Commando 44-77532

VARIANT: Curtiss C-46D-10-CU Commando

USAAF SERIAL NUMBER (S/N): 44-77532

CURTISS CONSTRUCTION NUMBER (C/N): 32928

COMMANDO LINE NUMBER (L/N): CU1464

FATE: Written off

  December 1944 to September 1947

  44-77532 - USAAF (USA)

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December 1944

Delivered from the Curtiss-Wright factory in Buffalo, NY.

  September 1947 to May 1954

  44-77532 - USAF (USA)

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18 September 1947

Transferred.

Unknown date

Assigned to 2584^th Air Force Reserve Training Center, based at Memphis AFB, TN.

6 August 1953

Received minor damage at Memphis AFB, TN in a landing accident due to a mechanical failure.

Pilot: Ralph E. Trostel (survived, pictured right)

Unknown date

Assigned to 2466^th Air Force Reserve Training Center, based at Atterbury AFB, IN.

23 May 1954

Damaged beyond repair 13 km southeast of Center Point, TX in a CFIT (2/5 fatalities).

Crew:
Lt. Col. Ralph Strean Jr., Pilot (killed, pictured right)
Maj. Williams Isley, Copilot (injured)
Capt. Leon W. Kimberlin, Copilot (injured)
A/Man 2C Armin P. Koepp, Engineer (injured)
S/Sgt C. E. Cross (killed)

The Commando was operating the last leg of a training flight from El Paso, TX to Kelly AFB, TX and Atterbury AFB, IN, with five crew members on board. The airplane apparently got lost in southern Texas at night in heavy rain and eventually crashed into a hill side between Center Point, TX and Comfort, TX. Two of the occupants were killed.

24 May 1954

Wreckage found, helicopters sent to the crash site to remove the dead and the injured.