Graduation Air Corp 1936
This blog is about my Dad, Keith. It is titled “The Man Who Lived Airplanes.” I was going to use “love,” but my hubby liked this title. As of this year 2015, I have finally gotten to posting about his military service in the 1930’s. So now the name of this blog makes sense at last.
The above photo is his graduation from Army Air Corp training at Chanute Field in Illinois. He is on the left and the 3rd one in.
The photo below is my dad is in the early 1930’s. He is either in the National Guard in Spokane or at March Field in California. I can usually tell where the photo is because of the palm trees. Here there are no distinguishing items that I recognize. The fact that he is youthful tells me it is earlier in this military life.
Early 1930’s
This photo below was taken about 1937-1938?
About 1937
Keith is the one in the middle with his leg crossed over and his arm resting on the stairs. I wish I knew the other men.
The only way to date these photos, because they didn’t have a lot written on them, is because I can tell my dad was younger in some and physically different. I can sometimes tell where the photo was taken because of a recognizable building and comparing it to other photos. He left me over 450 photos.
Keith left me his military file so I have a timeline to compare with the photos. It has been a challenge.
The time frame is the 1930’s. He entered the military in the early 1930’s and was out of the military by 1941. He spent a good decade in the military and during that time he took classes and studied hard the craft of airplanes.
By the way, the background color of the blog, the gray, is the same color of the trousers he would wear. They had cuffs at the bottom and he would wear a belt and usually a plaid cotton shirt. Just picture him, dancing in his stocking feet with the cuffs rubbing the carpet as he listed to his records on the stereo. If I came out of my room, he would grab me and twirl me around the room.
BJ MacDonald
The Man Who Lived Airplanes 