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Hello, I would like to ask for your help/guidance in locating the WWII service records for my father. Edward Thomas Purcell, who served in the Naval Air Transport Command - Atlantic. My father died on April 26, 1997. I can attach a file that contains his obituary from the Washington Post, if needed, which mentions his service as Operations Officer and Airport Manager in Brazil, Sudan, Trinidad, and Northern Ireland during WWII. Our family has no details about his service record, or photos of our Dad during this time of his life.
Hello, I would like to ask for your help/guidance in locating the WWII service records for my father. Edward Thomas Purcell, who served in the Naval Air Transport Command - Atlantic. My father died on April 26, 1997. I can attach a file that contains his obituary from the Washington Post, if needed, which mentions his service as Operations Officer and Airport Manager in Brazil, Sudan, Trinidad, and Northern Ireland during WWII. Our family has no details about his service record, or photos of our Dad during this time of his life.
Reply 9Sep14:
Thank you for your inquiry to FlightSpirit. We're afraid the particulars about individuals serving in the Air Transport Command and Naval Air Transport Service is far outside our information reach from here, but we suggest you pursue your inquiry with the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation as the Berlin Airlift was executed by all elements of ATC and NATS and this heritage organization maintains or knows the whereabouts of many records for U.S. air transport generally. Perhaps they can better direct you to sources.
Also check Veterans organizations. There is, for instance, an Ascention Island Association ref the SE Atlantic ATC Base critical to the Brazil/to/Africa leg of the Atlantic Division. Ireland is part of the Gandar Run from US via Gandar (NF) Goose Bay (GRN) via Iceland and Ireland to Prestwick Scotland which also has a veterans group. Sudan is Khartoum at the BlueWhite Nile, a major hub for Cairo, Tehran, and the CBI (the Hump) The Hump Veterans website has a lot of ATC info. NATS squadrons are represented in VR-50 Association
If your relative came into the service from a civilian airline such as TWA or Pan Am or 18 others these might yield records. Many of these type records are bequeathed to Universities. For instance ADM Paul E. Richter. co-Founder and Operations chief of TWA served as Chief of Staff for Operations, US Naval Air Transport Service and many of his records are held by Missouri State U. (TWA was based at KCMO).
This is quite likely because the design of ATC was that airlines ran it and that base commanders especially were civilian airline employees not subject to chain of command issues and immune from any attempts to "pull rank" over the established Priority System or hold a plane against cardinal rule 1A:-- planes leave on time --. Also a Director of Operations at a base may be different title and person than Base Commander and even more likely an airline employee to start. Many of these were executives granted dollar-a-year Commissions in the Army or Navy. Participating airline pilots (over 15,000) were granted a special commission as "Federal Service Pilots". It is not clear whether any similar commission or conscript was granted for the 65,000 ground crew operatives who came over from the airlines.
Last but not least your pilot would be a co-worker with Col Gail Halvorsen who was an Atlantic Division pilot throughout the war who became reputed in 1948 as the original Candybomber (or Raisinbomber) during the Berlin Airlift.
If you find enough to work up a profile write it it up. Also please feel free to add a link to that obit to our roster page.
Also check Veterans organizations. There is, for instance, an Ascention Island Association ref the SE Atlantic ATC Base critical to the Brazil/to/Africa leg of the Atlantic Division. Ireland is part of the Gandar Run from US via Gandar (NF) Goose Bay (GRN) via Iceland and Ireland to Prestwick Scotland which also has a veterans group. Sudan is Khartoum at the BlueWhite Nile, a major hub for Cairo, Tehran, and the CBI (the Hump) The Hump Veterans website has a lot of ATC info. NATS squadrons are represented in VR-50 Association
If your relative came into the service from a civilian airline such as TWA or Pan Am or 18 others these might yield records. Many of these type records are bequeathed to Universities. For instance ADM Paul E. Richter. co-Founder and Operations chief of TWA served as Chief of Staff for Operations, US Naval Air Transport Service and many of his records are held by Missouri State U. (TWA was based at KCMO).
This is quite likely because the design of ATC was that airlines ran it and that base commanders especially were civilian airline employees not subject to chain of command issues and immune from any attempts to "pull rank" over the established Priority System or hold a plane against cardinal rule 1A:-- planes leave on time --. Also a Director of Operations at a base may be different title and person than Base Commander and even more likely an airline employee to start. Many of these were executives granted dollar-a-year Commissions in the Army or Navy. Participating airline pilots (over 15,000) were granted a special commission as "Federal Service Pilots". It is not clear whether any similar commission or conscript was granted for the 65,000 ground crew operatives who came over from the airlines.
Last but not least your pilot would be a co-worker with Col Gail Halvorsen who was an Atlantic Division pilot throughout the war who became reputed in 1948 as the original Candybomber (or Raisinbomber) during the Berlin Airlift.
If you find enough to work up a profile write it it up. Also please feel free to add a link to that obit to our roster page.
reply continued 90914:
We continue to expand here on some key points highlighted by this Inquiry and while we maybe cannot provide her a picture of Edward Purcell per se, we can maybe fill in for her and our Readers what the picture was when he was there and some of what-all he and they were doing. We begin today with Trinidad, which, for a small Caribbean island earned itself a very big place in the
Annals of the Air Transport Command.
