I found this among my father's papers. It is signed by Linn Garibaldi and notes that it is limited to 100 copies. (My father's is numbered 13.)
Soldier's Ode to Ascension©
Handy Island
"The Air War Finds A Handy South Atlantic Island" was the caption on this Peter Hurd painting of Ascension Island, from Life Magazine, April 1945. It was the only place for pilots to refuel between Natal and West Africa.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Can You Identify These Men?
I've had several requests from readers, asking if I have photos of any of their family members who served on Ascension during World War II. I do have some photos of people I can't identify: so here is a group to look through, and see if you can spot anyone you know. (To enlarge the photos, just double click on them.)
Above is a group from Ascension, the only one of which I can identify is my father, standing at photo left.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
A Letter From the Chaplain
Roy and Mary Chapman of Homewood, Alabama: my father's parents. They appear to have some kind of a World War II booster sign on the front door and are posing with it. "We have a son overseas" or "We support War Bonds." It must have been something like that.
By August 1942, my grandparents in Alabama were concerned that they had not seen their son for seven months, mail service had only just begun to work with some regularity, and they still didn't know where he was. When Lt. Chapman was asked to stay on at his secret location--Ascension Island--it appears that he asked the unit's chaplain to write his parents and assure them they shouldn't worry.
Office of the Chaplain
38th Engineers
APO #1257, C/O Postmaster
Miami, Florida
August 3, 1942
"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Chapman,
I am the Chaplain of the organization to which your son, Lt. Chapman, is assigned, and take pleasure in writing this letter. He seems to be in the best of health and is quite cheerful in the performance of his duties. He is one of Uncle Sam's reliable officers and is to be commended for his worthy service. It has been a pleasure to know your son during the past few months.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Time Magazine and Wideawake Field: January 1944
General George Marshall, Time's
Man of the Year, January 3, 1944
Boobies on the Runway
Time Magazine
January 3, 1944
"If we don't hit Ascension
My wife gets a pension."
"So, sing U.S. flyers of the South Atlantic.
"This week the Army officially revealed why. Tiny (34 square miles) Ascension Island, 1,400 miles from the bulge of Brazil, is one of the vital links in the Air Transport Command's world-girldling chain of airfields. Ascension is the dot in the ocean that made it possible to fly Lightning (P-38) single-seated fighters across the South Atlantic to combat fields in North Africa and England.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Christmas on Ascension: December 1944
Air Corps wings atop the Corps of Engineers castle insignia. This is a Christmas card sent home by my father from Ascension Island in (as indicated) December 1943.
Birmingham News
January 15, 1944
(page 12)
"Scribblers Take Note"
"CHRISTMAS AT ASCENSION ISLAND ... No doubt you've all read the story by John Gunther published in a recent monthly magazine describing the grand work done by the Army engineers and the air force on Ascension Island, one of our allies' most important possessions in the Atlantic, situated about halfway between Africa and Brazil.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
John Gunther on Ascension: January 1944
Continued from yesterday's blog post ...
Reader's Digest
January 1944
Internationally known reporter John Gunther (1901-1970) has just arrived on Ascension from a reporting tour in Europe and Africa. The half-hour re-fueling stop has become a longer break since the captain of his transport plane has asked for servicing on one of its engines. Gunther has a chance to tour Ascension.
by John Gunther
"'Deadline is 3:30,' Captain Gibbs said. 'If we don't get off by then, we stay the night.' He didn't want to take off and risk having to return to Ascension in the dark. That's a runway you want to see clearly before you try to land on it.
Pilots sometimes overshoot Ascension. Finding it is, in Max Beerbohm's famous phrase, a little like threading a needle from afar. So there are always two or three fast pursuit ships on Ascension, ready to lead big transports in if the weather is bad, or go after them if a pilot overshoots.
Reader's Digest
January 1944
by John Gunther
"'Deadline is 3:30,' Captain Gibbs said. 'If we don't get off by then, we stay the night.' He didn't want to take off and risk having to return to Ascension in the dark. That's a runway you want to see clearly before you try to land on it.
Pilots sometimes overshoot Ascension. Finding it is, in Max Beerbohm's famous phrase, a little like threading a needle from afar. So there are always two or three fast pursuit ships on Ascension, ready to lead big transports in if the weather is bad, or go after them if a pilot overshoots.
Monday, May 23, 2011
"Ascension Island--The Mighty Midget" by John Gunther
Thanks to my grandmother Mrs. Roy Chapman--articles like this one were saved in a scrapbook.
From the Reader's Digest
January 1944
by John Gunther
"'Why if a crow tried to land here, he'd break a leg.' That was an early military report on Ascension.
One of the most remarkable bits of evidence I have ever seen of American enterprise, guts, imagination and tenacity is the airport we have gouged out of volcanic rock on this unknown island, a naked dot of lava in the middle wastes of the South Atlantic. Everyday from here, flights take place that help us win the war. It is an essential pivot in the great route from New York and Miami to Africa, the Middle East, Russia, India and China."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)