Showing posts with label 1950s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1950s. Show all posts
Monday, November 4, 2024
Monday, February 19, 2024
Today In Wyoming's History: Major Gale "Buck" Cleven
Today In Wyoming's History: Major Gale "Buck" Cleven:
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Major Gale "Buck" Cleven
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In the Apple TV series Masters of the Air, one of the characters is Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, who reports himself as being from Casper twice in the first episode.
Who was he, and was he really from Casper?
Clevens was born in Lemmon, South Dakota, on December 27, 1918, just after the end of World War One. His family moved to Casper when he was still a child, although I'm not certain when, as they moved first to Lusk, in 1920. He likely was a 1937 graduate from Natrona County High School, the only high school in Casper at the time (Natrona County had a second one in Midwest). Following graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wyoming while also working on drilling crews as a roughneck.
He did, in fact, move at some point to Casper, where he was employed as a roughneck on drilling crews. He used the money he earned to attend the University of Wyoming and was enrolled by the fall of 1937, presumably right after high school. His name appears in the social pages of The Branding Iron as having had a date attend the men's residence hall October dance. He was a guest of a different young lady at the 1939 Tri Delts Halloween sorority dance. The same year he was apparently in a fraternity, as he's noted as having attended the Phi Delta Theta dance with, yes, another young lady. In February 1939 he went to a fraternity dance with Nova Carter, whom I believe I'm related to by marriage. A year later, February 1940, he took a different gal to the same dance.
He left UW in 1941 to join the Army, intent on being a pilot. The October 21, 1943, edition of the UW Student Newspaper, The Branding Iron, notes him (inaccurately) as being stationed in North Africa and having received the Distinguished Service Cross, which he in fact did receive for piloting his badly stricken plane from Schweinfurt to North Africa, the flight path taken on that raid. This even is depicted in Masters of the Air. The Branding Iron noted that he had attended UW for three years. In June, 1944, the student newspaper reported him a POW. He's noted again for a second decoration in the March 2, 1944, edition, which also notes that he was a Prisoner of War.
As depicted in Masters of the Air, his B-17 was in fact shot down over Germany. He ended up becoming a POW, as reported in the UW paper, at Stalag Luft III for 18 months, after which he escaped and made it to Allied lines. He was put back in the cockpit after the war flying troops back to the United States.
Following the war, he was back at the University of Wyoming. He graduated from UW with a bachelor's in 1946. He apparently reentered the Air Force after that, or was recalled into service, and served in the Korean War, leaving the Air Force around that time.
He was on the Winter Quarter 1954 UW Honor Roll and obtained a Masters Degree, probably in geology, from UW in 1956. Somewhere in here, he obtained a MBA degree from Harvard and an interplanetary physics doctorate from George Washington University.
He married immediately after the war in 1945 to Marjorie Ruth Spencer, who was originally from Lander Wyoming. They had known each other since childhood. She tragically passed away in 1953 while visiting her parents, while due to join Gale at Morton Air Force Base in California. Polio was the cause of her death, and unusually her headstone, in Texas, bears her maiden name. Reportedly, her death threw Cleven into a deep depression. He married again in 1955, to Esther Lee Athey.
His post-war career is hard to follow. He flew again during the Korean War, as noted, which would explain the gap between his bachelors and master’s degrees, and probably his doctorate. He's noted as having served again during the Vietnam War, and also has having held a post at the Pentagon. He was in charge of EDP information at Hughes Aircraft. Given all of that, it's hard to know if an intended career in geology ever materialized, or if his World War Two service ended up essentially dominating the remainder of his career in the form of military service. The interplanetary physics degree would and employment by Hughes would suggest the latter. His highest held rank in the Air Force was Colonel.
Following retirement, he lived in Dickenson, North Dakota, and then later at the Sugarland Retirement Center in Sheridan. He died at age 86 in 2006, and is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his marker noting service in three wars.
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: June 11, 1970. Leaving Libya
Lex Anteinternet: June 11, 1970. Leaving Libya:
June 11, 1970. Leaving Libya
F100 Super Saber taking off from Wheelus Air Force Base, Libya.
On this day in 1970 the American military presence in Libya came to an end when the U.S. Air Force turned Wheelus Air Force Base over to the North African country.
Few people today would even be aware that the USAF had a base in Libya, but it first started having a presence at Wheelus during World War Two when it took over the former Italian air field in 1943 after it was captured by the British. It occupied the air field steadily until this date in 1970. During much of that time the US had friendly relations with the country's monarch, King Idris I.
King Idris I of Libya, who reigned from 1951 until 1969. The former king would live out his life in exile in Egypt.
Idris was overthrown in a military coup led by Muammar Gaddafi, who subsequently ruled the "republic" from that point until is his violent death at the hands of a revolutionary crowd in 2011. During Idris' reign the nation went from being one of the poorest in the world to being one of the richest, due to the discovery of oil, and at the same time the purpose of the USAF presence in the country declined to the point of irrelevance. Gaddafi wanted the US out and the US, for its part, was glad to leave.
Wheelus was soon used by the Soviet Air Forces as a base and as a Libyan air force base. It was hit in 1986 by the U.S. during it raid on Libya during the Reagan administration.
USAF FB-111 landing after air strike in Libya in 1986.
The air strip is an airport today.
On the same day William Bentvena was shot by Tommy DeSimone, an event, mostly recalled from the movie Goodfellas. Bentvena was a "made man" of the Gambino crime family and DeSimone would disappear in 1979.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Lex Anteinternet: A Memorial Day Reflection on the Second World War....
Lex Anteinternet: A Memorial Day Reflection on the Second World War....: One poster noted that much expanded airline travel resulted from the war, and that certainly is the case.
