2015.6.1

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1
This was perhaps the very best photo we ever got of those very special few F-94Bs, the las actual B's to come from Lockheed's production line, according to their dated serial numbers. These long-nosed F-94Bs had an early 60mm cannon installed asymmetrically in the forward nose (somewhat like the B-25s with big 75mm cannon of some years ago)! The early version of the 65mm "Vulcan" rapid-fire cannon was not well-known, and we never armed them while our Mass Air Guard flew these long-nosed variants of the Lockheed "Starfires". They also mounted two cal.50 machine guns, mounted high in that long nose. The gun ports provided a perfect place to paint on "eyes" for the tiger shark motif that we designed! We flew tow of these critters: S/N 15500 flew out of Logan Airport (East Boston), #15501 flew with the 131 FITRON (based at Barnes Airport, Westfield, MA in 1955-7.)! Only our plane #15500 ever received the guard "tiger shark" nose art! By the year 1958 or Air Guard Mission Syllabus changed, and we became an element of Tactical Air Command, were given F-86H "Saberjets", which our pilots loved. The 86s stayed with us through our Federalization and flight to France in NOV. 1961. Air Trails' artist Douglass Rolfe drew them for an F-94B series, indicating S/N 15503, so there likely were 4 "langnases" (we had our own irreverent nickname for them (Needle Peter, et al")

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2
It was May, 1954 on Paulsen's very first jet flight. We had these F-94Bs two weeks and already they had MASS ANG emblazoned on their fuselages. We were near Orleans beaches when I shot this from high altitude. Too much haze today, but we'd try one with Infrared sheet film anyway. That shot remains the best we ever made, PERIOD. (Good luck, nice composition, AND excellent haze penetration) Note the 94 with #15414; that would be our mount for much of 1954 Worldwide Gunnery Meet, and it would also be the last F-94B we'd ever get to fly in.
During Paulsen's FIRST Flight in a jet plane, May 1954, we were seen over Cape Cod Canal in F-94B!!

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3
Lt. Shea leaves us alone in the skies near Otis AFB, as we head the F-94C back to Logan, completing Paulsen's last flight in fighters!! (well, my last at least, in the F-94C STARFIRE all-weather machines! Yep, this I really can think of as a "farewell shot"!!! Shea was returning back to Otis AFB, while we landed at Boston that day (1957). Very soon thereafter we rcvd. NA-built F-86H SABERJETS for TAC Mission! The fat F-86Hs stayed with MASS ANG until mid-60s, when lack of spares caused TAC to give the Air Guard boys Republic F-84Fs, which they liked.

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4
LEFT: NYC skyline, seen from our TB-25K over New Jersey, as we flew toward Baltimore, MD (1954) Oh, was it NOISY IN THIS B-25!!!! These are simple contact prints from my big 4x5" negatives.
This was next day after having "silent" flight in one of our Lockheed F-94Bs! Was that B-25 LOUD? ---Yeah, it was!!
RIGHT: On Paulsen's first jet ride, I was in an F-94B, s/ 50867. This "Starfire" was part of a cy. 1950 contract, as we learn from the ")" in its serial number. Some of the 94s were given may be earlier "As", by their 1949 serial #s.
My wide-angle lens made a fair image of old #0867's starboard wingtip tank, as we orbited at medium altitude over my hometown, thanks to Andy Marshall; later we shot his home in Ashmont (Dorchester). We see Montvale AV, Green ST fork, tec.
This was the day of Paulsen's FIRST-ever flight in a near-silent Lockheed "Starfire", the F-94B "all-weather" fighter, so-called!
LEFT: In 1951, during Korean War we stayed at home; here the C-47 was used to get air view of MASS ANG for some magazine! We still had a few of the lousy old F-84Bs then! (4x5" contact from my negative). The replacement fighters would be North American F-51H "Mustangs"!!!
Of course, all of our 101st FITRON pilots were heart-broken to receive "old" F-51Hs!

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5
RIGHT: I really had to study the print to figure out what airport I had shot here. I forgot that Revere Airport had a crosswind runway, until now!!! (1950)
This shot was made out of the glassed nose of our ex-USAAF Douglass A-26C attack bomber - Guard Bureau allowed us to have two of these!!! #204 was flown the most, while the older A-26B (w/solid nose) was a "hangar queen", we recall!! We soon lost these planes to "Korean War" effort.
RIGHT: Then-Captain Andrew Marshall said his house was below us; we're over Ashmont section of Dorchester in the F-94B, as we make this high oblique air view. The big 4x5" neg. is quite sharp, shows much of MTA's Red Line Rapid Transit terminal, incidentally. Not much can be seen in this crummy contact print. I've almost include the F-94Bs wing tank here.

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6
ABOVE: Back in the good ole days when we flew often in the F-94Bs we saw this formation of early STARFIRES forming up to head out over ocean in hope of a "meet" with Captain Allan Villiers in his MAYFLOWER TWO replica of the little caravel that the Pilgrims once used to come to Plymouth, MA. Nope, none of us could find that tiny boat in the heavy heat haze that covered the coastline!!!
The Air Policemen seen below we knew well, they often smoothed out sticky situations when we'd find ourselves in "security areas"!!!! Nice to have friends, eh! This photo was printed in National Guardsman magazine, came out well!!!! Flash-fill lighting was imperative, or their faces would be lost in halftone repro---! Freddie DeGrappo, at right, now runs GENERAL STORE in Maynard, up the hill from ALLEN Pommer's place in Maynard, MA-small world, eh wot, gov'nr???

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7
LEFT: Otis AFB looked like it did in WW2 when we first used the place for Summer Camp in year 1954. Our last use of Grenier AFB came the previous year. Newly-given to Air Guard was area to be known as Permanent Training Site (PTS), which one day would be site of our Logan-based 101FITRON, 102ND Grps.
RIGHT: That F-94B to left in picture, s/n 50867, was the first pure jet that Paulsen ever got a ride in, and I loved that 1st flight!!!!!! It was May, 1954, and we only had the STARFIRES for a few weeks, yet we already were flying them all the time!
BELOW: W/O Mr. Brennan was our 102ND bandmaster; he was a "pro", as were every man in this band!!! They "serenaded" us each noontime during the chow session nearby.

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8
MASS AIR GUARD flew later Lockheed F-94Cs briefly in 1957, such as the beauty seen in my cloudscape at Otis AFB, MA (photo made during Summer Camp at Otis, JUL. 1957). The further STARFIRE in this photo was #576, which was one s/n ahead of the 94C at Bradley Air Museum (Windsor Locks, CT)!! I sat in that plane recently; how nice!!!! Very few of our F-94Cs ever even had MASS ANG painted on fuselage; this was one.

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9
Unwashed proofs of our lost F-94B, s/n 15414, after salt-water dunking at end of Logan's runway 4R in 1955. (Getting brown due to "sulfide toning"-yeah!)

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10
Wingtip tank on starboard wing was lost (not found, wither!). Here #414 was drug (no, it's DRAGGED) up onto dry runway land in sight of Winthrop, MA. Plane will never fly again!! Salt water ruins delecate electronic components, so it's JUNK now!!!