By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford

One of the truly unique warbirds on the line at Whitman Field this year is the RV-1D Mohawk, the last-of-the-line version of the unsung reconnaissance hero of Vietnam, the Cold War, and Desert Storm.

Operated by The American Wings Air Museum in Blaine, Minnesota, it looks ready to take on yet another low-level electronic recon mission, or perform a radar surveillance of terrain “over the fence” (which is spy talk for enemy territory).

“We have three flyable, and two more in restoration” says Ed Finnegan “We’re pretty much Mohawk Central”.  There are about a dozen Mohawk aircraft operating around the country. Finnegan should know. He spent his entire Army career in the left seat of the Grumman built aircraft. Getting shot at over the Korean peninsula, and zigging and zagging along the inter-German border as they performed threat evaluation missions. He has over 1,200 hours PIC in his logbook.

The aircraft crew chief is Joe “Pineapple” Aragon, who started working on the aircraft in 1962, when he was assigned to the 11th Air Assault Division at Ft.Benning, Georgia. The retired tool and die maker says he was out mowing the lawn in 1994when he heard the sound of a Mohawk flying over, then spotted his old love. He shut off the mower, went inside the house, grabbed the car keys and told his wife he was off to “follow the airplane” and was driving down the street before he got an answer. Since then, he’s been one of the lead mechanics, along with a crew chief who handled the initial Navy and Marine Corp testing of the aircraft at NAS Pataxuet River in 1962.

“We’re all volunteers” Aragon says “Guys spend their weekends in the hanger, doing all the work… it’s great fun”.

Finnegan supports his old airplane habit by driving Fokker-100’s for American Airlines at Chicago O’Hare (ORD).  From the shadow of the bug-eyed cockpit, he says “This is one amazing aircraft… not forgiving of any inattention, and sometimes, pretty challenging to fly”.

Power is never an issue “We have 1,400 horsepower on each side, and if, by some chance there’s an engine failure, you just smash on the rudder and keep it there”. With the live Martin-Baker ejection seats, Finnegan says they try to keep the aircraft as authentic as possible. It’s a fully aerobatic aircraft, and when asked why they have a triple tail, Finnegan answers simply “Torque…there’s an awful lot of torque”

“They call us a crowd magnet” the 40-something Finnegan says, “Joe and I hang out with the aircraft, talking with people, answering their questions, and meeting lots of old Mohawk pilots and ground crew”. While we were talking on Monday morning, several people came up with their own Mohawk stories, and connections, including one man who was bringing a friend of his to the show later this week, who flew Mohawks in Vietnam.

The deployment to Vietnam is another untold story. Says Aragon “We would fly them over, trans-Atlantic, with 300 gallon drop tanks under each wing, plus more than 800 internal gallons, and that would still make for a 13 hour leg between Newfoundland and the Azores” The option was taking about two months to “pickle” the aircraft, wrap it up, and put it on a ship. The Army could fly them over in about two weeks.

To visit the museum -- Anoka County-Blaine Airport (Janes Field) locator: ANE, just north of Minneapolis.

FMI: www.OV-1Mohawk.Org, www.AmericanWings.Org