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| To all you enlisted folks http://warthogterritory.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8336 |
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| Author: | gifted [ 06 Feb 2005, 17:20 ] |
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Got this at work. I figured some of the retired/seperated people would be interested in knowing about it. 2/3/2005 - TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFPN) -- It is not often when someone has a chance to peer into the past, present and future at the same time. Fortunately, the vision of an Air Force historian has done just that with the creation of an online repository of Air Force basic training flight graduation photos. Tech. Sgt. Tracy English, a 37th Training Wing historian at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, said he recognized that a part of the Air Force’s history, basic training flights photos, was becoming lost to the ravages of time. Knowing this, he decided to try and retrieve as many images as possible before they were lost forever. Sergeant English set out to find the contractors who were hired to take each flight graduation photo. “It took several months of searching and going through the Better Business Bureau to (find) some of the original contractors. After spending all that time searching, we learned that the contractor policy was to only keep original photographs for 90 days before throwing them away,” he said. Back to square one, the historian took a different tact and established a Web site to announce the project as well as to solicit photographs. After 12 months, Sergeant English has collected roughly 2,000 photos, and estimates there are only 117,000 to go. He said his two-person office is receiving a steady stream of submissions and they are working weekends to keep up to date. The project is a way to help the Air Force and Airmen alike trace their roots, he said. It seeks to collect all of about 119,000 U.S. Air Force basic training flight photos from the inception of the Air Force in 1947 to present. The collection includes photos from all the bases that conducted Air Force basic training including Lackland; Sampson AFB, N.Y.; Parks AFB, Calif.; Amarillo AFB, Texas; and Sheppard AFB, Texas. Since the project started, Sergeant English said his office has received roughly 120 pieces of mail and 600 e-mail messages every month with people asking for specific photographs or sending photos to be published on the Web site. “We didn’t see all the ramifications of this project when we started it,” Sergeant English said. “We have people looking for some memento of deceased parents, or people who have lost all of their military records (in) a fire or flood and just want to provide some form of evidence that they had served in the Air Force. “A lot of people had their military records destroyed during a military records warehouse fire in St. Louis in the 1970s. We’ve even had people trying to look up and meet with members from their training flight from 50 years ago,” he said. Airmen may look for their graduation photo online at http://www.lackland.af.mil/info/photos.asp “If you don’t see your flight photo, we may not have it yet,” Sergeant English said. A lot of photographs were missing from the 1980s and 1990s. If the photo is not there, people can check back at a later date. If people have photos not currently online, they can submit them, he said. People can submit high-quality scanned images via e-mail to 37TRW.HO@Lackland.af.mil. Hard copies can be sent through the U.S. mail system to: 37TRW/HO, 1650 Carswell Ave., Lackland AFB, TX 78236. People who have an oversized photo can scan it in halves (or copy both halves) and send them in. The history office staff said they can put them together and get them into the archives and online. Sergeant English said they prefer photos in a digital format known as joint photographic experts group, or JPG; however, they will accept any format provided. Sergeant English said it may take time to get the photos posted online. “We only have two people assigned to our office. We’re excited about this project and are even working lots of extra time to keep it going, but we have to sleep sometime,” he joked. "Some pup" Nickname by Fenderstrat72 |
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