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Good day Tom,
your phrase "Fate plays its funny hand..." reminded me of the opening voiceover by actor/announcer William Conrad for each episode of
The Fugitive telly series where the phrase was "fate moves its huge hand..."
OT -
regarding aviation - j
me father taught at two flight schools that i know of
one was located in Hemet California
the other was called Falcon Field and was located in Arizona
he taught British pilots who nicknamed him "binder" for being strict
...all he could do to try to keep them safe when sent into action was give the best training possible...
his students created a newsletter in later times as a means to stay in touch, my dad received it for many years, was published intermittently whenever there was enough material for an issue. it eventually stopped coming to the house about a dozen years back as even the youngest of his pupils dropped away...
yes, they flew the AT-6 Texan, an armed version was used for combat in the early part of the war in the Pacific. The AT-6 also served "hack" duty at air bases for target towing and the like - where the pilots were distaffers.
this image illustrates four of the many liveries for the AT-6 -
we have some framed photos of them in the family memorabilia
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the Hampden also saw service in the Indo-Pacific theatre where rising sun pilots referred to the type as
The Whispering Death -
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