J. Penry, post: 442372, member: 321 wrote: I'm headed to the WWII Fairmont Army Air Field. 40?ø35'31.5" 97?ø34'21.0". This is one of the best remaining WWII air fields with four hangars and other buildings still standing. Tours of the airfield will be given, so at least something to do while we wait.
Jerry: not sure where my dad had his WWII bombardier training (B17), but I wonder if it was at that airfield or nearby. At least some of it. I know it was at various places, and I think he finished somewhere in California, for some reason Victorville seems like the place there, I have a class picture with mountains in the background. I also know they crash landed during training on Christmas Eve 1942 in Montana or Wyoming, and spend a few days there at the crash site before being rescued (or maybe they hiked out?).
He was either in eastern NE or western IA for part of it in late 1942/early 1943 because he met my mother in Sioux City (she grew up in an orphanage, and was a performer in a circus when they met) and they got married three days after meeting (January 26, 1943), crossed the bridge into Nebraska because the requirements were less onerous on the Nebraska side, the taxi driver was the required witness at the wedding. Then he went overseas, was shot down and captured by the Germans, and was liberated in 1945 and returned to Kansas (where my mother was living with his family in Augusta) in mid 1945. My oldest brother was born late February 1946.
Getting married after three days sounds crazy, but they stayed married until he passed away in 1998. My mother died last December, so I have no way to ask about exactly where they were and when.
Wendell, post: 441734, member: 1 wrote: We are expecting an influx of around 200,000 out-of-towners to our 250,000 population city (Salem, OR). I'm closing the office and working at home that day, the weekend before, and the day after. I'm prepared to be home the whole time. I'm still trying to figure out what's going to happen to the city's sewer system when the population is doubled... please don't come here. PLEASE.
Going to be way worse here in Central Oregon. I believe Madras, population 7000 is expecting 100,000 influx, yes 14x the normal population in just visitors.
Fuel prices have already crept up and I heard that the only Costco in central Oregon was just crazy, no carts available and I guess shelves looking a bit bare.
Locally in our little town of about 10,000, things are already looking busy, and of course we are the closest town to several organized solar parties, the biggest of which sold 30,000 tickets.
Had to postpone an out of town job till the 22nd due to no lodging.
Going to be crazy few days, I am more interested in seeing how the state holds up with all the people than I am the eclipse, but I will take that 2 minutes too!
SHG
Here is my website on the WWII air fields in Nebraska. A brief description and pictures should come up if you click on the particular site. Chances are he spent at least some time at either Kearney or Grand Island. These two were final processing locations where the groups got all their gear and headed out together in formation to go overseas.
Gene Kooper, post: 441546, member: 9850 wrote: The big plus for me is to visit my dad. Being a retired rancher, he doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. He's going to get his car and truck gassed up and stock up on groceries this next week so he doesn't have to venture out. The city park is only a block away and they're holding a "party", so I can see my dad yelling, "GET OFF MY GRASS" a few times.
Take away his shotgun too!
2xcntr, post: 442242, member: 584 wrote: Was thinking about setting up a theodolite w an eyepiece filter until I started hearing all the cautions about eyepiece filters. Probably will just view through the eclipse glasses my wife picked up at Sea Lion Caves in Oregon in May. I didn't know she had bought them until I started griping about the ones I bought on Amazon being phony and not to use.
IMHO, telescopes, binoculars, cameras, etc. are a waste of time. The way to experience a solar eclipse is with the unaided eye. You want to see an un-magnified view of your entire surroundings as totality approaches and wanes. You want to hear the birds and animals quiet down and then wake back up, feel the temperature drop, and experience the totality (no pun intended) of the event. Eclipse glasses are okay before and after totality, and maybe for a minute during it if you know what to look for and are actually interested in Bailey's Beads and the corona, but its the whole thing that is exciting - at least for me. I have found that viewing the images created by a colander(sp) or leaves on a tree are pretty cool.
Scotland, post: 442382, member: 559 wrote: Take away his shotgun too!
He gave me his old Winchester Model 97 12-gauge shotgun many years ago, so no problem there.
I'm going to try to get a couple of shots with the solar shield equipped MS50 then continue to enjoy my blood mary filled morning.
John,
A little off OP but I think you can get your dad's military records online. My brother just got my grandfathers pre WWII Marine Corps records. If I recall the basics were easily acquired online and he requested the details by mail. I'll hit him up for the details.
