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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Carol Woodruff

It is with great pride and honor that the family of Col. Harry W. Sanford, USAF retired submit the following summary of this man's outstanding career and his love of flying.
Harry Walker Sanford enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1940, serving as a mechanic's helper. With the events of December 1941 soldiers were given the opportunity to enter the Army Aviation Corps, leading to commissioned officer status and an Army Pilot rating. By April 1943 Walker Sanford had earned his pilot wings and was a commissioned 2n Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
After further training Lt. Sanford was sent for duty in the Pacific theater, ferrying C-47"s, B-52's and A-20A airplanes from West coast manufacturers to active duty stations. By early 1944 he was trained on the brand new Douglas, four-engine, long-range transport C-54's. Now a First Lieutenant, Sanford was given command of crews consisting of a co-pilot, navigator, radio operator and flight mechanic.
By mid-summer of 1944, with more C-54's being stationed at Hickam Field, Hawaii, Sanford started flying medical air-evacuation out to the Marshall Islands and from Saipan in the Marina Islands. Later, from Hamilton Field, California he flew into the Philippines, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. At the war's end he had logged over 2,000 hours of C-54 pilot time. Stationed in Tokyo in December 1946, Sanford flew almost 100 hours per month on a loop run from Tokyo to Seoul, Korea, to Peiping, China, to Guam and back to Tokyo. Circumstances radically changed when the Soviet Union stopped rail and roadway traffic into Berlin, Germany. With a high percentage of all Air Transport pilots, C-54s and their crews ordered to Europe to participate in the Berlin Airlift, Sanford was left in Japan with a crew and one C-54 to continue these loops runs.
January 1949 found Sanford instructing World War II pilots who had not flown for several years and had been recalled for active duty on C-54 co-pilot duty in the Berlin Airlift. In March 1949 he assumed direction for a training class for the C-121A (Lockheed) Constellation airliner. Now a Captain, he too directly supported the Berlin Airlift by moving approximately 44 passengers to Europe and about the same number back to the U.S. on a daily basis. Typically three rounds trips to Germany per month gave pilots one hundred hours of flight duty time. During this period, Sanford's flight time level exceeded 5,000 hours and he was rated a Senior Pilot by the U.S.A.F.
On Nov. 15, 1949 Capt. Harry W. Sanford was cited for a record flight time from Westover AFB, Mass. To RJiein Main, Germany. This flight was conducted not for the purpose of setting or breaking a record. It was operated on schedule with standard operation and standard cruising power. The flight was made in 11 hours and 50 minutes in a C-121 Constellation.
Starting in 1950, a USAF. objective was to replace Washington National Airport's aging fleet of C-54's with Constellations. With the need for C-121A qualified instructor pilots obvious, Sanford was ordered to duty at Washington. For the next nine years Sanford's time was spent flying VIPs, from Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the U.S. and Heads of State to wherever they desired to go, around the world several times for some. Nixon, Eisenhower and Dulles were aboard his flights, as were congressional committees. Defense secretaries, generals and admirals. This period was followed by a four-year assignment to Hawaii as pilot for the staff airplane of the Commander in Chief, Pacific Air Forces, with a promotion to Lieut. Colonel in 1960.
On Oct. 31st, 1952, Capt. Sanford piloted a joint task force, which consisted of 123 members of Congress and the Defense Dept. who were flown to the Einewetok Island to observe the first explosion of the Hydrogen Bomb.
Another memorable event of his career was to have Charles Lindbergh visit him in the cockpit of the plane he was piloting. Charles Lindbergh was part of a group that was touring potential sites for the future location of the Air Force Academy.
Upon his general's retirement in 1963, Sanford was assigned to at USAF National Guard unit in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Here Sanford served as USAF. adviser to the Commander of the Air National Guard as this unit's flight instructor and flight examiner. He assured the competency of the unit's pilot pool on C-121G Lockheed Constellation aircraft. In 1965 Sanford was promoted to the rank of Colonel and retired from the Air Force. While still on active duty at Martinsville, Sanford received the 15,000 hour pin and award for safe, accident free, military flying throughout his 25 years of service. Less than one percent of USAF. pilots achieve this award.
Within three days of retirement the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation of Towson, Maryland hired Sanford. Bendix was a contractor for the NASA Space Flight Administration to maintain and operate NASA's fleet of Super Constellation and DC-6 and DC-4 airplanes in the world-wide operations in support of NASA'a scientific tracking and manned space flight tracking stations. These stations existed in Europe, South America, Australia, Africa, Hawaii, on South Pacific and Atlantic islands, as well as Madagascar and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Sanford's position with Bendix was Captain on the Constellation airplanes and Douglas DC-6B models and as Flight Instructor and Flight Examiner for the above airplanes. His mission involved taking proposed space tracking hardware to all Apollo (manned-space) tracking stations and to confirm it's suitability for installation within the space vehicles taking NASA crews to lunar destinations and bringing them back to earth. After the first lunar landing in 1969 and its follow-up missions, NASA decided to rid itself of the Constellation aircraft. By 1975, after 10 years with Bendix, Walker Sanford retired for the second time, ending a career of over 20,000 hours of safe flying.