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MSgt Richard Taylor (Dawg)
to remember
Stevens, Theodore Fulton ("Ted"), 1st Lt.
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After graduation from high school in 1942, Stevens enrolled at Oregon State University to study engineering, attending for a semester.With World War II in progress, Stevens attempted to join the Navy and serve in Naval Aviation, but failed the vision exam. He corrected his vision through a course of prescribed eye exercises, and in 1943 he was accepted into a Army Air Force Air Cadet program at Montana State College. After scoring near the top of an aptitude test for flight training, Stevens was transferred to preflight training in Santa Ana, California and received his wings early in 1944. He went on to Bergstrom Field in Texas, where he trained to fly P-38s; but, because during the graduation ceremony a fellow graduate booed the colonel who delivered the graduation address, Stevens never flew a fighter in combat. Instead, he later recalled, "Suddenly we were copilots in a troop carrier squadron."
Stevens served in the China-Burma-India theater with the Fourteenth Air Force Transport Section, which supported the "Flying Tigers," from 1944 to 1946. He and other pilots in the transport section flew C-46 and C-47 transport planes, often without escort, mostly in support of Chinese units fighting the Japanese. Stevens received the Distinguished Flying Cross for flying behind enemy lines, the Air Medal, and the Yuan Hai Medal awarded by the Chinese Nationalist government. He was discharged from the Army Air Forces in March, 1946.
I parked my C-46 right up there next to the Japanese Bettys . The 46 dwarfed their Bettys. We had taken a striped down weapons carrier on board for our ground transportation. They couldnt believe it when we just opened the doors drove off the ramps and drove off with that weapons carrier. They (the Japanese) had never seen a plane that size on the ground
Left Photo: We had to hastily make up our own (approach) using an old radio station they had in the city. I remember the time I went to Peking again, sometime after the war. They were using the let-down (procedures) I had made up that first day after the war.
Lt. Ted Stevens, 20, was flying Douglas C-47 and Curtiss C-46 for General Claire Chennault deep in the mainland of China. Chennault, who began fighting the Japanese invaders to China with his famous Flying Tigers commanded the 14th Air Force. Stevens, who is Alaska senior senator, recalls those flights at the close of World War Two in 1944-45.
Stevens went through pilot training at Douglas, Arizona, and earned his Army Air Corps wings in May, 1944. I went in when I was 19, and got my wings when I was 20, Stevens recalled. Three of us in that class were immediately sent to China. Chennault sent a 47 (C-47) out to pick us up for the flight through Burma. He needed some replacement pilots in for the 14th Air Force Transport Section. The 14th was the successor to the old Flying Tiger Transport Section, who had been flying for Chennault before the US government turned Chennaultss group into the 14th Air Force. The new group became the 322nd Troop Carrier Squadron.
"I flew 47s for about five months in 1944 then we went into 46s in about September, he said. From the squadrons primary base at Kun-ming flights ranged from inland China, to Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam), and up into Mongolia. We were flying Chinese troops and supplies around the country, as well as supplies to our small fighter bases throughout China.
The C-46 was a great plane that was after they got rid of the electronic feathering mechanism. We lost about half of our planes in the first week we got them.
There were several places like at Lo-ping where the airstrips were camouflaged and hard to locate. One strip was called Postage Stamp because it was so small and narrow. The airstrip was cut into a hillside with a few inches to spare for a C-46s wing tips."
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US officials: 5 believed dead in Alaska crash
AP Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, leaves the Senate chamber after making his last formal speech on the Senate
By PAULINE JELINEK and NATASHA METZLER, Associated Press Writers Pauline Jelinek And Natasha Metzler, Associated Press Writers 4 mins ago 10 Aug 2010
WASHINGTON The National Transportation Safety Board says it appears that five people were killed and four survived the Alaska crash of a small plane that was believed to be carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens and former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
The fate of Stevens and O'Keefe was not known.
Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press in Washington that reports from Alaska authorities were that nine people were aboard the aircraft and that "it appears that there are five fatalities." He said the NTSB is sending a team to the crash site in southwest Alaska.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
WASHINGTON (AP) The National Transportation Safety Board says it appears that five people were killed and four survived the Alaska crash of a small plane that was believed to be carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens and former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
The fate of Stevens and O'Keefe was not known.
Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, told The Associated Press in Washington that reports from Alaska authorities were that nine people were aboard the aircraft and that "it appears that there are five fatalities." He said the NTSB which is sending at team to the crash site in southwest Alaska.
=============== Air Guardsmen work to recover victims from Alaska crash site
Posted 8/10/2010
by Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service
8/10/2010 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Alaska Air National Guard Airmen are aiding victims of a plane that crashed near Dillingham, Alaska, Aug. 9.
A downed plane reportedly carrying nine passengers was spotted 285 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. Flight service officials in Dillingham contacted the Alaska ANG's 11th Rescue Coordination Center after losing contact with the De Havilland Twin Otter at around 7 p.m., National Guard officials said.
Pararescue Airmen from the Alaska ANG's 212th Rescue Squadron arrived on the scene just before noon Aug. 10. They struggled against rough weather and had been expected to arrive around midnight last night, Maj. Guy Hayes said in a written statement.
A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules is providing support overhead and will be available to take victims in need of serious medical treatment to Anchorage once victims are transported to Dillingham, officials said.
Major Hayes' statement said five medical responders are on the scene. News reports estimate at least five fatalities.
