Obviously, I'm a new member, and as you can tell from the (not so original) thread header, I'm from Texas, near Houston, actually. However, like most Houstonians, I'm not from here originally; I great up in far west Texas, which is the ones you've all seen in the movies. Being in the west, most of the history surrounding me was recent, such as the 1870s on forward. Except for the forts along the old military supply road (Davis, Stockton, Concho, Phantom Hill, etc.) between San Antonio and El Paso, which roughly parallels modern-day I-10, the only "military history" was the many WWII training bases spread around the countryside. Growing up in the late 19502-60s, there we still a number of WWII aircraft around, you could buy real WWII surplus in the "Army Store" and everyone's dad "fought in the war". Unlike many of my friends, I always liked talking to older folks about what they did in the war. Some would talk your arm off and others didn't want to talk at all. My father and all of my uncles were in combat around the world. Also, my father had a business partner who fought with Gross Deutschland on the Eastern Front, and he and I talked for hours on many, many occasions. My interests in history pretty much covers any historical epoch. Where WWII is concerned, the Eastern Front, Pacific (where my dad fought), the bombing offensive by Bomber Command and the struggle of the German night fighters against Bomber Command form my main interests. The Internet is a wonderful thing, and I'm glad to be part of this community. Best regards, David
Welcome to the forum David. I see we have some similar interests. And yes, I have read about the availability of aircraft in your neck of the woods after the war. Lucky so and so's I think it's in Texas where a couple of fuselages (B17s) have been turned into diners.
Welcome aboard, David. Over the years I have drooled over post-war photos of every wartime USAAF aircraft imaginable lined up wingtip to wingtip in places like Kingman, Arizona etc. We would be very interested to hear about your family's involvement in the war. I hope you enjoy it here.
Welcome David from the Aussie contingent. I am sure you will enjoy it here. We do have similar interests. I collect headstones of the 11,037 RAAF lads/lasses of WW2 who are buried or memorialised in 65 countries around the world (we even have one at Arlington) as well as the lads of the fledgling Air Corps of WW1. I have travelled the Pacific for work and visited most of the battlefields from the equator, Central Pacific and those of the South West Pacific. I have spent quite a lot of time on Tarawa, The Marshalls, New Guinea, Rabaul and Guadalcanal. Like many others I learnt about the United States as a "kid" by watching all the civil war and cowboy movies as well as sifting through the war movies (truth and fact) that were pumped out by the major studios of the era. Towns (cities now) like Austin (Stephen), Houston (Sam), (from your statehood days) El Paso, Amarillo, Abilene, San Antonio (The Alamo), Laredo and I even remember seeing a movie about Sweetwater however it is more well known now as the town where Forrest Carter wrote his book "Gone to Texas" from which (a favourite of mine) the movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales" was adapted. Hard to notice that Texas is one of my favourite states of the US.
