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Aviation in the Santa Maria Valley: World War II

by Bill McKee

134 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1418; ISBN 1-4120-3590-2; US$16.00, C$19.00, EUR13.00, £8.75

A detailed and amply illustrated look at the men, machines, and organization of the Santa Maria Army Air Field and the Hancock College of Aeronautics during World War II.

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About the Book      About the Author      Table of Contents & Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

The book is a summary of events surrounding the two Army Air Forces training bases at Santa Maria, California during the World War II era. Information was gleaned from Air Force histories, personal interviews, and newspaper accounts. It includes statistics and records of personnel trained in Santa Maria, including many photographs. Activities of advanced P-38 Lightening training at the Santa Maria Army Air Field and primary training utilizing PT-13 Stearman aircraft at Army Air Force Training Detatchment One, Hancock College of Aeronautics airfields are detailed. In addition, impacts of the training and influx of large numbers of personnel on the community are covered. Some coverage of the "ground" side of these efforts is also included.

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About the Author

Bill McKee is the historian for the Santa Maria Museum of Flight in Santa Maria, California. His interest in aviation and aviation history goes back to the late stages of World War II when he was a boy in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was greatly influenced by the flying activity from the nearby Lincoln Army Air Field. He was a cadet in the Lincoln, Nebraska Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. Bill spent nearly 21 years in the USAF, retiring in 1985 as a Lt. Colonel. He then worked for several years in the areas of logistics and systems engineering/integration on various space-related contracts at Vandenberg AFB, California. He also spent over 18 years teaching as an adjunct professor at various colleges and universities in graduate and undergraduate business and management programs.

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Table of Contents & Excerpts

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Section I AAF Training Detachment 1, Hancock College of Aeronautics
• Chapter One: Primary Training Comes to Santa Maria
• Chapter Two: The School and the People
• Chapter Three: Student Life at Hancock
• Chapter Four: The Aircraft
• Section II, Santa Maria Army Air Field
• Chapter Five: The Base and the Mission
• Chapter Six: Pilot Training
• Chapter Seven: Events and People on the Field
• Chapter Eight: The Aircraft
• Chapter Nine: SMAAF Statistics
• Bibliography
• Photo Credits

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On the last day at Santa Maria, Aviation Cadet Ed Renfro was "joy-riding" with his instructor. As he did a slow roll the nose fell off and the instructor told him to pull it out and level off while inverted.

At that time his seat belt separated (later investigation showed a bolt holding the seat belt broke or sheared) and he fell from the aircraft. He estimated they were at 4000 feet at the time over one of the auxiliary fields that surrounded Santa Maria.

As he fell, gosport (one way communications tube from front to back seat) connection to the instruction pulled the instructor's head into the control panel. The instructor later told Ed he was panicked when he realized his student had departed the aircraft in this manner.

Ed said he was only 18 years old and his thoughts at the time amounted to, "I'll be goddamned, I fell out of the airplane."

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Experience with the P-38 in stressful situations also aided these savvy instructors when they encountered emergencies in the air. On 19 September 1944, Kinsey was on a camera gunnery and high formation mission when his right propeller ran away. He feathered the prop and set up for a single engine landing. He checked his landing gear and found he had no hydraulic pressure. The emergency procedure for lowering the landing gear also failed. The aircraft was flying at 150 mph and attempts to unfeather the right prop also failed. Lt Kinsey was instructed to crash land the aircraft down in a field about two miles northwest of the base. He said he was leaning against the fuselage smoking a cigarette when the fire crews arrived. Because of these two crashes in less than a week his commanders as SMAAF decided he needed a break and sent he sent he and his wife to a spa in Ojai, California, for a week.

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Catalogue Information

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