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Flying Museums

11th December 2014

Warbirds up Close

For more than a 15 years in one of my previous careers, our company was immersed in the world of flight simulation.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the job was attend the many aviation air shows and events. Yearly we would trek to Florida, California, New York and Wisconsin to name a few places where we could see and touch a multitude of flying machines. My favorite time was strolling along side the many historic aircraft from World War II.

Here’s an up close look at of some of the warbird aircraft that we eagerly visited but from a slightly different viewpoint than you would ordinarily see.


Dakota Kid – North American P-51D Mustang

Marine’s Dream – Vought F4U Corsair

Hot Stuff – Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon

Miss Magic – North American T28B Trojan

Annie Mo – Vought F4U Corsair

VMF – unknown Marine Fighter Squadron aircraft

Panchito – North American B-25J Mitchell

Martha Jean – North American B-25J Mitchell

 
I think you’ll agree that there is certainly a lot of artistic pride and patriotic flavor to these fine examples of nose art.
 
 
Written by: Arnie Lee
 
 

Dad and World War II

This article is the another in a series of articles that I’ve called “About this photo” to draw attention to a few of those memorable photos that may be hiding in a shoebox or on your hard drive.

Shortly after World War II broke out, a group of U.S. military recruiters visited New York City’s Chinatown. They were forming an all-Chinese battalion to serve in the China, Burma, India theater. Dad was among the hundreds of recruits who volunteered (including three other men who would later become his brothers-in-law after the war).

Of course, Dad told us many stories about his early life. One of his stories took place during their advanced training at Camp Crowder, Missouri. Tired of eating the army-supplied mess, he and a few of the soldiers went into the nearby town to buy fresh poultry and groceries to prepare their own meals. Some of the townspeople were taken aback by these Chinese soldiers marching into town – they thought they were being invaded by the Japanese!

Soon they traveled by train to the West Coast for deployment to the Asian front. Dad said that the military was experimenting with a new transportation method. Instead of sending groups of ships in convoys, they were using unescorted liberty ships to stealthily avoid the Japanese navy. Their battalion was placed on one of three liberty ships which would leave Wilmington, CA bound for Calcutta, India a few days apart. Dad was on the second ship, the SS David Gaillard. As it turned out, the first and third ship were torpedoed by Japanese submarines and never made it to India.

 

As part of the 987th Special Signal Operations Company, they were to travel from Calcutta to Kunming, China to support General Clair Chennault and his Fourteenth Air Force “Flying Tigers”. To reach Kunming they would travel on roads though the Himalayas.

On several occasions Dad would mention the Burma Road on which the soldiers traveled to cross the mountains. He described the roads as being so steep, treacherous and narrow that if one of the vehicles became disabled they would have to push it over the cliffs so that the other vehicles could pass. Dad’s description has remained in my mind for many decades.

Last week I unexpectedly received an email from a friend from my high school days. I remembered that Ann’s father was the the noted photographer Arthur Rothstein who had a long and distinguished career as a photojournalist, editor and director of photography, teacher and mentor. His iconic images of the rural America are well-known. Annie’s email had me browsing through her dad’s collection where I stumbled across a group of photos in which he documented the war effort in the China, Burma, India theater. His photo perfectly captures the image that Dad had verbally drawn in my mind for so many years. Seeing the stark road snaking its way up the mountain was enough of an impetus for me to write this story. Thanks to Annie and many thanks to her father.

 

Like most other World War II military units, the Fourteenth Air Force has held many reunions for their members. The 55th Anniversary Reunion was held in 1997 and included the veterans that served in the China, Burma, India theater during World War II.

In the reunion program guide, I found this family photo. These four standing men are my father and his three brothers-in-law whom I referred to earlier. They are my uncles having married three of my mother’s sisters. And all four of served as part of the CBI theater.

This short story illustrates the reason that photographs matter to me. These two photos are valued keepsakes.

There’s a wonderful story behind many photographs. It’s not just the image, it’s the memories and emotions that accompany the image that matter.

 

To see Arthur Rothstein’s work, please visit his archives.

 

Written by Arnie Lee

 

 


Two weeks ago, my wife, myself and two grandchildren in tow, visited one of our daughters and her family in the Portland, Oregon area. With excellent weather, it was a great time and place to vacation. Oregon is an “outdoor” state and we were determined to enjoy its beautiful natural resources.

On one of our vacation days, we took a two hour drive across the coastal mountain range to experience the Pacific Ocean and Columbia River. Our destination was the northwest corner of Oregon where Woody, my father-in-law, had served during World War II.

Woody tells us that his assignment back then was to observe the Columbia River looking for Japanese submarines that might enter the river from the Pacific Ocean. His station was Ft Stevens Army Base. While this area is no longer an army base, there is a museum in Ft Stevens State Park in tribute to the men and women who served there.

In particular, I recall Woody telling us two of his memories of his service at Ft. Stevens: the 6″ guns and the great width of the river where it meets the Pacific Ocean.

So we were interested to see how Woody’s memory has held up over nearly 70 years since his service.

The Columbia River is indeed very wide here. I took this picture standing at a point close to where the Columbia pours into the Pacific Ocean. You can see that it’s a few miles across the river to Washington state at this location.

This is one of the guns that was used during World War II. The gun has a six inch diameter.

The gun sits atop a fortress. However you can see that the gun is not visible from outside of the fortress – it is shielded by the cement wall. When readied for use, the gun carriage is raised so that the barrel is above the cement wall. The guns were known as “disappearing”

This is one of the mines that was used to protect the Columbia River from Japanese submarines. The mines were lined along critical areas near the entranceway to the estuary.

This is one of the many vehicles used during the 1940’s.

We brought back dozens of photographs from our visit to Ft Stevens so that Woody could relive more of his memories from his service during World War II. This was a day well spent on our trip to Oregon.

By the way, although not very well known, Ft Stevens was the only place in the continental US to be bombarded by the enemy fire during World War II. In mid-1942, a Japanese submarine fired 17 shells at the fortification during the night. Luckily, no one was injured.