Weather Reconnaissance
Unit Photos
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Members of the 655th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, Weather Reconnaissance This photo was taken during training at Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma in 1944 Official USAF Photo, courtesy of the Air Force Weather History Office |
| Our subject this month a bit different. Looking back through the archives of weather reconnaissance veterans and the Air Force Weather History Office, we find many photos taken of individual weather reconnaissance units. Going back to the WW II Army Air Corps, and later the USAF, there was an effort to document their squadrons. Sometimes these photos were done by standard camera, but often the pictures were shot using special panoramic cameras that scaned across the formation from one side to the other. The photo of the 655th (above) is from the archives of the Air Force Weather History Office. AWRA obtained it in digital form and did not see the original print. From the dimentions of the image, it appears to be a regular large format image take with one shot. We had to brighten the image quite a bit to see uniforms and faces. Not enough detail to identify indivduals. |
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The 514th Reconnaissance Squadron (VLR) Weather taken in May 1949 Photo courtesy of John Lassiter |
| Above
is an example of a panoramic photo. It was taken of the 514th in
May 1949. At the time, Major Paul Fackler was the commander and
he is seated in the center of the photo in front of the RB-29 nose
wheel. The picture is annotated as being taken by O.C.C. Studio,
and that does
not mean
Orange County Choppers. Unfortunately, we have not
been able to find out any other information about O.C.C. Studio. John Lassiter and Gaylen Carnehl identified several of the people in the picture and the original founders of PAWS, the Pacific Air Weather Squadrons, also tried to ID as many members as possible. For more information about Paul Fackler, see our tribute page from Feb 2007. |
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The
58th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Medium, Weather taken in 1951
Photo courtesy of John Priestle |
| The
photo above is a classic example of a unit panoramic taken during the
1940's and 50's. The 58th at
the time was commanded by Lt Col Karl Rauk, seen standing in the very
front. John Priestle has kept this photo all these years mounted
and (unfortunately) laminated. The laminated film has turned a
bit milky with age. The original print was about 3 feet wide and
we scanned it with a HP 4670 "see through" scanner. This allowed
us to keep the vertical alignment of the picture as we scanned the
photo in 5 sections. We try to use 600 dpi resolution, and the
reconstructed image was over 9000 pixels wide - reduced here to 1000
for online viewing. Luckily the scanner saw though the laminate
and the resulting digital image was better in many ways than John's
original. This is a Goldbeck photo by the National Photo and News Service of San Antonio, Texas. Eugene Omar Goldbeck speciallized in these really wide shots. Before his death in 1986, Goldbeck donated much of the image collection to the University of Texas Library. AWRA is hoping to visit the library and see if there are other weather reconnaissance unit photos there. |
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Here
we see E.O. Goldbeck setting up a shot.
Special gears rotated the camera across the subject group as another gear moved the film. To read more about Mr Goldbeck, go here. |
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Here is another Goldbeck photo, this one depicts Det 1, 55th WRS at Ladd AFB in 1958 An original print is on display in the Heritage Hall of the Air Force Weather History Office |
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And
one more Goldbeck
photo, this one depicts Det 1, 55th WRS at Ladd AFB in 1962
An original print is in the AWRA files, Courtesy of Dale Bailey, who was an airborne radio repairman in 1962-63 (If you click on the image, it will take you to a larger version) |
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This undated photo is from the AFWA Image Collection. It is ID'd as being the 56th WRS at Yokota AB, Japan It appears to b an example of an official unit photo taken by a standard wide format camera. Official USAF Photo, courtesy of the Air Force Weather History Office |
| The
practice of a annual photo of a military unit seems to have greatly
declined
by 1960. We have found few examples of whole unit pictures after this
time. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that this is also when Mr
Goldberg stopped traveling the world taking his "kidnap" photos,
so-named because he would shoot large groups of people with no promise
of sales. He knew that most, if not all, of the subjects would
want a copy. |
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Detachment
3, 1st Weather Wing, Andersen AFB, Guam
Official USAF Photo, courtesy of the Air Force Weather History Office |
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