Floyd Johnson told the story of two Army pilots he identified as Tom and Jerry. About 1934 or 1935, Tom and Jerry would often come to Mexico Farms flying Army Boeing P-12 fighters from Bolling Field in Washington, DC to visit lady friends. The pair would appear suddenly from the east and very low over Irons Mountain, but upside down. The noise from the Pratt and Whitney 525 hp engines and high revving propellers made, according to Floyd, “the hair on the back of your neck stand up”. Floyd said if you haven’t seen a P-12 fighter doing a formation inverted buzz job, you haven’t seen anything. It surely must have been an impressive sight. The P-12 was the last of the bi-plane fighters and had superb strength and agility, with no fighter planes their equal in aerobatic performance. Occasionally, while on the ground at Mexico Farms, if Tom and Jerry thought they heard or saw another Army airplane nearby, the pair would quickly depart and later return, as if they perceived that other Army airplanes were spying on them.
A Boeing P-12 Fighter used by the US Army Air Services.
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Wings Over Cumberland 