Indeed a sad episode. But then, what else could they've done? There was a severe shortage of raw materials for the civvie market and the demand was huge, plus the jet era had already started making the piston prop technology kind of obsolete, plus those birds were not "vintage" back then, plus everyone and their rear admiral's dog were decommissioning anyway because the war was, thankfully, finally over. What would _you_ have done in their place?
And you've got to understand those birds were not "cool" or "awesome" right after the war. They were a reminder of a tragedy everyone wanted to forget as fast as possible. So again, what could've _anyone_ done really?