Warbird Information Exchange

Need some opinions.
Need some History and any pictures of Olympia Airport during the war years.
The airport is being "overhauled" and all the old pavment is getting torn up for enviromental reasons. This airport had several dispersal areas for P-38's to park in case of air attack so they were not destroyed as happened on Dec 7th.
All except one of these areas has already been destroyed. I have made a request to halt the destruction and save the lone remaining parking area for history.
Do you guys think I'm crazy or is this area worth saving? All the WWII airports are slowly dissapearing. Once their gone they are gone forever.
If you think one of these dispersal areas is worth saving, give me some ammo to take to the airport commision.

Thanks,
Brian

I agree with RER. All too ofter in the name of progress, historic sites are being torn up and are all but forgotton. Look what the mayor did to one of Chicago's oldest airports several years back. With no sign of these sites mentioned in history books, how will our children know the suffering our greatest generation went through to win WW II.

The least I would do is see if the historical society could place a stone with a description on what occurred to distinguish the site.

Keep us posted.

rkski

Brian-you should have come to me..................................

343rd Fighter squadron 55th Fighter Group Olympia, WA July 1943

343rd FS 55th Fg P-38s over Olympia, WA July 1943 flown by Capt Sorace (evaded), Lt Dripps, Lt Buttke (ace) and Lt Garlock

Lts Sorace and Goudelock at Olmpia AAB 7-43

Lt Paul Dripps back from flying or the brewery at Olympia

This may have something to do with the trip to the Brewery!

343rd FS pilots on the line at Olympia

343rd FS pilot at Olympia AAB 7-43

_________________
Don't touch my junk!!

If this has any chance, I need more detail.

Does anyone have or know where to get an aerial shot of the Olympia Airport in the 1940's? Jack?

I need an answer for "What is the real historical significance of an old piece of pavement?" for the airport board.

Now they ask if pictures can just be taken ot memorialize the area?
Please indicate criteria used to assign historical value?
Since the area is on the airport they say yhe public will not have access to it to "Appreciate" the area.

More comments please.

Brian

I have a friend who's in his early 70's, lives in Olympia and volunteers at the Veterans Museum in Chehalis who told me that he grew up across the street from the Olympia Army Air Field and used to go over to see the P-38's and talk to the pilots and he said sometimes the pilots would let him and his friends set in the cockpit. He knew I was interested in finding anything related to the air field like a felt pennant, a match book or etc, with the Olympia Army Air Field on it but he never mentioned that he had anything like that.
I also keep in touch with a 91 year old P-38 Ace from California who trained up here at the air field but he didn't have any memorabilia either. I'm going to keep looking though until I find something.

Mike

Tell the Olympia airport board that in that case, they should gather up pictures of the Space Needle and tear it down or the states Capitol Dome. Sounds to me like someone either on or connected to the board stands to make a pile of shekels from renovation.

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I'm not 100% sure, but my understanding is most of what was WW2 era stuff at Oly has since been plowed up. I hope I'm wrong about that (I was just there for the airshow recently). I'm not 100% sure where the P-38 hardstands even were, though. I do know there were ,machine gun bunkers outside of the fenced area, as they're listed on the Tenino grid map used by the military to teach land navigation. Trust me, I looked for them in 1998. They aren't there anymore.
Nobody is interested in saving old airfields, unless there are cool buildings still there. I watched the old Dale Mabry AAF in Florida slowly fade away growing up nearby and today you'd have no clue there was ever a field there if you drove around the area. It's so sad that all these places are vanishing. Saving a reventment or hardstand is really not that big a thing.

_________________
Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

You should try to save it if that is your passion. If you are just doing it because you feel a partial obligation to preservation of the past, you will save yourself a lot of heartache by not getting involved. I'm not telling you not to do it, but I am cautioning you against dis-satisfaction and ineffectiveness of half measures in the place of a real campaign which still might not be successful.

There is a professor here in MD at Loyola College, Jack Breihan, who's main interest is aviation architecture. I believe he is retired, but he is definitely a resource if you intend to illustrate the importance of these items. If you need his contact information, I will try to find it. The key thing we are talking about here is a set of concrete aprons, right? In my opinion, it is hard to justify saving ALL of them to preserve the history. I would think of repurposing one or two of them as a memorial garden/display to the identify and compliment location. Remember, that will cost money, so be prepared to answer questions like, "Who will pay for this, and what will be the continued involvement of donors/investors?" The Defense Plant Corporation Plant #2 of Glenn L. Martin Co is up for sale right now. B-26's were final assembled here in WWII. It belonged to GSA and was used to repair train cars until GSA thought they didn't need it any longer. The estimates of 'safing' the property and making it ready for development were somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 Million.

One key thing you want to keep in mind is to be of "help" in developing this property. It's going to happen anyway, so if you take an obstructionist view, you won't get far. Spending time figuring out who the players are in the situation will go a long way to helping your cause. Also, some of these players might have sympathy (or more importantly, FUNDS) to help your cause. Make them friends, build a coalition of local people who have POSITIVE attitudes, and you will (possibly) be successful. If all you do is make people aware that there is an airfield out there and it shouldn't be callously destroyed, you have helped your cause.

Good luck, and let me know if you want to get in touch with Jack.

_________________
REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Considering this is a revival of an almost 7 year old thread, I wonder what ever became of the hardstand?