Forward
I still have vivid memories of the Pratt Army Air Field (PAAF) from 1943-1945. I was in elementary school and then Junior High during this time. I remember my friends and I used to ride our bicycles to the Air Base to watch the planes. We were always awed by the size of the Bombers. On several occasions a Sgt. Marvin Beaver from Texas, who became a family friend, would take me to the Air Field, where we could buy candy bars (scarce items) at the Post Exchange (PX), see a movie at the Base Theater, or visit his barracks. I even visited him at the Base Hospital when he was a patient there. He was like a brother to me. Sadly, he never returned from the Pacific War Theater.
The memory of seeing the Air Field's “bone yard” haunts me to this day. It was a place where the parts and pieces of planes from various crashes were stacked in seemingly large endless piles. I don't think I will ever forget it.
With the excitement and the thrill or these years as well as showing the innocence of my youth, my great ambition was to fight in World War II as an Air Force Pilot. It wasn't until much later, after I had served in the Air Force during the Korean War, that I began to fully realize not only what this Air Field represented but how it effected so many lives.
In October 2001, my old friend and classmate, Jack McCawley, told me about plans to erect a Memorial Site at the former PAAF. Consequently, I decided to research and publish a book about plane crashes involving flights from the PAAF during World War II.
It is important to be aware that these flight operations were being conducted under wartime conditions. Even though these tragedies were often reported in local newspapers, they had to compete with the myriad of war news stories being printed every day. People were becoming accustomed to reading and hearing of military activities and operations, both locally and internationally, including the tragedies arising from them. Learning about war-related stories became a “Way of Life” for the American people.
Unless individuals were aware that a particular event directly affected them or their families or communities, usually they did not take the time to reflect on the situation. It isn't that people did not care. They were preoccupied with the whole war situation, i.e. meat, sugar, shoes, rubber tires, and gas being rationed; friends and relatives serving on the front lines; families trying to keep in touch with loved ones via military censored letters; women joining the work force to replace men who entered the military; newsreels bringing the realities of war back to the home front; the uncertainty of the future. It is in this context that this book is presented.
The First Edition of this book was published in 2003. Along with numerous additions and modifications, this Second Edition has added a tale about three legendary B-29s and an Epilogue. This book is a, “Little Piece of History Revisited.”
Rodney B. Dyerly
Major USAFR (Ret.), 2005