Greenville Flyers

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

Wanted to share a project I'm working on that is intended to be a means to make available an abundance of information I've collected on pilots who flew at Greenville Army Airfield, MS, during WWII. The first "phase" of this project is a website that will be used to share basic information on every Greenville Flyer (pilot) that I've identified.

https://greenvilleflyers.weebly.com/

The listing of pilots can be found here;

https://greenvilleflyers.weebly.com/gre ... lyers.html

I intend to add some additional filter/search criteria, but it is currently searchable and sortable. I do not intend to publish additional information for each pilot on this website, with the exception of period blog posts. A post might share an interesting article regarding a Greenville Flyer, but will not discuss the individual much beyond the content of the article.

The website also serves as a means for individuals to contribute information regarding a relative or friend who was a Greenville Flyer.

https://greenvilleflyers.weebly.com/contribute.html

The second "phase" of the project will be in the form of a book. While it would be wonderful to thoroughly document every pilot I've identified, it's not practical. The book will discuss a selection of pilots. From the first blog post, the Flyers discussed will include;

Quote:

Aviation Cadets who washed out of training. Pilots who became instructors and never left the states. Pilots who were killed in training. Pilots who went overseas and never experienced battle. Pilots who witnessed their friends perish in battle. Pilots who themselves perished in battle or otherwise. Their life prior to, during, and (if applicable) after war will be documented.

Any feedback or critique is welcomed.

Kyleb · **Posted:** Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:45 am

Very nice. Greenville is the halfway stop when we fly from Atlanta to Dallas. About half way and has a friendly tower and FBO.

I'd also enjoy seeing anything you have on the history of the airfield.

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

Kyleb wrote:

Very nice. Greenville is the halfway stop when we fly from Atlanta to Dallas. About half way and has a friendly tower and FBO.

I'd also enjoy seeing anything you have on the history of the airfield.

Kyleb,

I do have a fair amount of information on the airfield itself, but the primary purpose of this project is telling the stories of the pilots who flew there at one point or another.

I requested and have received the Greenville AAF base histories from AFHRA (Maxwell AFB). More than 1,000 pages of historical documentation to go through. Found a few gems in there.

Plenty of newspaper articles from Newspapers.com, such as this one;

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16177264/construction_being_rushed_on_air_base/

I'll share some of the airfield specific items from time to time. Quite a few interesting tidbits, along with plenty of unfortunate stories as well.

Check the blog every week or so and you may see something on the airfield!

Jordan

sandiego89 · **Joined:** Mon May 21, 2012 12:28 pm **Posts:** 1160

jdeters79 wrote:

Quote:

Aviation Cadets who washed out of training. Pilots who became instructors and never left the states. Pilots who were killed in training. Pilots who went overseas and never experienced battle. Pilots who witnessed their friends perish in battle. Pilots who themselves perished in battle or otherwise. Their life prior to, during, and (if applicable) after war will be documented.

Good luck with your noble project!

Perhaps the above quote, which I think you intended to be expansive to pay tribute to everyone, could actually lessen the service of some of those who did not make it to combat groups. Perhaps something simpler like: "To pay tribute to all those aviation cadets who attended training at Greenville. Their life prior, during and (if applicable) after the war will be documented."

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

sandiego89 wrote:

jdeters79 wrote:

Quote:

Aviation Cadets who washed out of training. Pilots who became instructors and never left the states. Pilots who were killed in training. Pilots who went overseas and never experienced battle. Pilots who witnessed their friends perish in battle. Pilots who themselves perished in battle or otherwise. Their life prior to, during, and (if applicable) after war will be documented.

Good luck with your noble project!

Perhaps the above quote, which I think you intended to be expansive to pay tribute to everyone, could actually lessen the service of some of those who did not make it to combat groups. Perhaps something simpler like: "To pay tribute to all those aviation cadets who attended training at Greenville. Their life prior, during and (if applicable) after the war will be documented."

sandiego89,

Thank you for taking the time to critique my first blog post! You are correct in that my intent is to convey that the service of all of those pilots is of equal importance to those who might have been perceived as being more successful. I will revise to make that point.

