Opinion

The base is done -- the war goes on

Monday, August 11, 2003
Safeway Store before the fire. Esther Wissbaum

I'm done with the roll of microfilm that ended with June of 1943. Remember the Safeway fire last week? The photo this week is of what McCook lost with that fire ... the "before" of all the food that any wartime city needed so desperately. I had a call this week from Esther Wissbaum, whose photos I am using. Her husband was the Safeway manager and they had just finished inventory at about 12:30 the night of this fire. They were awakened by the fire whistle like everyone else and could see the glow of a fire in the downtown area just about the time that their own phone rang, telling Larry that it was his Safeway. What I miss most about the old stores, especially the grocery stores ... is their wooden floors. I loved the floors.

At this point in time (end of June, 1943) the McCook Army Air Base has been completed and even has expanded. A program has been put in place to create more residential units in town by helping people create apartments within single family dwellings and also build a number of duplexes around town. The Victory Addition hadn't really come into the picture yet. There seems to be plenty of people willing to help the soldiers. The McCook Canteen ladies constantly have both help and food coming in from the surrounding towns to assist in meeting the troop trains each day. A downtown Canteen has been established for the Air Base men, the churches have activities for the servicemen both at their churches and on the Base itself. The YMCA also has made itself available for the soldiers.

McCook and the surrounding towns are having their food, tires, shoes and gas rationed. The people are buying war bonds to help us build more ships and planes and keeping our boys supplied with ammunition. The women are saving grease and fats and everyone is looking for war materials such as metal and rubber to reuse in the war effort.

Dances are being held several times a week at the Memorial Auditorium, Rutt Hall, The Gay Way or in nearby Culbertson as well as having shows and dances on the McCook Army Air Base itself.

A half-page ad in the May 22, 1943 McCook Daily Gazette from the Northwestern Engineering Co. said that they had that week, "completed their contract in connection with the construction of the McCook Air Base. "It started out with a large "THANK YOU McCOOK!" and went on to thank the architects and sub-contractors, but also, "The people of McCook and Red Willow for their fine cooperation and attitude of genuine helpfulness. The McCook Chamber of Commerce for its assistance in helping to find housing facilities for our employees ... the restaurants for their courageous efforts, against odds, to keep the men well fed ... the business men who have been given prompt and courteous service in caring for the needs in large scale operations. "

The ad said that the personnel and equipment that were used on the McCook Air Base project were being moved to Denver to work on a new project. The ad ended with an enthusiastic, "WE CAN WIN ... WE WILL WIN ... WE MUST WIN ... BACK UNCLE SAM ... KEEP BUYING WAR BONDS"

The Society page in the Gazette in the summer of 1943 was filled with weddings of soldiers and their girls. Sometimes the local girls were marrying someone associated with the McCook Army Air Base, sometimes it was the local kids getting married in far-away places.

On June 8, 1943, the McCook Rotarians heard Capt. Leo L. Mellon, base commander and Rotary member explain the part of the McCook Air Base in U.S. Bomber Training Program. He read from an Army press release, "The training heavy bomber crews will receive here when the base is fully activated is the final phase of their training before they are sent overseas." "Bomber crewmen who are sent here will have received all of their basic military training, their primary and specialist training before they arrive here. All will be full-fledged pilots, bombardiers, navigators, gunners, flight engineers and mechanics before they arrive. "

"At the McCook base these men will be assigned to permanent crews for the first time. Once a crew is assigned together, there it stays for a post-graduate or 'shake-down' course at this base. The bomber crews will train here to work as a closely-knit team, practicing by flying together as a unit in all kinds of weather and over a wide range of territory just as they will function under actual combat conditions. "

Mellon explained that if members of any one crew had personality clashes with each other, this is where they could fix the problem by reassigning personnel. McCook was their last stop before the war.

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