Waco CG-4

I am helping PFC David W Niehaus of St Louis MO get his story on paper David was a Waco CG4A navigation instructor at Sheppards Field Texas in 1943-4 (2 years 3 months 21 days) He had worked at Curtis Wright St Louis on the Navy SB2C1 and Army AT9 before enlisting in the USAAF. He is now 94 and has just had his first ride in a sail plane.
Ken Robinson

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T.S Samuel Ring was a trained Co pilot with the 101 Airbourne

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Good Aircraft, I would like to know if there are for sale any full scale plans for the CG-4A Glider? If there is I would like to buy the plans and see if I can build one and learn how to fly it. Pleas send any information to my E-mail above. Thank you.

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My great uncle Virgil Neal flew this aircraft into Normandy 68 years ago. He was part of the 94th troop carrier sqdn.

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My Dad, Raymond C McAleer installed radios in the gliders in San Antonio, Tx just before D-Day in 1944. He was too young for WWI and too old for WWII.

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I just visited the Ft. Bragg area and the 82nd Airborne and Special Ops Museum off Hays Street downtown Fayetteville, NC has the CG-4 Glider on Display as well as a C-47, both inside. The guy told me it's valued at more than a $1,000,000.00 !

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I was a member of the 10st Airborne Division, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment during WWII. I had the "Honor and pleasure" of making two successful landings. There is a CG-4A on display in the museum at the home of the 101st Airborne at Ft. Cambpell, KY.

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My father was a flight instructor for the Waco CG-4A. As I remember, he worked at Randolph Field, TX. They also could carry a jeep, and there was a small bulldozer, about the size of a bobcat, designed for it, and it was used to make impromptu airfields. One of the bulldozers is on display in the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH, along with a CG-4A Glider(mounted on a 10' wall). In addition to the CG-4a on display at the museum in Lubbock, TX, a third that I know of on display at the Air Zoo Museum in Kalamazoo, MI on the floor. I understand that all the CG-4A's were grounded shortly before the end of the war, as the wings were coming apart due to de-lamination (apparently, the wing structure was made of regular plywood and they had been sitting on the tarmack rather than hangared)

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My Dad Winfred E. Patterson volunteered for glider pilot training in WWII and was sent to Monticello, MN and Stuttgart, AR for flight schools. He was assigned to the Glider Branch at Wright Field as a glider test pilot and did much test flying in the CG-4As.Later the Glider Branch was moved about 30 miles away to Wilmington, OH (Clinton County Army Air Field) to continue the flight test work.

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Our father was a trained Pilot, on the WACO. We are searching for surviving WWII pilots who served with him. There was a glider school 160 miles west of Lubbock TX, Ft Sumner New Mexico as well. Any information available on Flight Officer Carroll A French is appreciated..

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John Sherman jsherman327@q.com
A correction to some of the comments. Paratroopers (Enlisted men) were paid $50. / mo Jump pay.Starting about Aug. 1944 Glidermen (enlisted) rec'd $37.50 a month Flight pay. Co-Pilots for combat missions in the ETO were almost always just the highest rank or senior passenger and they got their training in flight. There were no trained co-pilots, I know because I was a Gliderman with the 101st Airborne and my first glider flight was from England into Holland Sept. 1944.There are still a few of us left.

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Pilots were trained in Stuttgart, AR. The local museum has a very nice section dedicated to the airbase. They have many pictures and other items from the base.

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There is a museum in Lubbuck TX, dedicated to those who piloted these gliders. The airport is on the north side of town.

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I made over 1,000 flights as a co-pilot and survived four crashes. After the first two combat landings the glider infantry troops were paid the same hazard pay that those who parachuted.

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My Dad, Charles T. Odle was too old to be drafted for WWII. However, like most men in WWII, he had a second (wartime)job of building these gliders at the Dayton Municipal Airport which is just about ten miles south of the Waco plant in Troy Ohio. He was a teacher at Vandalia-Butler High School on the south side of the airport. He would get out of school around 3PM and go to work at the airport until midnight. He, I believe, taught the first aeronautical aviation high school course in Ohio.

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Interesting point, glider borne troops did not receive extra pay that parachute troops did despite the fact that glider landing was somewhat more hazardous than landing by chute.

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Your listing for the number of crew is incorrect as there almost alway was a trained co-pilot along. He may, as did some of the pilots, have joined the troops they carred into battle. The command pilot would try to return to base for futher missions. The glider would /could carry cargo as well as troops.

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