Lady and Gentlemen,
I browsed this thread, with great interest, about a year ago. My dad was also at 5 BFTS, albeit somewhat later than Ian and Liz's fathers and was on the last course (No 25) to undertake and, mostly, complete their training, some of it during the wind-down of the BFTSs following the end of the war.
Like Chris (SinglePin post 20) I have also visited Riddle Field by air. The first time (Cessna 172) was in December 1984 when most of the buildings on the domestic site had been demolished some years earlier to prevent the site's use as a "corrective institution", however, the swimming pool guard house and some other obvious wartime buildings still existed. The airfield was then little used as Clewiston Municipal Airport existed pretty much within the city boundary at the west end.
My second visit was in 2006 , also in a Cessna 172, by which time Municipal had been closed and Riddle Field was being promoted as Airglades. Some new buildings had been built including a new terminal.
I have just returned from a holiday in Florida which included a pre-arranged visit to the Clewiston Museum, which has an excellent archive and a small display relating to 5 BFTS. The Museum Director, Mr W P (Butch) Wilson was very helpful and had laid out many of the archive photos and memorabilia for me. I would mention that much of the material is available on line as are the Clewiston News issues for the period of 5 BFTS operation. I again visited Riddle Field where some more new hangars have been erected, but little other change. The highlight of my trip was, like Chris, a flight in a T-6 (SNJ-6)out of Kissimmee. Alas I didn't get down to Clewiston in it, but was told of someone who had done so recently!
I have my Dad's photos and his log book as well as a number of other articles and books which relate to AT-6, Riddle Field and the Arnold Scheme.
I don't know whether me posting this note will draw the thread back into the current area on PPRune, but if so, I would be delighted to make contact with those of you with similar interst in 5 BFTS and Riddle Field.
Kind regards,
Paul