Friday's Faces From the Past: "Looking west down tent alley" - Korea, 1952

Here is another photo from my dad Fred Pape's military scrapbook, of the K-1 Pusan West Air Base in Korea in late 1952:

On the back of this photo, Dad wrote, "Looking west down tent alley to flight line.  Note casual character on left" - that's Dad.


© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

(Not-So-) Wordless Wednesday: "All the Conveniences of Home" - Korea, 1952

Another photo from my dad Fred Pape's military scrapbook - this is from the inside of the "Sans Nookee Teepee":

 

On the back of the photo, Dad wrote, "My hand shook slightly as I took this scene inside the tent.  Milt* and I built the table.  Milt is setting up a pillowcase on the far right to show some of our color pictures.  Dick Parks* [is] standing at the table."  You can also see a stove for heat in the foreground.

* Milt is Captain Milton C. Royles, the pilot of Dad's B-26.  Richard Robert "Dick" Parks is a fellow navigator from Dad's class at Ellington Air Force Base who was also assigned to this squadron.



© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday Memories: "Sans Nookee Teepee" in Korea, Late 1952

Here is another photo from my dad Fred Pape's military scrapbook:

My dad, a Second Lieutenant navigator at the time, is kneeling in the center, with Paul Marks standing on the left and Al Nolan standing on the right.  On the back of the photograph, Dad wrote that Paul and Al were also navigators and "two great guys."  Unfortunately, I was unable to find out any additional information about either gentleman.

This photo was taken outside their tent at K-1, the Pusan West Air Base in South Korea (Their regular base, K-9 or Pusan East, was closed for rebuilding of a runway).  The back of the photograph is stamped "Kodacolor Print...Week of November 24, 1952," so the photo was taken sometime before that date.  Dad had been in Korea for just a couple months at that point.  Dad said they had the only tent with a red door, because his pilot partner, Captain Milton C. "Milt" Royles, had painted it that color (I posted a photo of him and my dad in front of this tent in May 2014).  If you look closely, you can see the words "Sans Nookee Teepee" also painted on the door.

There will be more about K-1 and tent alley in future posts.


© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Sentimental Sunday: Mark as a Boy Scout in the 1950s, for World Thinking Day

Explorer Scout Mark Gresham with the flag for Troop 23 of Apra Heights, Guam, at the Explorer Air Encampment at Tachikawa Air Base near Tokyo, Japan, sometime in the mid- to late 1950s.

Last weekend the university where I am employed hosted its 25th annual Boy Scout Merit Badge Seminar weekend, and another librarian and I conducted a class for the Reading Merit Badge.  That had me digging out some of my husband's Boy Scout memorabilia (thankfully, his mom didn't throw away much).  As today is the Boy Scouts' Founders' Day (and World Thinking Day for the Girl Scouts, of which I was a member for over 10 years as a girl and as a leader), it seemed to be a good day to share them.

Mark was in the Boy Scouts and Explorers during much of the time his family lived on Guam.  He attained First Class Scout status on April 18, 1955, when he was in the eighth grade.  He remembers participating, as an Explorer, at an encampment at Tachikawa Air Base near Tokyo, Japan, pictured above, with the patch from that event pictured below.

Special event patch for the Explorer Air Encampment at Tachikawa Air Base near Tokyo, Japan

Two Boy Scout shoulder insignia for Mark's troop on Guam, the Naval Forces Guam Military Base Strip, and the Apra Heights Community Strip for his Explorers summer uniform, and  the "Explorers B.S.A." strip worn above his right pocket.

Mark also remembers hiking up some mountains in Guam one weekend (about three miles) to a waterfall with a great swimming hole, and camping there overnight.  He says his mother, Jewel Moore Gresham (1914-1994), took a frozen steak, wrapped it in waxed paper and then aluminum foil, and gave it to him to put in his backpack.  When he got to the campsite, he found some wild onions which he added to the steak, and wrapped them up tight in the foil and cooked them in the coals of the campfire.  Everybody else ate sandwiches!

