Is the Texas still floating, or is she dry-docked? We were there 10-15 years ago and there was a PT Boat nearby being restored. What happened to it?

While not a "first" associated with Texas, do I recall correctly that she shelled the beaches at Normandy and Iwo?

Also, it isn't WWII, but I believe something else happened just a little SE of her present berth....?

[Double Post]

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 2/12/2007 10:40p).]

Canyon,

In my search of Fort Crockett I ran across the PT 309 Link: http://www.pt-309.org/

Can you believe a PT boat sits underneath all this:




Yes, the Texas was present at Normandy. She sat in dry dock from '88-'90 while being restored. She now sits back in the water.

quote:

---

From 1948 until 13 December 1988 the ship was never out of the water....... 40 years. Most ships go into dry-dock on average once ever 3 to 6 years. As you could imagine what 40 years could do to a hull. She was no longer afloat as you could well guess. The USS Texas had been sitting on the muddy bottom for close to 36 years and there was a great deal of concern of just how much of the Hull was still intact.

---

And as for the last question, I believe the answer is Texas City - 1947.

[This message has been edited by p_bubel (edited 2/12/2007 10:37p).]

Class of '99 - Shameless Self-Promotion Wanderlust

I was thinking a little closer and 1836.

quote:

---

October 16, 1962 I was stationed at Roswell AFB NM going through upgrade training into the KC-135.

---

Fossil, you really are getting old. In October, 1962 you were stationed at Walker AFB , Roswell, NM. I was a sophomore at Roswell High School. My dad had been stationed at Walker, but was on a remote tour in Morroco at that time. (The AF was in the process of closing our B-47 bases in Morroco at that time.)

The Atlas missiles coming out of their silos had to be scary as hell. I was not aware that that had happened.

FWIW - I went through a similar experience as an eigth grader while my dad was stationed at Incirlik AB, Turkey in May 1960. After Powers was shot down, Kruschev threatened to blow Incirlik away. The AF took it seriously and we had several evacuation drills before tensions died down. The plan was for the dependents to be picked up using every available vehicle on base and then we would all head for the hills (actually mountains to the east of Incirlik.

I acutually knew Gary Powers. Sacked his groceries in the commissary and delivered the Stars and Stripes to his base house (a single wide trailer, BTW).

But I digress. Love this thread.

[This message has been edited by NormanAg (edited 2/12/2007 11:00p).]

Ah, I see.

Norman ...
I probably met your dad at the O'Club at Sidi Slimane AFB, Morocco. (He may have mentioned the Shaud Soleil wine that they sold there for 25 cents a bottle ... bad stuff.) I was there off and on in early 1962 on Tanker Strip Alert duty ... and may have refueled his B-47 near the Azores Is where I was stationed three months that year in a tanker task force to refuel bomber units rotating to/from the states.

Ben Guerir, the other Morocco base had shut down before 1962.

As for the Atlas Missiles it was my understanding that because they were liquid fueled they had to be raised out of the silos for fueling (MP-1 + LOX.)



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 2/12/2007 11:33p).]

NormanAg ...

The Air Force was a small world. When I was at Roswell my kids were about 3 and 4. Leap ahead to 1977, I was retired and my daughter was a Sophomore at A&M. One evening we invited her boyfriend and a couple of his Corps buddies to dinner. I picked up on one of the names as familiar during introductions. I asked what his dad did and he replied Air Force. I asked "Walker AFB at one time?" He said yes. I replied to him and my daughter, "I am surprised you did not recognize each other ... you played together several times when we visited in the Basile's home when you were four." His dad, Lou, was an old buddy who was permanent party there.

I can imagine the look on Khruchev's face that morning in October 1962 when word began filtering in to the Kremlin that the Atlas missiles were coming out of their silos, that about 250 Minutemen missiles silo doors were open, that almost 100 B-52s had launched and were entering their holding orbits along the Arctic Circle, that a couple hundred more B-52s plus 700 B-47s were in full launch ready alert, that 300 KC-97 and KC-135 tankers were arriving at forward task force bases, that the Tactical Air Command had relocated its total force to every air base, airport and landing strip in southern Florida 90 miles from Cuba. I am sure the Army in Europe and the Navy were also quite active.

