Pratt Tailwind
It took a World War, some far-sighted airplane designers and a flock of mimeograph paper to bring into being the initial edition of the PRATT TAILWIND, a camp newspaper that never won the Pulitzer prize, but which began publication in the chilly month of March, 1943 and endured 33 more months of war, Kansas weather, and a procession of GI editors...
Last Issue Cover
A few sample articles are transcribed here, but to view and read the original Pratt Tailwind issues, come visit the Pratt County Historical Museum or the Pratt Public Library in Pratt Kansas.
Please select an article/item to view the entire item:
Parachute Building... (Vol. II No. 36, 21 Oct. 1944)
There are all kinds of riggers in all types of employment, ship riggers, clothes riggers and parachute riggers, but the only ones who can fold 65 yards of silk and hundreds of feet of nylon suspension lines into a little pack which will fit in a good sized hip pocket are parachute riggers. And that is what they are doing the the biggest part of the time. If they aren't busy folding them, they are inspecting or repairing chutes.
PAAF Gray Ladies (Vol II No. 22, 15 Jul. 1944)
The Gray Ladies of the American Red Cross is an organization well known and loved by all GIs who have been hospitalized at one time or another, but such a modest and self-effacing one that very few men except those whom the ladies serve know they exist.
Field Shutdown Marks Epoch (Vol III No. 45, 22 Dec. 1945)
The Engines Roar No More
The end of an epoch in Kansas history is evident today, with the news that Pratt Army Air Field is to be inactivated after nearly three years of continuous operation.
The closing of the pioneer B-29 training field brings to an end an era of history which began with the development of the Superfort itself and is only now ending, the fruits of its labor having played one of the most vital parts in the successful prosecution of the war against Japan.