Mark was the Secretary for his Explorer Post on Guam and wore the insignia pictured above.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Mark earned the Reading Merit Badge in April 1956. The look of the badge (pictured above) has not changed much since it was created in 1929, although the requirements have evolved to include Internet searches and searching online library catalogs today.






















The Swimming Merit Badge dates back to 1911, one of 57 available then.  Mark earned this one in March 1956.  It's changed quite a bit in design since the one he earned, pictured above.  Oddly enough, through 1958 (according to Fred Duersch Jr.'s Green Khaki Crimped-Edge Merit Badges, the badge pictured a female swimmer (as shown here) with white skin and a black suit.  Then it changed to a male with pink skin wearing a blue suit, but he's still swimming through air.  To earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout, a boy must earn either the Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling merit badge, and since 1970, the badge (with a male swimmer's upper torso, and waves on blue water) has a silver (rather than green) border.  According to Duersch, for this badge, "the requirements included demonstrated proficiency in swimming skills such as water safety, entering the water, treading water, and swimming on the surface and underwater correctly using common swimming strokes."

The Printing Merit Badge, pictured above, also dates back to 1911, but was discontinued in 1981.  It was succeeded by the Printing/Communication badge, which was discontinued in 1989, with its requirements merged with today's Graphic Arts badge.  Mark says he was the only boy in his troop to earn this badge.  It's not surprising that he did, because his father, Francis Edward Gresham (1911-1990), served successively as quarterman (foreman) printer (July 1954 to September 1956), acting supervisor (September 1956 to March 1957) and then (March 1957 to August 1960) Supervisor of Publications and Printing for the Administration Department of the U.S. Navy on Guam.  Duersch's book says "the requirements included demonstrated proficiency in typesetting, proofreading, and printing copies for an approved publication."



Mark was also in the Boy Scouts when his family lived in Myrtle Grove (January to November 1949) and Pensacola (November 1949 to July 1954) in Florida, while his dad was the supervisor of lithographic printing at the U.S. Naval Air Station Consolidated Printing Plant in Pensacola.   He went to the Gulf Coast Council's Camp Big Heart one summer, and was in the Moose Patrol in his troop (and also served as patrol leader).

Moose Patrol patch - Mark remembers this being his patrol in his troop in Florida and wearing this on his uniform.

I wish I still had some of my badges, but as the oldest of five children, they were thrown out long ago.  All I have are a number of photos, including a couple pictures of me in my Girl Scout uniforms.


© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Bushes in V-J+50 Parade, Fredericksburg, Texas, September 2, 1995

I recently read George W. Bush's book about his father, George H. W. Bush:  41:  A Portrait of My Father.  About the same time, I was searching through a huge number of photos my mother recently gave me and came upon these three.

They are from the 50th anniversary of V-J Day (Victory over Japan) celebration in Fredericksburg, Texas, on Saturday, September 2, 1995.  There was a parade that day, and former President George H. W. Bush and then-Texas Governor George W. Bush, along with their wives Barbara and Laura respectively, were in it.  Mom & Dad lived in Fredericksburg at the time and went to the parade.

Also that day, at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg (aka the Admiral Nimitz Museum I've written about in an earlier post), the outdoor Plaza of Presidents was dedicated to the eight former U.S. Presidents who served in World War Two.  In addition, the George H. W. Bush Gallery at the museum was dedicated that day.

Interestingly, the festivities occurred on the 51st anniversary of George H. W. Bush being shot down over the Pacific during the war.

George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush, September 2, 1995, Fredericksburg, Texas

 George H. W. Bush, September 2, 1995, Fredericksburg, Texas.  George W. is looking away from the camera.

Barbara Bush, September 2, 1995, Fredericksburg, Texas.  I think Laura Bush is next to her, also waving.

© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wednesday: "Milt on Ramp in Guam," September 1952

Dad's pilot and partner, First Lieutenant Milton C. Royles, in the cockpit of their B-26, in Guam on the B-26 ferrying mission, September 1952. On the back of the photo, Dad wrote, "I sat in the seat at his right."

© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday: Johnson Island to Kwajalein, September 1952

My dad, Frederick H. Pape, shot this from the B-26 he was navigating on a ferrying mission during the Korean War: 

The "Capt. Hubbel's" referred to in the caption to the photograph is Loren E. Hubbell,  He was born November 30, 1919, in Menasha, Minnesota, the sixth child (and fifth son) of Iowans Byron Barsley Hubbell and Maude L. Hilton.  By the 1925 Iowa Census, the family was living in Powhatan, Iowa, with another son, and by the 1930 Census, there were two more sons.  Loren still lived with his parents on the family farm at the time of the 1940 Census, along with four of his brothers.  At the time Loren enlisted in the Army Air Corps, on December 30, 1941, he was a high school graduate working as a farm hand and living in Mallard, Iowa.  Hubbell served in the Army Air Force through January 17, 1946, with two tours of duty overseas.

A report in The Mason City [Iowa] Globe-Gazette, Monday, August 2, 1943, page 11, stated that "Lt. Loren E. Hubbell of Mallard, Iowa, was co-pilot of the [B-17] Flying Fortress, Happy Daze, which was knocked down miles off the German coast after last Sunday's [July 25] bombing of Kiel. While awaiting rescue at sea, he and crew members watched the burning of the German port they had bombed. The next morning fishing boats returned to port and took the crew aboard. A short time later they were sighted by a scouting Halifax. From it they got their course. Late that afternoon two air-sea rescue power-boats came out, met the survivors and returned them to England."

According to information at the American Air Museum of Britain site, enemy aircraft flak set wing on fire, ditched 30 miles off Danish coast, rescued by RAF Warwick which dropped airborne lifeboat.  Nine of ten crew members returned to duty; but one was killed in action.  At the time, Hubbell was a second lieutenant in the 94th Bomb Group in the 410th Bomb Squadron.

In a questionnaire completed about the incident for the Missing Air Crew Report (available at Fold3, for aircraft serial #42-30206), Hubbell said they bombed their secondary target, the submarine pens at Kiel.  He said that "All crew members were in the aircraft and none were injured in any way at the time the ship was landed upon the water approximately 50 miles north west of Heligoland Island. ...Sgt. [Thomas M.] Brown was presumably drowned due to his straps on his Mae West [lifejacket] having broken.  This Mae West was floating on the water and was picked up and taken back to England when the remainder of us were rescued.  I don't recall having seen him in the water."

Page 9 of the  Pocahontas Record Democrat on Thursday, November 25, 1943 had a short story titled  "Plover Man, With 8th Air Force, Gets Oak Leaf Cluster (Special from Plover)": Second Lieut. Loren E. Hubbell, who is with the 8th Air Force in England, has been awarded the Medal with the Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, according to an announcement received here Monday from the war department. Lieut. Hubbell is the son of Mr. and Mrs. B[yron B. Hubbell]..."

Hubbell returned to Mallard, Iowa, after his Army service ended (he was living there in February 1950 when he filed for the state's World War II bonus).  He enlisted in the "new" Air Force on May 4, 1951, and was released June 10, 1953, at the rank of captain.  He died January 14, 1990, and is buried at Powhatan Cemetery in Plover, Iowa.

Besides the pilots and navigators of the two other Night Intruder crews (#8 and #13) that were in Dad's survival school group, and another member of  Dad's navigator class at Ellington Air Force Base (Joe Halpin), there were 17 other pilots and navigators flying the B-26s (I'm not sure who was flying the B-29) in this ferrying mission.  I will try to write more about them in a future post.

© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Happy Valentine's Day!

