Somewhere, perhaps buried in a dark closet, you probably have some old photographs. Some were taken by family members or ancestors. Maybe they just appeared and you have no idea where they came from. Regardless, if you need a place to share them, put them here.
I recently stumbled across several items from my father's late teen years. He was a high school student in the early 1940s, and like many boys of that era, he enlisted in the armed forces as early as possible. In his case, he enlisted in the Army Air Force at age 17, several months before his 18th birthday. He graduated from high school, turned 18 and was inducted into the AAF in April 1944. Thanks to detailed notes written by his mother, I have a pretty good picture of his army career. His first assignment was Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, TX. A few months later he moved to Amarillo, TX for four months of airplane mechanic training. In November, 1944, he went to beautiful Burbank, California to learn how to be a B-17 mechanic at the Lockheed factory school. On December, 26, 1944, he and his classmates completed their training in Burbank and posed for this class photo. Graduation Day Front row (L to R): Hermelin, Eddins, Evens, Glass, Holloman Back row (L to R): DiMario, English, Dermott, Dunden, Becker (instructor), Dutton, Holsman, Dunkman (For the car lovers, that a Ford Super Deluxe station wagon in the background. Note the Lockheed logo on the door.) He spent most of 1945 at Hendricks Field in Sebring, Florida, which was a training base for B-17 crews. He flew many missions as a flight engineer. (I once asked him what his duties were as a flight engineer, and he said he just had to make sure that everyone had an oxygen mask and a parachute.) At some point he learned how to maintain A-26 bombers and P-80 jet fighters. He liked the P-80s because, after removing a handful of bolts, the entire back part of the plane (including the engine), could be rolled away on a cart, making access and repairs a whole lot easier than most other planes in the fleet. In March, 1946, he was sent to Germany with the occupation forces and spent the rest of the year at bases near Munich and Wurzburg. He was shipped home and discharged at the end of 1946, at the ripe old age of 20. Happy Veteran's Day!
