The Federal funds can be used for terminals, runways and parking lots and the like.
Of Wyoming airports, Jackson's will get the most, receiving $3.38M. Natrona County International Airport gets the second-largest amount at $1.34M. Natrona County's airport will use the funds for electrical work.
And those were the Rawlins Wyoming and Riverton Wyoming airports, both of which are part of Wyoming's Capacity Purchase Agreement program, which is a state program guaranteeing some level of ongoing air service.
Neither airport has been featured here, even though at one point or another, I've seen both (but of course haven't flown into either).
On this day in 1941, the Air Force auxiliary the United States Civil Air Defense Services, whose named was soon changed to the Civil Air Patrol, came into existence.
The organization came into being through Executive Order No. 9 issued by F. H. La, which provided:
December 1, 1941
Administrative Order No.9
Establishing Civil Air Patrol
By virtue of the authority vested in me through my appointment as United States Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, through the Executive Order of the President creating said Office, dated May 20, 1941. I have caused to be created and organized a branch of this Office of volunteers for the purpose of enlisting and training personnel to aid in the national defense of the United States, designated as the Civil Air Patrol.
In conformity with said organization, Major General John F. Curry, U.S.A. Air Corps has been assigned to this office by the U.S. Army and designated by me as its National Commander. Said organization shall be formed as outlined in the attached chart, which is made a part of this Order as if written herein in full. The Civil Air Patrol shall carry out such Orders and directives as are issued to it by the Director of Civilian Defense. It shall be the duty and responsibility of the National Commander to see that the objectives and purposes and orders issued in conformity with the policy of this office are carried out and that all activities are reported regularly to the Director through the Aviation Aide.
All enlistments and appointments in the Civil Air Patrol may be disapproved by the Director of the Office of Civilian Defense.
F. H. LaGuardiaU.S. Director ofCivilian Defense
The wartime status of the CAP is frankly a little murky. Often noted that it was a "civilian" organization using private aircraft, it rapidly came to deploy light aircraft owned by the government. Moreover, as the war progressed, the aircraft became armed and the CAP conducted over 80 bombing and depth charge runs on German U-boats during the war, suppressing their activities but sinking none of them. The members of the organization were commanded by an Army general during the war, and wore Army Air Corps uniforms. Given all of that, the better argument is that they were in fact a combat organization. It's role in the Second World War, in that sense, may be imperfectly analogous to the Coast Guard, somewhat, or the United States Health Service, both of which became wartime auxillaries of the U.S. Navy.
As such, they're further notable in that they fielded some women pilots during the war, one of whom, Willa Beatrice Brown, was African American. This would mean that the Civil Air Patrol, not any of the other branches of the military, was the first to deploy women officially to a combat service and the first branch of the Army to integrate, albeit to a very small extent.
The subsequent view of the CAP is, at least to some extent, confused by the later creation of the cadet branch, which came into being shortly after World War Two and which somewhat replicated, at that time, JrROTC, which was limited to the Army.
We've posted on the CAP a fair amount here before, with the longest World War Two themed one being the following two.
As those threads explain the CAP pretty well, we'll leave it at that.
Franklin Roosevelt cut short a vacation at Warm Springs, Georgia to deal with the mounting crisis of almost certain war with Japan.
Also on this day, the Japanese Navy suddenly changed its communications code, a significant event in that the US had cracked the prior one. This meant that the US was suddenly unable to eavesdrop on radio communications of the Japanese navy, although the Japanese had gone radio silent on their dispatched missions leading towards the events of December 7.
Yugoslavian partisans attacked Italian forces in Montenegro at Pljevilja. They were predicatably put down, after which the local movement began to severely split, with sizable numbers joining pro Axis militias.
Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt, feuding with Hitler after ordering a retreat against Hitler's orders following the German setbacks at Rostov, resigned. In North Africa, the Afrika Corps fought with New Zealand and British troops at Belhamed Libya with inconclusive results.
Karl Jäger issued a report detailing with precision the murderous activites of Einsatzkommando in the Baltics.
Related Threads:
The US airship C-7 flew from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Washington D.C. filled with helium, rather than explosive hydrogen, making it the first airship to use that gas.
On this day in 1971 a man wearing as suit and tie, typical travel attire for the era, checked into a short flight from Seattle to Tacoma, Washington, something only requiring thirty minutes of flying time. Once the plane was airborne, he slipped a note to a stewardess seated nearby, who at first ignored it, thinking he was trying to pick her up. He then told her to read the note, which claimed he had a bomb in a briefcase.
At the time no search of carry ons was conducted, and the stewardess asked to see the bomb, which the man proceeded to show her. And then a several hours long ordeal unfolded in which the man, who had checked into the airplane as Dan Cooper, ordered that he receive $200,000, two reserve parachutes and two main parachutes, and that the plane take a route in which Mexico was the declared ultimate destination. The money and the parachutes were provided in Tacoma, where Cooper also released most of the passengers and all of the stewardesses save for one. Showing very advance knowledge of the aircraft, a Boeing 727, he instructed the pilots to fly it at 10,000 feet, keep the wheels down, and to set the flaps at a certain angle, all of which made sure that it was flying very slowly.
Once airborne, he parachuted into the night near Mount St. Helens during a severe thunderstorm, leaving via the 727's unique integral downloading back staircase. The man, misnamed by the press as "D. B. Cooper", was not apprehended and most of the money has never been found.