TRINIDAD
Pan American Airways had been flying to Trinidad since 1929 first with Mail Contract and then passenger Seaplane service as part of its daisy chain of bases to Brazil, linking civilian commercial Air service there via its Subsidiary: PanAm do Brasil. Trinidad afforded the best launch point for these flights putting through nonstop to Belem that bypassed the forbidding and mountainous coast of the South American mainland. (see map)
Annals of the Air Transport Command.
TRINIDAD
Pan American Airways had been flying to Trinidad since 1929 first with Mail Contract and then passenger Seaplane service as part of its daisy chain of bases to Brazil, linking civilian commercial Air service there via its Subsidiary: PanAm do Brasil. Trinidad afforded the best launch point for these flights putting through nonstop to Belem that bypassed the forbidding and mountainous coast of the South American mainland. (see map)
So when Pan Am began the Ferrying Contract in 1941 over the same route, the need for a landplane base at Trinidad became apparent for the same reasons. This was amplified as the ferrying program expanded to become the Air Ferrying Service of the Air Transport Command. Meanwhile the Navy was responding to increased enemy submarine activity off this South American coast and desired to establish a Naval Air Station at Trinidad to support Patrol Bomber squadrons. These interests coalesced to result in the building of three major airfields on Trinidad during ww2 which grew to be the largest airfield complex in the entire system of the
Air Transport Command.
Air Transport Command.
WALLER FIELD was begun in the fall of 1941 to support AAF Trinidad Wing, Antilles Air Command antisubmarine search and destroy bombardment squadrons flying B-24 Liberators converted to Patrol Bombardment. These units successfully suppressed the U-boat menace in Caribbean waters. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of aircraft ferrying and cargo operations via the Natal route came to dominate traffic at Waller as a major refueling point for all flights, so it became early on the number-one busiest and largest base of the
Air Transport Command.
[TRINIDAD PHOTO PAGE]
Air Transport Command.
[TRINIDAD PHOTO PAGE]
CARLSEN FIELD began just a few months later as an overflow field for Waller which also grew in response to this Ferry and Transport traffic demand to become even bigger and busier than Waller with over 90% of that traffic being Air Ferry or
Air Transport Command.
[TRINIDAD PHOTO PAGE]
PIARCO BAY Naval Air Station was being built concurrently to support Navy Antisubmarine squadrons flying PBY Catalina and other Types. This mission expanded to include supply depot and land-side maintenance facilities serving the carrier-based air fleet. The demands of that expanded mission led to development of a terminal and supply depot attached to Carlsen Field and operated by the
Naval Air Transport Service.
[TRINIDAD PHOTO PAGE]
We tell of this in search of the most likely posting for Edward Purcell given the particularity that he was with NATS. Most of the intercontinintal air route system was under aegis of Air Transport Command and employees so affiliated. An Airport Manager or Operations Officer specifically for NATS suggests a posting at a stand-alone NATS facility separate from the prevailing ATC system. NATS could have had many such depots because NATS destinations were different and more diverse. While almost all ATC and Ferry traffic went one place (i.e. Prestwick), NATS served diverse pre-existing and expanding Navy shore installations around the world.
This NATS Supply Depot at Carlsen Field would seem to be the most likely posting for Edward Purcell in Trinidad.
If he was there early on he would have help build and set up these critical facilities. If he was there later he would have worked the Roundabout.
Air Transport Command.
[TRINIDAD PHOTO PAGE]
PIARCO BAY Naval Air Station was being built concurrently to support Navy Antisubmarine squadrons flying PBY Catalina and other Types. This mission expanded to include supply depot and land-side maintenance facilities serving the carrier-based air fleet. The demands of that expanded mission led to development of a terminal and supply depot attached to Carlsen Field and operated by the
Naval Air Transport Service.
[TRINIDAD PHOTO PAGE]
We tell of this in search of the most likely posting for Edward Purcell given the particularity that he was with NATS. Most of the intercontinintal air route system was under aegis of Air Transport Command and employees so affiliated. An Airport Manager or Operations Officer specifically for NATS suggests a posting at a stand-alone NATS facility separate from the prevailing ATC system. NATS could have had many such depots because NATS destinations were different and more diverse. While almost all ATC and Ferry traffic went one place (i.e. Prestwick), NATS served diverse pre-existing and expanding Navy shore installations around the world.
This NATS Supply Depot at Carlsen Field would seem to be the most likely posting for Edward Purcell in Trinidad.
If he was there early on he would have help build and set up these critical facilities. If he was there later he would have worked the Roundabout.
The Tower Roundabout
"Pit Stop In The Sky"
Among the many innovations and accomplishments of the Air Transport Command at Waller and Carlsen Fields was a rapid refueling system known as the Tower Roundabout, called by the pilots The Racetrack, and dubbed by the journalist "The Pit Stop in the Sky" from crews' description: "it was like we never landed!" Arriving planes were routed through a loop taxiway back to the head of the runway and were met by fuel trucks and refueled without shutting down and in some cases while still in motion and returned to the air in less that 17 minutes.
This modern day aerial image shows the lingering presence of the Tower Roundabout at Waller Field. Main Runway is at lower edge. Aircraft landing from the right traverse this loop to take off from the right in the same direction.
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post 92414
So you can see from above we can get big mileage from reader inquiries that help us fill in the picture of Air Transport Command. We hope other readers will join in the thread here by way of the FORUM POSTING BOX at right >>
We may have a further tour some of these other bases Mr. Purcell attended as we go along. Until then consider this list of Brazil bases. |
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