Drove 1,100 miles to Baker City, Or., where my Mom and sister lives, in the path of totality. Either her backyard or a nearby church parking lot where views of the horizon are better. Baker City is lowering the levels of their sewage treatment plant ponds to accommodate the expected influx of 50,000 visitors. The highway patrol is banning semis on the roads over the weekend into Tuesday.
John Putnam, post: 442399, member: 1188 wrote: John,
A little off OP but I think you can get your dad's military records online. My brother just got my grandfathers pre WWII Marine Corps records. If I recall the basics were easily acquired online and he requested the details by mail. I'll hit him up for the details.
His records were destroyed by fire in 1973.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Personnel_Records_Center_fire
My sister may know more, her and her husband were both colonels in the army, so she probably had more interest in it than I did, plus she is 7 years older than me. The problem was that NO ONE thought to interview my Dad in depth while he was still alive, and now that information is all gone.
There are several books about his unit, the "Bloody 100th", so we do know some details about the time he was in England and Germany.
https://www.amazon.com/Wing-Prayer-Bloody-Eighth-Action/dp/0595167039
There is a great made-for-TV movie in this: "(she grew up in an orphanage, and was a performer in a circus when they met)"
Please forgive me, John, but I'm suddenly hearing Groucho Marx in my head singing, "Lydia, oh Lydia, the tattooed lady".
She was apparently a very good roller skater, she did a show with a male partner. My two kids thought that was the coolest thing, that their grandma was in the circus.
I sometimes think about how WWII affected my whole life, they never would have met otherwise, my dad would have never been able to go to college (GI Bill-he wound up with a PhD in Electrical Engineering), etc.
But the funny part is that we all agree that my mother was the smart one in the family. She finally graduated from college the same week i did in 1986, and then she promptly retired.
I can relate to that WWII effect on life. My father was rejected for service early in 1941. However, upon high school graduation that same year, the spot with all the jobs for a young laborer willing to learn any paying skill was an Army Ammunition Plant under construction about 30 miles from home. He spent some of his spare time hanging out at the nearby YMCA. My future mother was working there as a secretary to the Director of the YMCA, so their paths crossed. The rest is history.
My kids have a second WWII effect because their mother's parents met in similar fashion, but in California during the war. He was from the Topeka, Kansas area and she was from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
Without WWII , none of my children's grandparents would have ever met.
Par for such an event around here will be 100% chance of clouds
Well, then, you need to travel to the extreme northeast corner of Kansas. Why, you ask? Because that will put you in the path of totality and as everyone knows, "..........and the skies are not cloudy all day." OUr State Song, by the way.
Home on the Range
Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
(Chorus) Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Where the air is so pure, and the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range,
For all of the cities so bright.
The Red man was pressed from this part of the west,
He's likely no more to return,
To the banks of the Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering campfires burn.
How often at night when the heavens are bright,
With the light from the glittering stars,
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceeds that of ours.
Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours,
The curlew I love to hear cry,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks,
That graze on the mountain slopes high.
Oh give me a land where the bright diamond sand,
Flows leisurely down in the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along,
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.
Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Holy Cow, post: 442524, member: 50 wrote: the skies are not cloudy all day
Oh, the ambiguities of English. Is that
the skies are (not cloudy) all day
or
the skies are not (cloudy all day)
?
I suspect the second one, which permits occasional clouds that might or might not coincide with the eclipse.
I hope to be above the clouds if there are any.
Holy Cow, post: 442524, member: 50 wrote: Well, then, you need to travel to the extreme northeast corner of Kansas. Why, you ask? Because that will put you in the path of totality and as everyone knows, "..........and the skies are not cloudy all day." OUr State Song, by the way.
I did not know that was the state song. I am from Wichita (the mountains of central Kansas), but we left there in 1964 to move to South America (Chile). Lived there again for month or two in 1966 when we were on our way to Pittsburgh. I was back in Topeka recently for two funerals.
I have no idea what the state song for Pennsylvania is. Probably something to do with potholes.
My town is in the path of totality and I'll be setting up my topcon total station with solar filter and elbow to watch from my side yard. We've got the solar glasses and camera filters so it should be exciting.
This will be my 2nd total eclipse. We took our 2 kids and travelled to Goldendale, Washington in Feb 1979 and watched it from near a replica of Stonehenge - very appropriate.
Our son and family is visiting here from Switzerland and will be leaving the next day if we can get to Portland International.
I remember watching a total solar eclipse in the 1980's. Everyone was excited about it then, but I didn't see any significance in it at the time.
It got shady like the sun went behind the clouds, we all stared at a projection of the sun through a pinhole in a piece of paper.
Once or twice in a lifetime event, but not really spectacular to a kid by any measure.
