Foil: 9 Panel: 1 Column: 4 Line: 89

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Sandra E. Biegler

My 78 year old father, Duane Lambert Maupin, Sr. was born in Topeka, Kansas on April 4, 1925. Raised in Silver Lake, Kansas he enlisted in the Army Air Corps while he was a senior at Silver Lake High School. Inducted into the Army Air Corps in 1943 at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas he took basic training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. After basic training he was sent to Kansas City for more classes. The men stayed in a residential hotel and daily marched in formation the ten blocks to Rockhurst Men's College. Next he was sent to the San Antonio Classification Center where tests determined whether he would receive further training as a pilot, a bombardier, or a navigator. Selected for pilot training Duane L. Maupin was next stationed at Tulsa, Oklahoma for primary flight training which was done primarily by hired civilian flight instructors. The aircraft used at this level of training had open cockpits, no radios, helmets/goggles were required. After Tulsa he was sent to Enid, Oklahoma for more advanced flight training. The planes used had sliding glass canopies and radios and Army Air Corps instructors were used there. The results of his advanced flight training qualified him to train on multi engine (twin engine) planes in Altus, Oklahoma and he graduated from training with a commission as a 2nd Lt. in the Army Air Corps.

Upon graduating some of his first duties included flying with a group of pilots who were still in training .. Then he was sent to Harlingen Army Base and flew B 24's~4 engine Liberators. Although they were being trained to become pilots they also had to practice gunnery. While in Harlington my father and several other pilots in his group went to Harlington, Texas and obtained their civilian commercial pilot licenses. My father received more advanced training on B24's in Smyrna, Tennessee. The war was winding down and training was slowing. One of his duties during this time was to ferry fighter planes from Greenville, Mississippi to a closed base in Arkansas where there were many planes being stored nose down and tail up in between buildings on the base.

Next he was sent to McDill Army Air Corps Base. At that time it was difficult to obtain much flying time so pilots had to search around to get the minimum 4 hours of flight time each month to keep flight pay. He flew some B 25's and B 29's. At Mc Dill he was assigned to the Line Trainer Building as an operator of the Army Air Corps simulator trainer. This mock-up cockpit was used to train pilots to land by instruments (listening to signals as if flying blind). All pilots had to have a certain number of hours on the line trainer each month. Their performance was recorded and the results were discussed and graded.

Fewer pilots were needed as the war was nearly over and Duane Lambert Maupin, Sr. was discharged from the Army Air Corps in Fort Benning, Georgia as a 1st Lt. in December of 1946. He has never lost his love of flying.