Breathless and me, February 1982

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wednesday: "On Ramp at Hickam A.F.B." - September 1952

My dad, Frederick H. Pape, shot this from the B-26 he was navigating on a ferrying mission during the Korean War:

© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday: Dad and Milt in Honolulu, September 1952

Here are photos from some other pages from my dad Fred Pape's military scrapbook, about the mission ferrying a B-26 from California to Japan.  Their first stop after leaving McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento was Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii.  They had some time to explore the city, so they went to the Royal Hawaiian (the famous pink hotel that opened in 1927 on Waikiki Beach) and to Honolulu's Chinatown.  Below is a picture of Dad (on the right) with his pilot, Milt Royles, on the Waikiki Beach side of the Royal Hawaiian:

Here's some more information about Milt, Dad's pilot:

Milton "Milt" Clarence Royles was born February 24, 1920, in Pennsylvania, probably in Philadelphia, where he was baptized April 11 of that year at Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church.  His father was Leonard Royles, his mother was named Elizabeth, and he had an older brother (by four years) named Joseph.  Leonard was a Philadelphia police officer, and the family lived at 5036 Torresdale Avenue in Philadelphia on the 1930 Census, and were also living there in April 1942.

When Milt enlisted in the Army Air Corps on November 21, 1941, he was a high school graduate working as a bookkeeping machine operator.  By July 11, 1952, when my dad was assigned as Milt's navigator in Night Intruder Crew #12, Milt was a first lieutenant pilot in the Air Force.

As the Korean War wound down, when Dad was reassigned to be a navigator instructor at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston in March 1953, Milt was reassigned to the 1738th Ferrying Squadron based out of Long Beach Municipal Airport in California.  Milt married Vivian J. Woods on March 6, 1953, in San Francisco.  Milt was still with the Air Force in 1956, and they were living in Orlando, Florida.  They later divorced, and on May 12, 1962, as an Air Force Major, he married Cornelia "Corrie" de Vos Burchart of Curacao in Bernalillo County, New Mexico.  After he retired in 1964, they moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where Milt passed away on March 1, 1996.  His ashes are in Columbarium Section 15 of Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth.


© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Friday's Faces From the Past: Fred, Henrietta, Jack, and Bob, San Francisco, 1952

My dad, Fred Pape (on the left) with his first cousin once removed (his mom's first cousin) Henrietta Gauer Strible (1898-1961) and her husband Jack (John Joseph Strible Jr., 1895-1963), and Dad's brother, my uncle Bob (Paul Robert Pape, Jr., 1926-2008), in San Francisco in September, 1926.  Dad was on a short leave before a B-26 ferrying mission from Sacramento, California, to Tokyo, Japan.  Bob was en route from Korea to the Pentagon.  Bob and Fred met at the home of their mother's cousin in San Francisco,  I think the photo above might have been taken outside Roberts-at-the-Beach, a restaurant that had been at 2200 Great Highway in San Francisco since 1897 (as a sign in the photo says).  It was located just off the beach between Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Zoo. The restaurant closed in the 1960s and was eventually torn down.

© Amanda Pape - 2015 - click here to e-mail me.

Wordless Wednesday: Happy 86th Birthday to My Dad!

My dad, Frederick Henry Pape, serving as best man in his older brother Bob's wedding in June 1954.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

Military Monday: Ferrying a B-26 from California to Japan, Late September 1952

After survival school and a brief family visit (with his first cousin once removed Henrietta Gauer Strible and her husband Jack, along with his brother, my uncle Bob Pape) in San Francisco, my dad, Frederick Henry Pape, was assigned to a group of twelve pilots and twelve navigators ferrying twelve B-26 aircraft from McClellan Air Force Base outside Sacramento, California, to Tachikawa Air Force Base in Tokyo, Japan.  I've written about some of my dad's memories of this trip in a previous post, and will write more over the next couple weeks.  Above is a page from my dad's military scrapbook, showing his drawing of the route they took, as well as a photo of the Tumon Bay area in Guam (long before the development boom there).


© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.