Jordan

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

2nd Greenville Flyer Joins the Caterpillar Club

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/2nd-greenville-flyer-joins-the-caterpillar-club

p51 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 12, 2019 12:37 pm

Great work so far. :drink3:

I had never heard of this field, but as you know, the stateside training bases are NOT very well documented or known today.
Very little bandwidth or ink has been devoted to any of them. People would rather focus on the combat units.
Even the USAF historical center has very little on the training bases in their collections.
Heck, I grew up very close to the site of a 3rd AF fighter training base and though I knew of it well, I had no idea until about a decade ago that the lake just down the road from my childhood home was a survival school for that base, where the 99th Fighter Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen went! When I contacted the folks ta Maxwell several years back with the idea of writing a book about the field (which I later gave up once I realized nobody even in the area seemed to care much to merit the effort), they admitted they could only find a couple of paper ream boxes of material and nothing else. They told me that much of this stuff didn't get saved after the training bases were closed.
In the 90s, a pal of mine showed me a photo of a WWW2 Navy training base main gate sign being used as the side of a chicken coop (he'd offered to buy the owner a new coop, but the owner didn't want to give up the sign/wall, so it eventually rotted away).
My point is that this is the history that will be lost forever in the next generation or so.

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:52 am

jdeters79 wrote:

2nd Greenville Flyer Joins the Caterpillar Club

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/2nd-greenville-flyer-joins-the-caterpillar-club

Per AAIR, BT-13A 41-10500, listed as "bailout/stalled, spun in".

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

p51 wrote:

Great work so far. :drink3:

Thanks for the kind words p51.

p51 wrote:

Great work so far. :drink3:

I had never heard of this field, but as you know, the stateside training bases are NOT very well documented or known today.
Very little bandwidth or ink has been devoted to any of them. People would rather focus on the combat units.
Even the USAF historical center has very little on the training bases in their collections.
Heck, I grew up very close to the site of a 3rd AF fighter training base and though I knew of it well, I had no idea until about a decade ago that the lake just down the road from my childhood home was a survival school for that base, where the 99th Fighter Squadron of the Tuskegee Airmen went! When I contacted the folks ta Maxwell several years back with the idea of writing a book about the field (which I later gave up once I realized nobody even in the area seemed to care much to merit the effort), they admitted they could only find a couple of paper ream boxes of material and nothing else. They told me that much of this stuff didn't get saved after the training bases were closed.
In the 90s, a pal of mine showed me a photo of a WWW2 Navy training base main gate sign being used as the side of a chicken coop (he'd offered to buy the owner a new coop, but the owner didn't want to give up the sign/wall, so it eventually rotted away).
My point is that this is the history that will be lost forever in the next generation or so.

Couldn't agree more, hence this project. Even though my project focuses on the pilots at Greenville, I'm gathering a fair amount of information on Greenville itself. Preserving this type of home front war effort is as important as the overseas operations.

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

Chris Brame wrote:

jdeters79 wrote:

2nd Greenville Flyer Joins the Caterpillar Club

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/2nd-greenville-flyer-joins-the-caterpillar-club

Per AAIR, BT-13A 41-10500, listed as "bailout/stalled, spun in".

Chris,

Thanks for reminding me that AAIR isn't completely down! It's just their searchable database that's unfortunately been down.

Jordan

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

The Crystal Springs, MS, bus tragedy that killed 15, including 4 aviation cadets bound for Greenville Army Flying School. Howard E. Redding recounts surviving this accident in a Veteran's History Project video interview (see 6:15 into the embedded video).

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/the-crystal-springs-bus-tragedy-15-dead

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

Another entry to celebrate the 900th Greenville Flyer to be identified. Captain Jack Marsh Holmes of Nunda, NY, was a B-24 pilot in the Pacific. Thus far I've only been able to find a few details regarding his service, which includes mention of the award of a DFC.

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/900th-identified-flyer-jack-marsh-holmes

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

A milestone recently achieved. A Thousand Flyers identified.

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/a-thousand-flyers

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

A bit of a life induced hiatus, but a new post just published. Hawaiian Flyer George Wah Sun Lee.

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/hawaiian-flyer-george-w-s-lee

jdeters79 · **Joined:** Sun Mar 22, 2015 2:20 pm **Posts:** 146

A holiday specific post.

https://www.greenvilleflyers.com/blog/greetings-and-best-wishes-for-a-happy-holiday-season

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