Phil Rybolt, Skip Armstrong and Chick Harrington shared a common background before they left home for Vietnam: each was raised in a small town and chose to fly aircraft that would most certainly put them at risk in a war zone. The three pilots were willing to talk to my co-authors Denis Hambucken, John Warner
Remembering a hometown hero As a kid, Henry Kleemann raised pigs for a 4-H project and helped out on the family farm. He was one of those kids destined to go places after he left high school. Voted “most likely to succeed” by his classmates, Kleemann attended the U.S. Naval Academy. Kleemann’s military and academic
Author recalls Vietnam helicopter duty Most pilots fortunate enough to walk away from helicopter duty in Vietnam thanked God for their good fortune and moved on with their lives. David Henard took a different path after he returned home in 1969 from his time in the U.S. Army. In our interview in the living room
Richard Snelson was halfway through his teen years when he had the chance to take a plane ride over the Missouri River outside Wainwright. The love affair with aviation lasted a lifetime. Snelson was long retired when we met to talk about his career as an engineer for the Gemini space project in St. Louis.
The changing role of women in aviation For Bev Hartsock, aviation offered a chance to see the world beyond her backyard in the tiny village of Kenney. Bev was one of many Midwesterners referred to us by her friends who knew her dream of learning to fly. People we talked to during research for our
Small towns sometimes produce people who reach for the stars—literally. Gene Armstrong was shot down twice during his two years with the Army Air Corps where he served as a B-17 navigator. His career path later took him to NASA and the development of space vehicles. Known as a problem solver, Armstrong also worked on
Ernest Thorp was captured in 1944 after his B-17 bomber was shot down in the North Sea. The details of his captivity behind enemy lines were revealed in “My Stretch in the Service,” the diary he kept throughout his service with the Army Air Force. As a crew pilot, Thorp put to good use the
William Calvin was known as “Bill” to his friends and “Your Honor” to people who stood in front of his bench on the second floor of the old DeWitt County courthouse. Few people were aware of Major Calvin’s service as a B-17 pilot with the 12th Air Force. The first many people knew of his
The story of Donna Mae Anderson is one of my favorites in the collection because it touches on all the promises and disappointments a young woman faced in the struggle to serve as a military aviator. My research started off with firsthand accounts of Anderson’s knowledge of flying from John Warner, whose landings at Hooterville
When we started work on the special museum exhibit, word spread around the area that we were collecting stories about pilots and people who were involved in the field of aviation. One of those leads brought us to the story of William Shirley Karr. To our delight, Karr had left behind a treasure trove of
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