You can also follow our progress in the restoration and see past photos of when we started it at this website. Look for B-26K Special K Restoration thread. There are nearly 200 pages of pictures and stories. It has been viewed over 205.000 times already and is considered one of the most popular on the site. http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=4b07e87dc6987f02929a8376
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Honoring 609th Special Operations Squadron Of The Vietnam War
Their story was never featured in the nightly news, nor was it broadcast over any radio station. The missions they flew were perilous and were accomplished under extraordinary secrecy in what became one of the first, and possibly most public wars in the modern age. Now, 40 forty years later, their experiences are coming to light and are being honored by the people that their efforts protected; their children. Few people have heard of the 609th Special Operations Squadron, otherwise coined the "Nimrods" and even fewer have seen their trademark aircraft, the Douglas/On- Mark B-26K Counter Invader, in flight over the United States. The A-26 Legacy Foundation is bringing the last flying B-26K back to the American skies, flying in honor of the "Nimrods" and allowing the public to learn more about the seldom-mentioned, but heroic missions of the 609th. The Nimrods were tasked with the covert, nighttime interdiction of enemy troops and truck convoys transporting supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to the communist forces in South Vietnam. Their A-26s proved to be a deadly truck-killing aircraft. These aircrews and their redesigned WWII propeller-driven aircraft had a destructive effect far out of proportion to their numbers. Awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for “extraordinary gallantry in connection with military operations in Southeast Asia,” the Nimrods were recognized as the best truck killers of the War! Only six of the original forty Douglas A-26s that were rebuilt for service in Vietnam as B-26Ks by On Mark Corporation, Van Nuys CA survive since the war in Southeast Asia. The last Counter Invader to come off of the On Mark production line in 1965 (sn 64-17679), is the last flying Counter Invader in world today! The other five have succumbed to age/metal fatigue and have been retired to static museum displays. Affectionately named “Special K,” “IF 679” is truly a special plane with a very special mission in its future! Our mission, Operation Final Flight, is dependent upon financial support from people and corporations like yourselves who believe as we do that aviation history should be kept alive in the sky above us for our future generation’s education and enjoyment ... not just "preserved" in obscure, isolated museums for only a few to see. This historic plane is the Final A-26 produced, the world’s Final flying Counter Invader, and will be preserved and flown in honor of the aircrews who have taken their Final flights. We wish to afford the public (particularly our Nation's children) the opportunity to see, hear, touch and feel this magnificent aircraft in its natural aerial environment: a sensory educational experience that cannot be presented in a better format! "Operation Final Flight" is our Mission to restore and operate the World's "Last" Airworthy Douglas A- 26A/B-26K Counter Invader as a "flying" memorial to the valiant aircrews who flew in the secretive service of the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. Their famous aircraft will be shared with air-show visitors nationwide in a tailored aerial display; designed to captivate public interest and attention ... and ... to raise younger Americans' educational awareness of the now "declassified" military service provided by these heroic Air Commandos in Southeast Asia.
