tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1232112655035482837.post243873386349369193..comments2024-02-11T00:20:16.619-08:00Comments on Robin Chapman News: Something Dad Forgot to Mention About World War II: He Had Wings!Robin Chapmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10503563386747084298noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1232112655035482837.post-29174060792397759092011-05-31T15:16:36.636-07:002011-05-31T15:16:36.636-07:00Since I posted this, I've received an email fr...Since I posted this, I've received an email from someone who identified the man in the bottom row, center, as his grandfather, Adolphus L. Stroud.Robin Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10503563386747084298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1232112655035482837.post-8395085970887596162011-04-17T11:02:58.863-07:002011-04-17T11:02:58.863-07:00Just realize I didn't include the microfilm ro...Just realize I didn't include the microfilm roll numbers in the story. People might be interested: they are A0292 and A0293.Robin Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10503563386747084298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1232112655035482837.post-73847771125989478332011-04-17T10:57:25.739-07:002011-04-17T10:57:25.739-07:00I discovered in my research just what you have sai...I discovered in my research just what you have said about the "Fourth Air Force" i.e. that is was a Continental U.S. air defense and training force, which was really puzzling and explained to me only where he was attached when he was training at Geiger Field, Spokane, Washington and met my mom.<br /><br />When his 1902 unit was formed (or he joined it) as he headed overseas to Ie, it must have reported up somewhere else, and that is one of the many things I hope to discover in the unit history. The decision to put his unit history into the very early Air Force archives (look at the roll numbers!) is fascinating to me, and it is fascinating too that I found them where I did.<br /><br />So much I wish I could have asked him. But, I'm learning a lot anyway. <br />Thanks for the detail help.Robin Chapmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10503563386747084298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1232112655035482837.post-58782410804143049892011-04-17T09:57:39.834-07:002011-04-17T09:57:39.834-07:00Robin;
Good points, but a few need clarification. ...Robin;<br />Good points, but a few need clarification. <br />1/Close Air Support (CAS) missions were not uniquely USMC. Navy and Army Air Force pilots flew many, many CAS sorties. Marine Air Wings were usually forward-deployed to provide CAS and interdiction in the Pacific (cf., the Guadalcanal "Cactus Air Force"), and to this day, mud-Marines much prefer CAS being flown by their own, rather than AF or Navy pilots--though USAF ANG A-10s are the best-suited a/c in our current inventory for CAS, at least among the so-called "fast movers" (jets). <br />2/The "4th Air Force" was actually the "Fourth Air Force" by 1945, when your mother wrote that your father was a member thereof. If he was in fact at Ie Shima as part of the Fourth, there is an interesting back-story, because at the time, the Fourth was a CONUS (Continental U.S.) air-defense outfit. In any case, keep in mind that at the time, the Air Corps was part of the "U.S. Army Air Forces"-- plural-- which is why my father, for example, had flown combat missions from Guadalcanal in 1943 as a pilot in the 75th Bomb Squadron, 42nd Bomb Group, 13th Air Force, but was later a pilot in the Fourth Air Force (test-flying B-25s in S.C.).<br />3/Your father, while CO of Charlie Company, might indeed have been temporarily "owned" by the AAF, but he was not commissioned in the Army Air Corps--rather, the Corps of Engineers. Officers "in" the AAC, whether "rated" (that is, "winged") or not, wore the round winged-star Air Corps patch on the left shoulder and Air Corps brass on lapels or collar (said brass being the AAC prop-and-wings). <br />4/The postwar reshuffling of service roles-and-missions consequent to Truman's signing of the National Security Act of 1947 included the eventual creation of USAF-specific civil engineering detachments, which were called, during my time in the Air Force (Vietnam era), "Red Horse" dets. These engineers were fiercely proud of their identity, and able to construct, ex nihilo, anything needed by the USAF, anywhere, anytime--just like the Navy Seabees (Construction Battalions, or "CBs") and Army Corps of Engineers. Your father and his comrades in WWII cemented the legacy of combat engineers that our young military men and women are continuing in our nation's far-flung operations worldwide.TTriderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14970829779370076613noreply@blogger.com