View From the Publishing Trenches

With the news today that Ed McMahon has flown off into the sunset for the last time, I thought I’d share this small tribute to his Marine Corps service. This is a paragraph from my book, Cessna Warbirds:

In March 1953, Captain Ed McMahon (later to gain fame as Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the “Tonight Show”) was checked out in a Bird Dog of VMO-6 and flew his first combat mission the following day, eventually racking up 85 missions in the OE-1.  If not for bad weather, he likely would have logged the last Marine Corps mission before the armistice in July 1953.  Although the war ended, the Bird Dogs of VMO-6 continued to fly surveillance missions to enforce the “No Crossing” line just south of the demilitarized zone.

And, for those who don’t know what a Bird Dog is, here’s a short description (adapted from Cessna Warbirds):

In August 1949, the US Army announced a competition for a new Army Observation Aircraft with a fly-off scheduled for April of the following year. Cessna Aircraft Company, with several ongoing projects and only a small engineering staff, elected to reuse the Cessna Model 170’s wing design and the Cessan Model 195’s empennage design.  This allowed them to devote more design effort to a new powerplant installation, fuselage, and landing gear.  The military requirement for a 600-foot landing distance over a 50-foot obstacle necessitated modifying the C-170’s flaps to allow 60 degrees of extension. Cessna installed a six-cylinder, 190-horsepower Continental engine, with a 213-horsepower takeoff rating, behind a 90-inch McCauley propeller.

The prototype first flew on 14 Dec 1949 and won the fly-off in April 1950, and the first Army L-19 Bird Dog entered service in Korea just in time for the second liberation of Seoul. The L-19s flown by the Marine Corps were designated OE-1s and used for light re-supply, medical evacuation, forward air control of allied fighters, and artillery spotting missions.

USMC Cessna OE-1 Bird Dogs

So, this old veteran offers a salute to honor an even older one.

Semper fi, Ed!