I do not know what Khruchev was thinking but I was convinced we were going to war just any minute. We stayed in that posture for about a month, well after the crisis had cooled down.

My dad made that missile smoke like that.

My Mother worked in the office at the Hitchcock Blimp Base in the summers between sememsters at SMU. Since her home town was Dickinson, the base was close enough to home for a summer job. This was between 1942-1946. Her job was to keep track of the workers and their hours. She says that there were plenty of servicemen working out there and a sufficient amount of good bull that went along with working in a predominately male environment. The servicemen managed to convince the young ladies who went to work out there that before they would be accepted, they had to climb to the top of the hangar and walk the ridge. My Mother did it but it nearly scared her to death. The wind was very strong up there and of course the toughest thing was to hang on to your skirt. On Friday afternoons, the girls got together in one of the offices and took turns standing on top of one of the desks, while the others drew "seams" down the backs of their legs, simulating seamed hosiery. Nylons were rare and expensive during the war. So a drawn seam and an application of leg makeup, gave the appearance of hosiery.

LWInk2

CanyonAg, you mentioned the Pampa Field, but I think you got the location wrong. I think this airfield, north of town, is more likely the location. Unless you have some better info. But I can't imagine any other reason such a large field would be built in Pampa.

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&z=16&ll=35.615756,-100.99504&spn=0.008984,0.026994&t=k&om=1

1st Lt. George McGovern, who was a great military hero, but an abysmal presidential candidate, trained out of here for a while. He was a B-24 pilot, but when he was here, he was training in other planes, prior to moving to the B-24 training site in Liberal, Kansas. In that town, he picked up is airplane, and (I imagine) he got the inspiration for his political career.




[This message has been edited by aalan94 (edited 2/18/2007 9:16p).]

There was a WWII Prisoner of War Camp in Hearne, TX. It primarily housed German POWs captured during the North Africa campaign against the Afrika Korps. The link below is to a great book written about it by an A&M professor.
http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2004/waters.htm

Jeff, make sure you read the previous posts. We hit that one already.

In fact, I had a whole post a few months back soley on WWII POW camps.

The professor you mentioned, Dr. Krammer, was my favorite prof at A&M. I took the History of Nazi Germany from him. The greatest part about that class is not what I learned in it, but what I've learned since. He gave us all a "reading list" that contained all the great works on the subject. I lost the original list at some point, but I had gotten about halfway through it, and it dramatically increased my comprehension of WWII history.

aalan-

The current Pampa airport, which you linked, is called Perry Lefores field, and is about 4 miles north of Pampa. But the actual Pampa Army Air Field was at my link and is now abandoned.

Lefors field started as an auxiallry of PAAF, Thompson #2 on the image below.

Got it. Still, it's surprising that there's not much there. Must have only had one runway or so. Usually if it had others, even when they're plowed up, you'd see a shadow image.

I can see the ghosts of the old runways at Pampa AAF. But then, I'm a private pilot and a farmer, so I might be picking up stuff others don't. At the link below, I've zoomed in to an area to the east of the one remaining runway. In it, you can see the "X" of where the other two runways once intersected. It it right above the pivot (the circle). Zoom out to see where it lays in relation to the rest of the base.

Try looking here

I'm a private pilot too, but I expected something a little more defined than that. I didn't see it at first.

However, when I zoom out, I can match up the small bit of white cleared space next to that road with what looks like a bit of the runway ghost out to the Northwest.

Back to Lt. George McGovern - He was stationed at Cerignola, Italy. A quick skim around the town came up with what is very clearly the shadow of the old hardstands for the bombers. The runway is completely gone, however.

You can see the white lines with little branches coming out just to the right of the road. To the left of them, (next to the road) is a shadow of what could be the runway, but it's hard to say

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&z=15&ll=41.236898,15.803919&spn=0.01662,0.053988&t=k&om=1

Here's a link with photos of the base.
http://www.456thbombgroup.org/stornara.html

[This message has been edited by aalan94 (edited 2/21/2007 7:32p).]

