War, Internment, Brutality, and Liberation, 1941-1945

The growing international community in the Philippines after the Spanish-American War included Private James E. McCall who arrived in the Philippines in 1909 to begin a long life among the Filipinos.

By the 1930s war clouds begins to form in the Pacific as Japan pursues a national strategy of empire.  The fall of the Philippines signals the beginning of brutal times for the Islands.

Internment and the new order for American military and civilian nationals across the archipelago.

Santo Tomas and the growing tensions and starvation.  Endurance and the human spirit moves through Santo Tomas as the war turns against the Japanese.

Tanks from Abilene, Texas reach Manila and breach the walls at Santo Tomas.  Liberation at last.

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Rodeo Cowboy:  Fred E.H. Alvord, Rodeo, and Living the Western Life, 1898-1964

Fred Alvord was born in 1898 on a ranch outside Baird, Callahan County Texas.  Growing up on the Alvord Ranch taught Fred Alvord self discipline and the basics of working cattle and horses.

In 1919 Alvord entered his first rodeo and found that he was good enough to win money and encouraged him to make rodeo his career.  In 1924 Alvord sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with Tex Austin's rodeo show, bound for Wembley Park in London.

Alvord worked for Colonel W.T. Johnson's World's Championship rodeo in the late 1920s and on into the 1930s.  Later he worked for Everett Colborn after Colborn bought Johnson's rodeo. During those years, Alvord worked as arena secretary and competed in the rodeos.  He worked all the big shows and won many saddles and buckles during that time.

In the years that followed, Alvord purchased various businesses and properties associated with the stockyards and rodeo.  By the 1960s he was working for Six Flags Over Texas, still involved in livestock and western shows for the public.

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Amarillo Military Families Come of Age in the Cold War, 1958-1965

New base housing at Amarillo AFB brought a whole generation of military families together on base.

School life in the country at Highland Park and on to Amarillo for 9th grade and beyond.

Memories of summer nights spent on the Operations tarmac waiting for aircraft in transit to land for fuel, sneaking in B-47s for a night of fun.

Base kids came to Amarillo with early childhoods from across the world and life in many cultures.

Some fathers left their families in Amarillo for temporary duty as advisors in Vietnam.

Patterns of life as an Air Force brat during the Cold War and glimpses of their futures.

“Some of us were in Air Scouts on base, and our scoutmaster was a navigator on a B-52 crew. Instead of camp outs and other scout activities, we went on training flights. The Air Force rule on these flights required that we had to take off and land at Amarillo A.F.B., but we could fly anywhere, learn how to navigate the aircraft all the way to Los Angeles, and operate the refueling boom on our K-135 aircraft. It was a heady time for us.”

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Pancho Villa, Invasion, and a Lingering Moment in History on the New Mexico Border

Columbus was established in 1891 on the border across from Palomas, Mexico. In the early years, the town grew as a small border commercial center.

During the Mexican Revolution, Columbus grew as an important business hub for revolutionaries.

In the early morning hours of March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa raided Columbus, killed 18 soldiers and civilians and triggered a military invasion of Mexico.

The Punitive Expedition based its operations at the railhead at Columbus.

For the last eight decades of the 20th century, the town declined as the army and citizens departed.

In recent years, tourism and revitalization has opened a chapter of growth for the community.

“In the early morning hours of March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa and his force of 500 dorados made their way toward Palomas and the border. Ahead lay the town of Columbus where the American families and the nearby soldiers at Camp Furlong lay sleeping, unaware of the approaching danger.”

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The Life and Death of a Railroad Town in the American West

The Santa Fe Townsite Company was responsible for the town’s existence, and it came into being because of the Belen cutoff, as did so many towns along the Eastern Slope.

Years ago there were a few wild horses, some wild mules. The first settlers were indeed pioneers in a seemingly inhospitable land.

When the flu hit the nation in 1918, Yeso came in for more than its share, and there was not a family that was not hard hit.

The steam railroad industry kept Yeso going, but after WWII when railroads converted to diesel and no longer needed water stops, it was the beginning of the end for Yeso.

“Like all ‘end of track’ towns when the railroad was a-building, Yeso had its rough element, its hard-drinking, hard shooting, hard fighting characters, but the gangs moved along eastward, Yeso settled back to become an important community of this New Era.”

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Marriage, Yanks, and Wartime England, 1942-1945

Big band music, Glenn Miller, and the jitterbug dance craze brought new life to wartime England.

The rural communities surrounding the American bases adopted the Yanks into village life.

The glamorous Yanks arrived in England and found British girls eager to escape the dreary wartime routine and sacrifice.

Dances became the center of life for the young Americans and their British hosts.

Marriages and struggles in wartime England as young families began their lives together.

After the war, the war brides suffered during the postwar, in England and in their new homes in America.

“I was so nervous, so nervous because I had not seen him in over a year. When the train pulled into the station, I said to the conductor, please let all these people get on the train before I get off. He said, ‘Lady, these people aren’t getting on the train. They’re waiting for you!’”

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The American Air War Against Germany in the ETO, 1942-1945

The Eighth and Ninth Air Forces in England mounted a daylight bombing strategy against German-occuppied Europe.

Early missions were costly against the effective Luftwaffe defenders and ground 88 flak batteries.

How the new P-51 Mustang changed the air war, as these long range fighters stayed with the bomber stream all the way to target.

General James Doolittle ordered a new fighter escort strategy, increasing effectiveness and success.

Spring 1944 brought intense tactical bombing in preparation for the D-Day landings.

The destruction of the Luftwaffe turned the tide in the air war over Europe.

“To become an ace, a fighter pilot must have extraordinary eyesight, strength, and agility, a huntsman's eye, coolness in a pinch, calculated recklessness, a full measure of courage and occasional luck!"

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