This has, of course, been one of the most enduring air mysteries and crime mysteries of all time. The serial numbers of the bills involved were microfilmed, but only a small number of them have ever been located, and those by campers on the Columbia River in 1980. The bundles they found were, moreover, badly deteriorated but their bundling was not, with a small number of bills missing in a manner which raised questions as to how that could have occurred. Given that the money did not resurface, the official speculation is that Cooper died parachuting into the forest, in a thunderstorm, at night.
There's plenty of reason to suspect that is the case. He obviously was extremely familiar with the aircraft, its systems, and knew something about parachuting. Nonetheless, he wasn't dressed for a hike through the wilderness and, dropping at night, he could not possibly have had anything but a remote idea as to where he'd be coming down. While some discount the chances of his death, night drops are always risky, let alone one in which a military parachute was used (which it was) and in which he was badly dressed for the endeavor. The fact that the money never resurfaced strongly suggests he was killed in the attempt.
In spite of the massive effort to capture him, he was not located alive and no body was ever found. . .to date and, more oddly, nobody was ever reported as missing. The knowledge that he displayed was quite distinct and therefore the number of suspects would seem rather limited, but nonetheless there's never been any solid leads.
The mystery remains an enduring one not only because Cooper wasn't captured, but also because there are so many clues regarding him, and yet he remains elusive. Suffice it to day, if the event occurred today, which it would not as airline security has changed so much, Cooper would have been captured or found dead.
Cooper in fact left many clues as to his background, and therefore his identity. There was, of course, first of all his appearance. He had "olive" skin and therefore a "Latin" appearance, something that gave him somewhat of a minority appearance for a Caucasian. He was smoking heavily, although that could have been to steady his nerves, and therefore was a smoker at any rate, although at that point a little over 40% of all Americans smoked weekly, with that likely meaning that well over 50% of men did.
More tellingly, however, Cooper demonstrated a knowledge of parachutes, and expressed a request for military parachutes rather than sporting ones. A comment from the air noted that he recognized the Air Force base at Tacoma. And he had an extremely advanced knowledge of the features of the 727, knowing how slow it could go, knowing how to precisely set the flaps to slow it further, and knowing that it uniquely had a real loading under fuselage staircase that could be opened in flight.
Indeed, the 727 had seen military use in Vietnam due to its rear loading staircase for that very reason, with the Central Intelligence Agency using them for air drops of material.
These combined facts strongly suggest that Cooper had a military background of some sort, but they also, when combined with other factors, discount his having been a paratrooper, as is sometimes suggested.
Cooper did not ask for the static line T-10 model of parachute in use then and now, but rather one that could be deployed manually, as would have been necessary for the drop. That was a necessarily choice, but otherwise Cooper seemed to display an ignorance as to actual dropping. He wanted the plane low, 10,000 feet, which makes sense, but military parachutes have a very violent deployment which meant that getting his stolen loot to the ground would have been difficult. Beyond that, keeping his shoes on would have been difficult as well.
Landing safely would have been extremely difficult. Deploying into the night, and in a severe thunderstorm, the odds would have been against him making it to the ground and landing uninjured. Even if he did come down in the storm without injury, military parachutes of the era required, for good reason, the wearing of protective footgear, which his dress shoes were not in any fashion. Moreover, his leaving in the night meant that he was risking coming down in trees experienced parachutists desperately seek to avoid as they are so strongly associated with death and injury to them.
Finally, his clothing wasn't close to being suitable for a hike out of the forest.
Indeed, the entire concept of parachuting out of the plane, at night, seems to have been intentional, but it also seems to have been reckless in the extreme for a plot which was otherwise very well planned out. Cooper's plan either seemed to discount the dangers and difficulties with making his departure from the plane to the ground safe, and his escape complete, or he just didn't care, trusting to luck at that point. And that also gives us an interesting hint as to his potential identity.
Combining all fo these up to this point, what this suggests is that Cooper had military experience involving parachutes and airplanes, but not that of being a paratrooper. Being a pilot or a cargomaster seems the most likely candidates.
Analysis of his tie, however, conducted years later suggests that he worked in heavy industry, and in some managerial capacity. The aircraft manufacturing industry itself would seem to be a good candidate, as his clip on tie contained metals and substances that were used in that industry at the time, and which were unlikely to be picked up accidentally.
Combining all of these, it seems likely that Cooper was or had recently been an employee of an aircraft manufacturing company, perhaps Boeing the maker of the plane, and in that capacity he had become very familiar with the 727. He likely had some prior military experience, or at least was aware of the military use of the plane. He knew too much about the 727 for that knowledge to be casual, and if he had picked up any studied knowledge for the attempt, it would have been as to the use of the parachutes, and not the aircraft. That knowledge would have been easier to obtain, and perhaps could have been obtained on the job.
Indeed, the oddity of it can't help but cause a person to have at least some question as to a possible connection with service in the CIA, and that has been suggested.
Of course, suggesting a CIA connection to things is commonly done with certain big events, with some reaching the absurd level. The claims, for instance, that the CIA was involved in the 9/11 attacks provides such an absurd example. But here, there's at least some credibility to those claims.
So could he be found now?
November 18, 2021
Payments from local governments will keep Casper's Delta flights operating for the time being
