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Just got back home with this grouping


manayunkman
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These decals were part of the group. Do they have anything to do with Marine recon or photography ??

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Is it possible to find out if Christian won the Silver Star or Bronze Star. I have his discharge papers and there is no mention of these medals.

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After his service in the Marines Christian went into the Defense industry designing and building recon systems and cameras for aircraft. He had a top secret clearance and worked for companies such as Chicago Aerial Industries, Photronics Corp., Aerojet General where he was Lead Engineer, Special Systems as Senior Electronics Engineer and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical where he was classified as System Engineer Senior, Flight Test Engineer, Senior Electronic Engineer. He had top secret jobs with all these companies and is credited for designing and building many different types surveillance equipment for the F-104, A3D, F8U and F3-D aircraft. In his later years he was on the sales end of this type of equipment and worked in Iran, Isreal and many other allied countires. Here are some pictures of promotional tie clips. I am assuming that they represent aircraft photo surveillance equipment.

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teufelhunde.ret

I see tie clips of Chicago Aerial KS-87, KA-95 and KE-28 cameras. He very likely worled with - on the USMC/USN recce version of the F-4; the RF-4

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I see tie clips of Chicago Aerial KS-87, KA-95 and KE-28 cameras. He very likely worled with - on the USMC/USN recce version of the F-4; the RF-4

 

 

Thanks T. His resume says he designed and built the KA-30.

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Here is a photo of Christian working on one of his cameras in Korea. Also a photo of him wearing an unusual flight helmet ( Saberjet here is another one ). In his resume he states that he flew several recon missions over North Korea earning him the Air Medal.

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Here is a photo of Christian working on one of his cameras in Korea. Also a photo of him wearing an unusual flight helmet ( Saberjet here is another one ). In his resume he states that he flew several recon missions over North Korea earning him the Air Medal.

 

Looks more like a motor-racing crash helmet. Definitely non-standard I'd say! :think:

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Johnny Signor

The small silver color medallion with bug that has zaps in front of him and bulbous rear end I think is for the Drones they used during Vietnam , possibly the other "Bug" one nest to it that you also have the small patch of in you first photo posted , do the medallions have any company names on them ????????

 

I have a book somewhere in my stuff that shows some of the drone emblems and I'm pretty sure the one is shown in there in patch form, I'll try to find it and post info about it if I'm right .

Johnny

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Johnny,

 

Here are some of his accomplishments. He either conceived or contributed to the conceptual design of the following:

 

1. Constant mesh, forward and reverse, marine transmission.

 

2. Anti-ASW aircraft decoy float missile.

 

3. Airborne night submarine and mine field detection.

 

4. ADF directed anti-aircraft missile.

 

5. Rotary burner turbine engine.

 

This takes us up to 1966. Fromm 66 to 73 he worked for Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical but there are no details of what he did for them.

 

I have included a picture of a tie clasp with a drone on it. He did spend time in Vietnam during the war ( Tel. Ryan employed ) and brought home a box full of NVA shrapnel and Chu Hoy leaflets.

 

No markings on any of the tie clasps.

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Johnny,

 

Per your request a photo of the " BUG "

 

Most likely, per info from Johnny Signor, this patch has to do with the Ryan drone and a project called " Lightning Bug ". The silver pin is the official insignia for the Lightning Bug Drone project. There were a couple other projects after that called Fire Fly and Fire Bee which the blue patch and decal could be associated with.

 

M

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Johnny Signor

The ones I meant were the round silver one with "Bug" that has lightning coming from antennae and hand and the "Bug" like the patch with bug , do either of those medallions have any notes/type id on the backs ???????????????????

The book I mentioned which shows a cloth patch of your silver "Bug" medallion is titled "Lightning Bugs and other Reconnaissance Drones -The Can Do story of Ryans unmanned "spy planes" by William Wagner , published in 1982 by Aero Publishers INC.

it'a fascinating book to read about how it all started back in the 60's and the drones used in Viet Nam etc , on page 50the patch is show and on the inside page 4th page in it shows a line drawing of the same emblem .

You may be able to find this one on Amazon etc .

Johnny

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The ones I meant were the round silver one with "Bug" that has lightning coming from antennae and hand and the "Bug" like the patch with bug , do either of those medallions have any notes/type id on the backs ???????????????????

The book I mentioned which shows a cloth patch of your silver "Bug" medallion is titled "Lightning Bugs and other Reconnaissance Drones -The Can Do story of Ryans unmanned "spy planes" by William Wagner , published in 1982 by Aero Publishers INC.

it'a fascinating book to read about how it all started back in the 60's and the drones used in Viet Nam etc , on page 50the patch is show and on the inside page 4th page in it shows a line drawing of the same emblem .

You may be able to find this one on Amazon etc .

Johnny

 

 

They have no markings.

 

M

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Here is an autographed photo given to Christian by his friend Captain Dick Schram who did an act called the Flying Professor. Schram was killed soon after Christian received the photo.

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Johnny Signor

I just ran across a photo of a "lightning bug" realted patch on a helo forum, it is a round patch with a cartoon helo in flight facing forward with a "Lightning Bug" coming down on a parachute and the helo ready to snatch it in the air, the patch has a tab at the bottom with the words "MARS" , it had to do with aerial grabbing of the sattelites and recon drones .

Johnny

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Very cool, does Christian know someone cleaned out his house? ;)

 

After going through all the paperwork I have found that Christian passed away in 1988. The American Motorcycle Association inherited all his earthly possessions and they disposed of what I found.

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Johnny Signor

There was also a "Bumble Bug" project that your patch could be related to , and the black knights helmet decals could be related to thier olderB-57 canberra unit, I think it was the 4050th SRS somewhere in that number range thier emblem used a black knight helmet .

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There was also a "Bumble Bug" project that your patch could be related to , and the black knights helmet decals could be related to thier olderB-57 canberra unit, I think it was the 4050th SRS somewhere in that number range thier emblem used a black knight helmet .

 

Johnny in Christians papers I found a list of everything that was in the trunk I got. All the decals are listed as coming from lightning bug drone project.

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Johnny Signor

O.K. good to know they're all one "subject" if you can send me a list of what each of the types were realted to the decals/patch I'd really appreciate it as I would like to have the info for my records , thanks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

johnny

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  • 8 years later...

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