We are not sure where this wonderfully evocative photograph was taken but it shows a factory-new North American P-51A Mustang being ferried to an active USAAF unit. Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) discuss the Mustang with a USAAF lieutenant. The Olive Drab and Neutral Gray camouflage is still relatively pristine, indicating that the Allison-powered Mustang had been recently completed. Note the P-38 in the right background, immediately under the P-51A. Freshly arrived in South Korea to fight an entirely new war, F-51D-30-NA USAAF 44-74512 had been given a rapid overhaul along with dozens of others at various facilities in the USA before being placed on ships and rushed to the combat zone. It appears the Mustang went immediately into combat without any form of squadron marking yet added. The tank under the left wing is a napalm tank while the one under the right wing isa 110-gallon unit. These overhauled Mustangs, many coming out of storage at Kelly Field, were flown to the different overhaul facilities (at Burbank Airport, Lockheed and Pac Aero were both overhauling Mustangs along with Grand Central Aircraft at nearby Glendale). Even the paint on the propeller is pristine - something that would quickly become eroded with exposure to the dirt and gravel airstrips. Insides of the clam shell doors have been painted green along with a fresh anti-glare black panel atop the fuselage. This aircraft would be assigned to the 40th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 35th Fighter Interceptor Wing. It would be shot down by anti-aircraft fire on 11 March 1951 and crash-landed near Chunchon.
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