CAF publications of the late 1960s and 1970s.  And as TexxasFinn points out, a grand lore grew from these humble beginnings.  I have to disagree, though, about the Commander's name.  As I remember it, his name was "Jethro T. Culpepper."  Way back somewhere in my garage, I still have some copies of some of the CAF's brochures of the 1970s (I know I have one advertising "Airshow '73" which I am thankful I was able to attend at Harlingen).  I'll try to dig them out to check the C.O.'s name for sure, but I'd bet money on "Jethro T. Culpepper."  I understand why they did it (money...in this day and age, in aviation everything is ALWAYS about the money!), but it was truly a sad day when the CAF gave up the name "Confederate Air Force."192.100.69.146 (talk) 07:30, 2 July 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  From what I have been able to find and research -- and gleaned from a few members --  the so-called "majority vote" (which was about 54%)for the name change, was largely due to the fact more and more wings were based, and members coming from, non-Southern states.  Thus -- along with the fear of loss of funding from corporate sponsors squeamish about the name -- what started as a little "tongue in cheek" joke, and lead to a proud tradition, became a casualty of political-correctness.  From what I heard, some members resigned in disgust.  And a few of them said along the lines of "Given how it came about, if there was going to be a name change, then it ought to have been to 'Cowardly Air Force'."    Hey, it occurred to me that maybe to start another "tongue in cheek" joke that will lead to another proud tradition in lines of the original?  Well, perhaps the Southern state wings should "secede" from the "Commemorative Air Force" and the "Rebels" re-assume its original and proper name:  The Confederate Air Force! TexasReb (talk) 21:38, 26 February 2014 (UTC)
replies: text:  They were right to change the name, and it was definitely the correct thing to do.  And it's a story too old to even discuss. 98.194.39.86 (talk) 00:44, 18 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confederate Imagery 

message: This seems to be a long list of relatively little (notable) content, could it be precised?GraemeLeggett (talk) 18:05, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Squadron listing 

message: wasn't the CAF started with a P-51 and not a P-40? Wingman1 (talk) 02:37, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I just checked their history page, and it looks like you are correct. I'll fix that (and the expired ref link). --| Uncle Milty | talk | 11:47, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: CAF origins

message: According to Martin Caidin's book Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, the CAF has - or, at least, had - a P-38 Lightning amongst their craft when they were operating out of Rebel Field.
Does anyone know if they still have it - or, if not, what happened to it?
--Special Operative MACAVITYDebrief me 07:10, 18 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: CAF aircraft listing

message: Is there any connection to the "Confederate Air Force" organized by Col. J.W. “Mike” Holton and Col. Albert T. McSorley in 1946, apparently once based at New Bern's Coastal Carolina Regional Airport?--Pharos (talk) 23:07, 11 July 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: No. No idea what the 1946 thing was about, but it has zero connection with Lloyd Nolan, Lefty Gardner, and the CAF in south Texas in the 60's. 169.252.4.22 (talk) 12:10, 17 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  1946 North Carolina-based CAF? 

message: Two terms/phrases/names/titles are used without explanation, definition, or clarification.
First, who or what is the "Tora! Tora! Tora! Gang"?::'They' are only mentioned in the captions of two photos.
Second, what is the "Ghost Squadron"?::It's mentioned once in a paragraph near the end of the article.
The expansion, and inclusion, of these two items would, I think, add to this already interesting article/entry.  2600:8800:50B:6700:C23F:D5FF:FEC5:89B6 (talk) 01:38, 11 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  What are these? 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This needs to be in the article:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dallas-air-show-crash-world-war-ii-military-aircraft-texas/ Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 03:49, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: The crash has been in the article since yesterday. BilCat (talk) 04:02, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
replies: text:  Sorry, I didn't see it down there under "incidents".  I thought it might be more prominent.  (They are all fatal crashes.) Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 04:54, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: No worries. BilCat (talk) 05:09, 14 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Crash in the news