EDITOR'S PAGE

EDITOR'S

Your July reminis-cence about "Arizona and World War II" generated a brisk traffic in the mail room. Almost all of those who wrote to us seemed to have appreciated the article, but a number had looked in vain for the name of a particular mil-itary unit or installation. So this was a typical response: "As always, your mag-azine is excellent," wrote Richard V. Ware of Green Valley. "I was very disappointed, however, to see that you [did not] list Marana Air Base.... It was located 23 miles northwest of Tucson [and was] a large air field with four auxiliary fields ....I was an instructor there for two years and taught Chinese students in AT-6s through an interpreter for six months...."

In Colorado Springs, William C. Henderson, too, was disappointed in this case "that no mention was made of a flight training base west of Wickenburg on the road to Blythe.... I believe it was known as Claiborne Flight Training Center." That's close; the field, one of the numerous contract installations, was called Claiborne Flight Academy.

In similar vein Weldon A. Rolfe wrote from Sacramento, "It is an excellent article, but I wish that you had mentioned the Second Cavalry, as we were stationed in southern Arizona on guard duty from December, 1941, to June, 1942.... I was in the regimental Headquarters Troop and we lived in tents in Papago Park." He enclosed a contemporary account of "the last mounted review of the oldest and proudest regiment of cavalry in the Army of the United States." Rolfe recalls that the horses were then surrendered, and his unit returned to Fort Riley, Kansas, to become part of the Ninth Armored Division.

To many people, the biggest surprise about Arizona's World War II military activity was that a major naval training operation was undertaken in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. It was the indoctrination school for newly commissioned officers established at the University of Arizona. The Wildcat gymnasium, where the watchwords "Bear Down" were emblazoned on the roof, was commissioned by the Navy as the U.S.S. Beardown, and its basketball arena became one of the largest bedrooms in the world. Nearby, Old Main was given a thorough refurbishing to provide classroom space, and the resulting U.S. Naval Training School proceeded to run 25 battalions Of 500 student officers each through a strenuous 60-day course designed to make seagoing leaders out of inexperienced landlubbers.

James I. Bevan of North Versailles, Pennsylvania, and Rudy Gustafson of Underwood, Minnesota, promptly braced us on our failure to acknowledge the naval school at Tucson. They should be pleased to see the photograph on this page.

Our reference to the B-24 modification plant at Tucson caused Cathy Powell of San Diego to charge us with forgetting "the females of the Liberator bombers."

"I was the stock clerk at Building 4, Consolidated Vultee [assembly plant] in San Diego," she wrote. "I issued the parts for the B-24s At least half the B-24 line workers were female."

Howard E. Clement of San Diego, stationed at Davis-Monthan Field in February, 1942, was one of the original crew to open the bombing and gunnery range on Willcox Playa the next month. He, too, remembers Marana, along with the Army air fields at Douglas, Dateland, and Kingman. And Duncan McIntyre of Raytown, Missouri, was an instructor at Yuma Army Air Field and regularly flew into the bases at Ajo, Kingman, and Tucson.

Frank J. Weiler of Yelm, Washington, was stationed at Davis-Monthan from February, 1942, until July. One of his vivid memories is that "no one ever left their tools out on the line, [or else) their hands became victims of the Tucson sun." Weiler later recorded 35 missions as an armorer and gunner with the Eighth Air Force over Europe. Commenting on the typing of his letter, he wrote: "I was a much better shot with the .50-caliber machine gun than [I am with] this 1934-vintage typewriter."

Several readers questioned our statement that Silvestre Herrera was the only Arizonan to win the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest decoration for valor, during World War II. They were confident that the late Ira Hayes had also received the medal.

Hayes, a Pima Indian from Sacaton, was one of the Marines who raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. The moment was immortalized by a dramatic picture taken by combat photographer Joe Rosenthal, and Hayes came home to fame and the unfortunate pressures of celebrity. But he did not win the Medal of Honor.