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since LCMCD was considered a VETERAN C-47 IS BEING PREPARED Public Aircraft Operator, the aircraft FOR THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE was never “civilianized” to a DC-3. D-DAY INVASION I recently made a visit to see the C-47 and check on the restoration BY RALPH M. PETTERSEN progress. Walking onto the Turin ramp, he folks at Turin Aviation Group have made signifi- it was obvious that much progress had cant progress on the restoration of former Lee County been made. The aircraft had been paint- Mosquito Control District (LCMCD) Douglas C-47 ed in WWII Olive Drab/Neutral Gray N834M since my last visit in December 2017. After camouflage with D-Day invasion stripes. T The invasion stripes were painted on replacing their C-47 sprayers with turboprop DC-3-65TP air- craft, LCMCD donated N834M to the Wings of Dreams using brushes with no masking, much Aviation Museum at Keystone Heights in Starke, like it would have been done during , in early 2013. The aircraft had not flown since arriv- WWII. The exact paint color was based ing at the museum and it caught the attention of Turin on a panel found buried deep in the air- Aviation Group CEO Ed Franco, who thought it might be a craft’s fuselage and the painting was good candidate for restoration. done early in the project to allow it to weather a bit before the planned June 2019 departure for the “Daks Over Normandy” event. Final details still needed to be completed including the The wooden floor that was in the Gooney Bird has been removed and will be replaced with an authentic C-47 steel floor. A single paratrooper seat has been sourced and if stars and bars, mission panel, serial more can’t be found then Turin will replicate the others. (RMP) number and other markings.

Ed and a small team of mechanics got the aircraft airwor- thy and it was ferried from Keystone Heights to on 2 December 2017 by Frank and Glen Moss. In early 2018, Turin moved its base of operations to Zephyrhills Municipal Airport and on 22 February the C-47 While working on the interior, an original USAAF panel was made the short ferry flight to its new home. found buried in the structure. It was painted in wartime Olive Drab so it was used to determine the exact paint color. Hand- N834M was delivered to the USAAF during October brushed D-Day identification stripes had been added in this 1944 as 43-48950 and was assigned to the IX Troop photograph but the Stars and Bars were to come. (RMP) Carrier Command in Europe. In addition to carrying cargo and evacuating wounded soldiers throughout the ETO, the Mary Co-Ed II was a C-47 assigned to the 74th Troop Carrier Gooney dropped paratroopers in Operation Varsity during Squadron, 434th Troop Carrier Group, based at March 1945. Returning to the USA after the war, the Aldermaston, England. The aircraft displays its D-Day stripes and fuselage mission panel while parked C-47 served with the USAF until October 1968 when it at Mt. Farm, England, during Operation was transferred to the US Army to become part of that Overlord. (Robert L. Astrella via service’s small C-47 fleet. Finally retired by the military in Norm Taylor) Some of the items acquired by Ed Franco for the project. (RMP) 1975, N834M was one of a half-dozen C-47s acquired by LCMCD for conversion to mos- quito sprayers. It’s interesting to note that,

42 WARBIRDS INTERNATIONAL/October-November 2018 warbirdsintlnow.com 43