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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Evelyn Pankow

My interest in aviation began in the late 20's in Chicago with the first movie I attended on my own, the original "Dawn Patrol." Later, in Virginia, I saw Army biplanes at the Battle of Bull Run commemoration. As a 7th grader I met Glenn L. Martin who invited me to visit his plant at Middle River, Md. My mother drove me up and we toured the plant, then making B-10 bombers. In the rear of the plant we went through the mock-up of a large plane under construction -- the China Clipper. Washington was the greatest place to see the latest aircraft and dirigibles. I saw fly-by's of the B-15, B-19, and the first DC-4. I also haunted the Library of Congress and discovered the Jane's "All the World's Aircraft" and Aviation Week magazine. These became my favorite reading materials.
Later, I became an apprentice machinist at the Naval Gun Factory in D.C., but I really wanted to be involved with aircraft. I could not see the bottom line to become a Marine, Navy or Army pilot, so I joined the Army and became an aircraft mechanic/electrician and later an automatic pilot specialist. I with the Eighth Air Force in England for 20 months, where I was assigned to the Second Strategic Air Depot at Alconbury, repairing damaged B-17's of the First Division. I flew many test flights, but never in combat.
After over three years' service, I returned to college in Washington, then out to California upon graduation, where I became a ranger-naturalist in Yosemite National Park and then after several more years of college, became a teacher and counselor in Stockton, California.
Every few years I have returned to Washington and have observed the construction of our new Air and Space Museum and toured the Garber facility at every opportunity. I have maintained my enthusiasm for aircraft and am president of a local World War II Warbird Group. Also, I have visited and contributed to the Voyager construction, have attended many air open houses from Beale (SR-71, U-2) to Edwards (including Chuck Yeager and Bob Hoover fly-by's), and have attended many airshows and museums from Reno to Oshkosh to Paris, Duxford to Wright Field to Castle, to Pima and San Diego.
I have always maintained an interest in the fate of the China Clipper, and am still researching its history.