Here is an abandoned air field in South Texas. It was Field #20410, an outlying field for NASCC used during WW2. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=corpus+christi,+tx&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=27.559531,-97.341185&spn=0.009283,0.027122&t=k&om=1
There are three of these fields around Laguna Largo. Here is a great little website about abandoned and small airfields. http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX.htm

[This message has been edited by Pro Sandy (edited 3/2/2007 7:28p).]

Matagorda Island air field. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=15&ll=28.325689,-96.461635&spn=0.019455,0.039139&t=k&om=1

Matagorda was used as a bombing range during and after WW2. Now is part of the state park and federal land.

Here's an update: It's not in Texas, but it's pretty darn close.

Camp Amache, a WWII Interment Camp for Americans of Japanese ancestry during WWII, just outside of Granda, in southeast Colorado.

Recent Yahoo News story

Web page with lots of info.

Interesting brochure about Texas in WWII:

http://www.thc.state.tx.us/publications/brochures/WWIIbrochure05.pdf

Marfa's old Army air field is still pretty visible from overhead:


Another old West Texas base was "Rattlesnake" Bomber Base, or Pyote Army Field, later Pyote Air Base. Here's the Google Maps link to the satellite overhead
Pyote's remaining hangar(it's collapsed since) was used in the movie "Fandango".

--
[url]http://www.swankyconservative.com
Aint' nothing a martini won't fix...

Great thread. Thanks Canyon, fossil and all who contributed.

Edit to add the link to "Vancourt Army Airfield Aux #6" near Wall, Tx. Training field for Goodfellow air field.

You can clearly see it as it is now a drag strip.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=wall+tx&ie=UTF8&ll=31.335311,-100.284576&spn=0.032624,0.05785&t=h&z=14&om=1

(not sure if follow how to name it, so you are stuck with the long url....)

[This message has been edited by EMc77 (edited 12/28/2007 1:06p).]

(I apologize for not looking this up first, but the experts on this thread probably will have the info I'm seeking before a search engine will.)

Wasn't Fort Wolters a POW camp in WWII?
I know it was the primary helicopter training base during Viet Nam, before Fort Rucker took over the role.

From what I could find, Camp/Fort Wolters had German POWs, as did most other major posts in the state. The base existed before the war, so it was not established as a POW camp. hth.

Thanks, MLK.

sometimes though google pops up a gold mine

http://www.fortwolters.com/

[This message has been edited by LWInk2 (edited 12/31/2007 9:22p).]

Here's a picture of the Hitchcock Naval Air Station.

[This message has been edited by LWInk2 (edited 12/31/2007 9:21p).]

nm

[This message has been edited by aalan94 (edited 12/31/2007 10:10p).]

Someone on the Outdoors board was talking about aerial photos, which made me come look at this thread again. One of the more enjoyable discussions I've had on TexAgs.

Looks like we left off on Ft. Wolters. For those that know it:

Is this the ghost of Ft. Wolters?

And speaking of helicopters, at the airport in Temple, there seem to be hundreds of old Hueys parked on the tarmac. Does anyone know what that's about?

EDIT: I figured it out. Apparently DynCorp has a contract to overhaul them for sale to friendly countries.

PDF file with press release



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 4/1/2008 9:59a).]

quote:

---

Wasn't Fort Wolters a POW camp in WWII?

---

My dad grew up in Mineral Wells. His birthday is Dec 7, 1934, so the japs threw a surprise 7th birtday party for him.

At the oubreak of WWII the US Army secured property surrounding Fort Wolters, which included the 126 acres that my grandparents owned. The Army did allow my grandparents to keep 5 acres for gardening, cattle, hogs, etc for their meat, eggs, milk.

My grandparents property was utilized as infantry training as well as a firing range.

As a child I spent lots of summers and weekends at my grandparents, and we always found cool relics of that time. I have hundreds of fired M1 shells; I have a few rifle grenades here in my office; I have a "pineapple" training grenade and a GI steel pot helmet, that has a dent from when my dad shot it with his .22 back in the 40's.

Even now when I return to that property, we find treasures of the WWII era.