If I remember correctly, my old AW buddy Chris Kennedy aka Der Bubba JG54 was the guy
who helped recover that F3F biplane from 3700 foot of water while he was at North Island.
When they had originally found it, it was upright and in fantastic shape after a engine failure
and subsequent ditching off the USS Yorktown in 1940. Unfortunately the Navy couldn't come
up with the funds to recover it for a couple years and someone had wrapped a fishing net around
the bird and balled it up a little.
Still they recovered it, I'm not sure how it ended up in civilian hands as the Navy is quite anal
about retaining their old wrecks. I do remember they found the pilot for the recovery, a retired
Marine general whose name I cannot recall. It turns out they found his tool kit in the cockpit!
Apparently they were there for minor mechanical problems
I wonder if this is the same one, recovered in 1990.
