wwiiafterwwii has a great and very detailed article about the P-51 Mustang and its use after VJ-Day. Whereas the Navy shed their F6F Hellcats and the Army Air Corps scrapped their P-38, 39, 40, 47 and 61 fleets wholesale, the National Guard and (after 1947) the Air National Guard kept the Mustang around for a generation.
And it is filled with excellent photos of piston-engined fighter bombers in an age of F-86s.
A 1947 recruitment ad for the Army National Guard featuring the P-51 Mustang
F-51D Mustangs of the Utah, California, and Nevada ANGs in 1948– all part of the 144th FG
P-51 mustang pilot of the North Dakota ANG in 1953, wearing Korean War-era helmet and flight suit 119th Fighterwing, North Dakota, 1953
Minnesota ANG F-51D Mustang, 1953
Some of which were kept in service due to local limitations on jets.
From the article:
One of the factors that gave the Mustang a long life in West Virginia was that, as late as the mid-1950s, Kanawha Airport lacked the ability to land jets. In December 1955 the 167th moved to newly-expanded ANG Base Martinsburg, but continued flying F-51s while it’s jet successor was selected by the Pentagon. In 1957 the squadron (the final American unit still operating the WWII Mustang) converted to the F-86 Sabre.
