Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Mick, my recollection was evergreen but maybe Corsair. From memory Evergreen did the conversion to U.S. registration and standards, then painted them in Navy colors. They were then contracted to the Navy for personnel transport. We sent a bunch of LAMES to Florida to do most of the work. They had a great time. We had Les Hong on the phone at least once a week. All of them were converted, kitted and repainted in navy colors at Ansetts expense. How do I know this? I was the one keeping track of LAME expenses, including telling the boys to get a few different receipt books and jumble up the receipt numbers a bit as I was finding it increasingly hard to ignore the sequential numbers in their expense accounts. This was before the use of credit cards.
They were CZA, etc. The Electras were RMA, etc. - Wombat Squadron.
Les Hong was an ex Boeing salesman and a personal friend of Rupert and Peter This whole operation was a “nice little earner”.
Interesting yarn. Very different times back then.
Having done a bit of poking around it looks like CZA, B, D and F initially ended up with the US Navy via
Marfreless/Corsair. The rest went to Midway. And when I say 'the rest' I had originally forgotten the final three AN DC-9s (they had a fleet of 12 in total) - CZJ, K and L.