Vought OS2U Kingfisher, part one

The Vought OS2U Kingfisher is an American catapult launched observation floatplane. It was a compact mid-wing monoplane with a large central float and small stabilizing floats. It suffered from modest performance due to its light engine. It could also operate on fixed, wheeled and taildragger landing gears.
It was used by many countries, but the ones covered in this post are:

• Mexico: In 1942 the Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Mexicana - FAM) acquired 12 wheeled Kingfishers to patrol the Mexican Northern Pacific Coast. When Mexico joined the Allies the next year, in 1943, six of them were transferred to the Mexican Navy (Armada de Mexico) and were fitted with floaters. They were assigned to the newly created 1er Escuadrón Aeronaval (1st Aeronaval Squadron) which was based in the city of Tampico at the state of Tamaulipas, where they were employed to patrol the Gulf of Mexico. Later that squadron was split in two squadrons with just three Kingfisher each, with the second one based in the city of Veracruz, also in the Mexican Atlantic Coast. From there, they usually undertook patrol missions to protect merchant ships bound for ports in the United States. They were kept in active service until 1958.
• Uruguay: The Uruguayan government bought six Kingfishers in July 1942 to replace their old ageing Italian CANT-18 and 21.  They were assigned to the Uruguayan Aeronautic Service (Servicio Aeronáutico). Three of them operated from Isla Libertad (Freedom Island) located in front of Montevideo's bay, and the rest three of them were put into storage waiting for the fixed landing gears as they were intended to be used for land operations, idea which was eventually, discarded so they were finally left in their floater configuration.
  They were set up to patrol conditions with the help of American personnel and, by 30th September 1942 they were ready for combat and patrol missions. They were used to patrol the South Atlantic waters during the World War 2 performing search & rescue missions. Some of them suffered accidents and, at least one of them was lost to either a mechanical or human errors.  They were kept in active service at the patrol and search & rescue role well after the war, until March 1958.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_OS2U_Kingfisher

2. https://www.facebook.com/SentinelMexico1/photos/a.471562479614077/471578306279161/?type=1&theater (translated)

3. http://www.pilotoviejo.com/os2uhistoria.htm (translated)