Thanks for the link. I've seen most of those photos before, they are always worth look'n at again.

That really brings back memories to me. I was born in 1940 in a very small town in "fly over country." My earliest memories were of this period and it is amazing how these photos bring many things to mind.

When I was about two years old, my parents lived in a small house that backed up to the railroad in Kingfinsher, Oklahoma. I have memories of sitting in the back yard, playing in the dirt, as kids did then, watching trains pass by loaded with GIs, tanks, planes, jeeps, trucks, artillery, etc. I also remember riding on the train when myself and my mother might be the only ones in the rail car that were not GIs.

During the war years, Oklahoma was a hot bed of military aviation training. It seemed nearly every small town in the plains had either a government flying school, an Air Corps or Naval Avaition facality or at least an auxillary field. I also remember the sky being full of blue and yellow Stearman biplane trainers as well as BT13s, AT6s as well as the occasional bomber and fighter. It was an interesting time.

I've seen that "wear" on the faces of those that worked hard to make a living from the land and from the labors that made the wartime manufacturing come alive. Back then we really had "smokestack" factories and actually made stuff!

Yes, those were different and hard times, but acquaintances older than me that participated in the war said that those years were some of the best of their lives.

These people had spirit, vision and energy to do the jobs that had to get done. They were a different breed than we have now.

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G.P. Charlie