"Jimbo" Chastain
was a professional photographer with the Air Force during the 1930s and
has donated several of his photos, along with the negative, to the
Association. In future issues you will see more of his fine photos. The
photo below of Savannah Army Air Base in Savannah, Georgia provides one of the
pleasures of being Association "Historian". It was taken from the
observation floor of the Hunter Field Terminal. At first glance it seems
to be a rather ordinary photo of Hunter Field, then under construction
in 1940. The photo was taken with a good camera in perfect focus and printed on fine grain paper.
Take a look at the photo below and examine it closely. The original photo had the dimensions of 5 3/4 " x 3 1/4 ".Charles Hinton
It is mostly of an empty
airfield, with some buildings off in the distance. There is a far off
airplane in the upper left area and a couple of far off airplanes in the
middle upper right. In the middle right you can see some some tents and
a jumble of objects, which upon close inspection appears to be a twin
engined airplane. In the lower right are a couple of vehicles. I put the
photo in my scanner and did a high resolution scan and "fixed" some of
the aging defects.
Now
I see many pictures within the original photo. In the upper left area
of the picture I see some large buildings clearly under construction and
an A-20 aircraft (below left) received by the 3rd Attack Group. The 3rd
Attack Group was the first organization to be equipped with the A-20,
and from other sources I know this to be the first A-20 received by the
3rd Attack Group.
To
the right on the dirt field (below right) you now see 3 B-18As, one
with a blue cowling identifying it as a 13th bomber. Previously not
noticeable and beyond the B-18s is another A-20. Well, maybe this is the
first A-20 delivered to the 3rd Attack Group and not the other.
In mid picture on the
right are a series of tents, likely maintenance tents. Between the
viewer and tents is a twin engined aircraft - an A-18. The story in the
past was that the A-18 was assigned to the 8th Attack Squadron but not
the 13th . Due to the fine skill of the photographer and the excellence
of the printing, we see that OSCAR is clearly visible on the right rear
fuselage and therefore a 13th Attack squadron aircraft. Now we see, just
to the right of the A-18, a light, single engine aircraft, top wing
with an air cooled engine. I don't recognize this type of aircraft.
Finally in the lower right corner we see the ambulance and the fire
truck in great detail. Do you remember when the ambulance and the fire
truck stood by on the flight line? You can read the USA lettering on the
nose of the fire truck and with a little imagination the serial number.
 Hunter Field Early 1941 4.jpg)