Wow, I didn't get this of a reception when I got married! Speaking of "rows upon rows of B-17s", near where I grew up in West Texas (Odessa, so-named by the Russians who built the railroad) is a small town called Pyote, on I-20. During WWII, it was known to people around the world as "Rattlesnake Bomber Base", supposedly 300-miles from any city, and it got its well-deserved name because of the tendency of the local snakes to crawl up into the shade of the bombers' wheels and belly, into the shade of walls, under vehicles... anywhere. It was a gunnery training base and later a B17 training base (a Heavy Conversion Unit in Bomber Command?). Anyway, after the war when my father came home from the SW Pacific, he said that the USAAF was beginning to park hundreds of B-17s, B-24s, B-29s, B-25s and many assorted other types there, lined up wingtip-to-wingtip for miles. One of his old pals from high school, who'd flown B17s in the war, got a postwar "aviation" job overseeing moving these aircraft several feet (they were parked on turf) every few weeks to keep them from settling into the west Texas sand. Occasionally, they would taxi some around on the taxiways and runways just for grins. Starting in late 1947-48, the War Assets Administration began selling some of them off for scrap. This went on for several years until they were all gone. In Boy Scouts, we used to go over to the old base and camp out, and we'd spend hours walking the fields looking for anything left over (it was like looking for arrowheads, which we did, too) from "the war". We'd find the occasional airplane part, such as .50-cal brass and pieces of links, spark plugs, safety wire, cable, wire, radio parts, etc. On an airport, it would be FOD, out in the fields around Pyote, it was "war stuff". Part of the movie "Fandango" was filmed there, but the five huge hangers have pretty much fallen to ruin since companies stopped renting them for storage about 20 years ago. Here's a pretty good link: Pyote Air Force Station, AKA Rattlesnake Bomber Base, Pyote Texas. Again, thanks for the great welcome! Best regards, David
A little about Pyote Aircraft dispersal. Document Detail for IRISNUM= 00489772IRISNUM00489772OLDACC2-2754-25ACLASSUNCLASSIFIEDBEG_DATE11-01-1951MAINSQUADRON/2753/AIRCRAFT STORAGEPUB_DATE END_DATE12-31-1951CALLK287.83-31REEL15900ACCS_DATE MAJCOM RECTYPEHISTORYREL_DATE09-19-1995TITLE TITLE_XT ACCNOTES IRISREFM2348FRAME1126FRAMELST1149INDEXID48NUMPAGES23ABSTRACTCONTAINS HISTORY OF 2753 AIRCRAFT STORAGE SQUADRON LOCATED AT PYOTE AFB, MONAHANS, TX. AS OF 31 DEC 1951, 515 AIRCRAFT IN STORAGE STATUS. CORROSION CONTROL CREWS REMOVED, CLEANED, AND TREATED TURRETS IN ALL B-29 TYPE AIRCRAFT. ALSO STARTED CORROSION CONTROL ON B-26 AIRCRAFT. SPECIAL STORAGE ARRANGED FOR THREE AIRCRAFT: B-17 (SWOOSE), B-42 (MIX-MASTER), AND B-29 (ENOLA GAY); PLANNED TO PRESERVE THESE AIRCRAFT INDEFINITELY IN ORIGINAL CONDITION AND DELIVERE TO NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON DC IN FIVE YEARS. REMOVED B-29 AIRCRAFT BOMB RACKS FOR REPAIRS THEN FOR USE IN PROJECT PUSH OFF. REMOVED THREE B-26 AIRCRAFT FROM STORAGE AND DELIVERED TO HILL AFB UTAH; ALSO REMOVED FROM STORAGE B-25 AIRCRAFT THAT WERE SCHEDULED FOR RECONDITIONING. PYOTE AFB PARTICIPATED IN PROJECT PUSH OFF (PROJECT TO WITHDRAW 101 B-29 AIRCRAFT FROM STORAGE AND FERRY THE AIRCRAFT TO MARIETTA GA).DNOTES ADMIN AUTHORPYOTE AFB TXTITLE_AE SUBJECT QC_DATE QC_COMMENTS LAST_UPD_DATE For information on obtaining a copy of the document described above, please click hereRecord provided by: View attachment 2610 View attachment 2611 View attachment 2612
Here are some other records from Pyote! http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/489/776.xml http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/489/775.xml http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/489/773.xml http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/489/778.xml http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/465/592.xml
Texas also trained a lot of RAF personnel during the war When the RAF invaded Texas! | Air Classics | Find Articles at BNET Item 000110 Detail
You guys are making me homesick for the high plains! Thanks for the great links... you guys are amazin'! Just in West Texas, there were training bases in Midland, Abilene, Lubbock, Pyote (Monahans), Marfa, Amarillo, Del Rio, El Paso, and up in New Mexico, at Hobbs, Clovis, Carlsbad, Roswell... and that's all I can think of just off the top of my head. When I was learning to fly and building up hours, we used to fly down south of Interstate 10 to a practice bombing range called "little Tokyo". In the early-70s, you could still the outlines of a couple of "battleships", a "city" and some concentric circles, all laid out in rocks that had once been whitewashed. They used sand-filled practice bombs to practice level and dive bombing.