Just prior to the war airliners were beginning to take on a recognizable form, with the DC-3 being a recognizable commercial aircraft that went on to do yeoman's service during the war as the C-47.
After the war, however, things really changed. Four engined wartime aircraft made four engined commercial aircraft inevitable. By the 60s they were yielding to jets and modern air travel was around the corner. It really took airline deregulation, however, which came in during the 1980s, to make air travel cheap.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
The Hanger. Wardell Field, Bar Nunn, Wyoming.
This is, and isn't, what it appears to be.
This is "The Hanger", a restaurant in Bar Nunn, Wyoming. But originally it was what it looks like, an aircraft hanger.
Radial engine on display in The Hanger. A decommissioned small airplane hangs from the roof.
Wardwell Field was Natrona County's second airport (the first sits down in what is now Evansville). The field served from 1927 up until the early 1950s when what had been the Army Air Force's training base west of Casper was turned over to the county. That latter facility, with its much larger runways and much flatter surface was obviously superior, so Wardwell was abandoned in favor of what is now the Natrona County International Airport. During the boom of the 1970s the old runways were developed into streets and the town named in a playful fashion after the developer.
The fact that it was built on what had been runways was never forgotten and the town uses it as its symbol. The old central hanger remains, but its now this restaurant.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Hawker Sea Fury, Natrona County International Airport
These photographs are of a Hawker Sea Fury, one of the highest performance propeller aircraft ever made, at the Natrona County International Airport.
A beautiful, and amazing plane. This one in Royal Canadian Navy colors.
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Lex Anteinternet: Changing times. The centennial of the 94th Aero Squadron. August 20, 1917-2017
Lex Anteinternet: Changing times. The centennial of the 94th Aero Squadron. August 20, 1917-2017.
Pilots of the 94th, including 1LT Reed Chambers, Capt James Meissner, 1LT Eddie Rickenbacker, 1LT T C Taylor and 1LT J H Eastman, in France with a Spad XVIII.
While this blog, now that the Punitive Expedition has concluded, no longer does that many daily anniversaries (save for photographs) here's one worth noting.
On this date, in 1917, the 94th Aero Squadron, the Hat In The Ring Squadron, was formed at Kelly Airfield in San Antonio, Texas. The squadron, now the 94th Fighter Squadron, is the second oldest formation in the United States Air Force. The unit chose a red, white and blue top hat going through a ring as its symbol, signifying the Uncle Sam throwing his "hat in the ring" of World War One. That is, the unit symbol commemorated the United States' decision to enter the war.
The way it was at first, Curtis Jennys being used in training at Kelly Air Field.
The unit being formed might not seem particularly remarkable, but the U.S. Army. . . and all aircraft were in the Army at the time (prior to the war they were in the Signal Corps and the official establishment of a separate Air Force was decades and one major war away) had only had one single squadron, all equipped with the already obsolescent JN4, just months prior to that. As we've seen on this site before, that unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, would cut its teeth and prove its worth in Punitive Expedition of 1916, at which those Jennys constantly operated at the upper limit of their service ceiling, showing just how inadequate they really were. Now, the Army was rapidly expanding its air arm.
The 94th in fact would make the crossing to France in October and November. In France training continued and the unit was equipped with
Nieuport 28s.
Nieuport 28s.
Eddie Rickenbacker, a pre war automobile racer, with a Nieuport 28. Rickenbacker transferred into the unit in France. He actually got into the unit by making a deal with a commanding officer for whom he was a driver, concerning an on the spot emergency repair of an automobile.
It would first see action on April 14, 1918. It would go on from there to have a famous combat record and, of course, served to give the US some of its first pilot heroes. While in France it would under go a degree of consolidation with the 103th Aero Squadron, although that unit would remain a a separate unit throughout the war.
Pilots of the 94th, November, 1918.
The unit continued to serve in post war Europe up until the spring of 1919, and then was returned to the United States and demobilized in June 1919 but the unit shortly continued on as a regular Army aviation unit, changing its designation to the 94th Pursuit Squadron in July 1923. At that time, the 103d was folded into it so that the ongoing 94th would retain both units' lineages. The unit received constant aircraft upgrades prior to World War Two, which was a feature of all air forces at the time as aviation was progressing at a blistering pace. Prior to World War Two the unit was equipped with P-38 Lightnings.
German aircraft shot down by Capt. E. Rickenbackerand Lt. Reed Chambers, 94th Aero Squadron, Oct. 2. 1918.
As with all other fighter squadrons in the United States Army Air Corps, the unit was re designated as a fighter squadron in 1942, during which time it served in North Africa and then later in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, flying out of Italy. The unit was one of the very first to receive what would become P80s, actually receiving the jets in April, 1945, and flying two missions (without encountering German aircraft) with them prior to the war's end.
It continues on in its existence to this very day, making it one of the oldest formations in the United States Air Force. It's currently equipped with F22 Raptors.
F22s of the 94th Fighter Squadron.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Pacific Aviation Museum: F5
Pacific Aviation Museum: F5
This F5 is a former South Korean Air Force F5 Tiger. Eons ago, when I was in the National Guard, I had the experience of watching ROKAF F5s in a practice dogfight against USAF fighters, as the Korean jets attempted to break through an escort in order to take on a FB111. Quite the thing to see.
Pacific Aviation Museum: C-47
Pacific Aviation Museum: C-47
C47 that was used for air cargo, post war, and is now being rebuilt into its original configuration.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Aircraft bone yard, Greybull Wyoming
More things you run into at the airport
Privateer, converted into a firebomber, in Greybull Wyoming, along with flying boxcar and the air liner version of the B29.
Back at the same airport, a couple of years later:
Former RCAF flying boxcar.
This is a Lockheed Electra, a classic aircraft that's associated with Amelia Earhart, as that's what she was flying on her tragic transglobe flight.
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