P4M-1Q Martin Mercator Allumni

In connection with the fiftieth anniversary of the commissioning of VQ-1 and VQ-2 next year, some of us Plankowners are interested in locating and contacting the rest of the living P4M-1Q drivers, back-enders and fixers to join in some small way in recognizing the half-century of contributions by the two squadrons. There is no reunion or expense or inconvenience of any kind envisioned, just a roster of names and addresses of any who would enjoy exchanging memories now and again. We will be making a presentation document to each outfit in the names of the living Plankowners – a number that keeps getting smaller at a saddening pace – and the wonderful and exquisite P4M-1Q will be appropriately memorialized at that time. As a continuing thing, though, it seems a shame to let the memories of the Martin Mercator die out. Need to hear from anyone in that small community of stalwarts who flew the precious few P4Ms from Sangley and Port Lyautey before the commissionings and for the few years in the late fifties before they became training aids for crash crews at Iwakuni and Rota and Norfolk and North Island.



John McIntyre (VW-2A/VQ-2 ’55 through 58)