Some Gave All: The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".

Some Gave All: The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".:   

The Crew of the B-17F, "The Casper Kid".

 

This is a new memorial in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, dedicated to the crew of the "Casper Kid", a B-17F that went down in what would have been an incredibly remote lonely spot on February 25, 1943.

In recent years, there's been a dedicated effort in Central Wyoming to memorialize the crews who did in aviation accidents during the Second World War. This is the second such memorial I'm aware of (there may be more) which is dedicated to the crew of an airplane that was flying out of the Casper Air Base, which is now the Natrona County International Airport. Both accidents memorialized so far were winter accidents which resulted in the loss of an aircraft in remote country.

We don't tend to think of those lost in training accidents as war dead, but they were.  And there are a lot of them.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, September 1, 1942. Casper Air Base gets the thumbs up.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, September 1, 1942. Miscarriages of Justice.: According to the Wyoming State Historical Association, on this day in 1942 official approval was given to commence use of the Casper Air Base, which had been constructed in an incredibly small amount of time.  The existing county airport was Wardwell Field, the Casper area's second airport (the first was in what is now Evansville).  Today, what was Casper Air Base is the Natrona County International Airport, which actually uses at least one fewer runway than was constructed by the Army in 1942.  Wardwell Field's runways, in contrast, are city streets in the Town of Bar Nunn.

Potomac Park including Hains Point, as well as the Naval Air Station Anacostia (upper left) and the Army Air Service's Bolling Field. October 9, 1920.

 

Control Tower, Ford Island, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

Control Tower, Ford Island

This is the control tower at the Navy Air Station at Ford Island. Those who have seen Tora! Tora! Tora! will be familiar with the tower.

F-84 Thunderjets in Japan, mid 1950s

F-84 Thunderjets in Japan, mid 1950s

F-86D in Japan

F-86Ds in Japan

Note the drag chute being used on this F-86's landing.

F-86Ds in Japan, mid 1950s.

These photographs were taken by my father, during the Korean War, at the Air Force base where he was stationed.

Boeing 377 Stratocruiser on Wake Island, mid 1950s

Wake Island, mid 1950s

My father took this photograph on a stop over on Wake Island in the 1950s. This photo would have been taken either going to Japan, or coming back from Japan. The airliner is the commercial B377 Stratocruiser, an airliner developed from the wartime B-29.   The B377 is in Pan American Airways colors.

Wake Island is now a wildlife refuge.