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Charles N Baisden | Charles N Baisden Chuck Baisden was born in 1920 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1939, and by late 1940 he found himself working with aircraft such as the P-36, P-40, YP-37 and Bell Airacuda. When he joined the AVG in 1941, he had his reasons.... 'I went from making $72 a month in the Army to $350 a month with the Flying Tigers. That was a lot of money in those days.' The new job also provided him an opportunity to travel and work in his field as an ordnance expert and he was assigned to the Hells Angles squadron, to put his talents to good use. One of the youngest to join the AVG, he remembers 'I had just turned twenty-one in March before leaving for China in May of 1941.. just bought my first beer.' After the AVG, Chuck re-enlisted. He entered pilot training school and it was back to China, now part of the famed 1st Air Commando Group. He eventually flew 58 missions as Engineer / Turret gunner of a B-25 squadron, one of whose pilots was R T Smith, a close friend from his AVG days. After WWII, he flew as a B-29 gunner in the Korean War. By 1960 he had completed some 815 refuelling missions, and in 1964 he retired from the Air Force. |
Items Signed by Charles N Baisden |
  | Shark Sighting by John D Shaw. Price : £400.00 | Before the pilots of the legendary American Volunteer Group could take to the skies against the enemy, the all-important task of Bore Sighting the .30 caliber wing guns of their P-40s had to take place! The ingenious armourers of the AVG were often ...... |
