Arthur Austin Bee

Dad was born in San Diego, California and was a survivor of the depression as a child. He remembered living in several different places with his dad as a child growing up in Long Beach, California. When my dad was 17 years old, he applied for a job at the local Postal Telegraph Office delivering telegrams and business mail. On Sunday, December 7, 1941 my dad remembers working that morning which was quiet. About eleven or twelve the teletype began to operate with a message coming over the wire “Attention All Stations, the following messages are coming from the War Department about service personnel missing in action due to a raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.” Dad said he worked until midnight delivering telegrams, and remembered seeing the faces of the people. Some of the news was good and he said he could see the relief many of them felt. Some of the news was not so good being a death or missing in action. On April 1942 three months after his 18th birthday, my dad enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

Dad’s basic training was at Sheppard Field, at Wichita Falls, Texas and then Aircraft and Engine School. After basic training, my day was assigned to Jackson Army Air Base in Jackson, Mississippi. While there he worked as a crew chief and later as a flight engineer with the training of the Dutch East Indies Air Force.

From April 1944 to August 1944, my dad was re-assigned as part of the flight crew on the B-24 bomber at Maxwell Field, at Montgomery, Alabama. He remembers on June 6, 1944 being announced over the loud speaker in the barracks.

From August 1944 to October 1945, my dad was assigned to the Middle East Theater of Operations. Dad was stationed at Naples, Italy until the end of the war in Europe. Dad was assigned to the flight line maintenance section as a maintenance crew chief. This was during the ‘Battle of the Bulge”.

From 1945 to 1946 my dad was assigned to the Air Proving Ground Command located at Ladd Army Air Base at Fairbanks, Alaska. Dad was assigned to the maintenance section where testing was done on different aircraft and equipment due to the different temperatures and weather conditions.

From 1946 to 1947 dad was assigned to the 5th Air Force 8th Fighter Group stationed at the Ashiva Air Base, Ashiya Japan as a flight engineer. Dad worked mainly on the P-51’s. Dad remembers one day going to the Post Exchange and was in front of General MacArthur’s headquarters, when General MacArthur was walking from the building to his car. Dad was able to take a photo of this. Due to a finger injury, Dad had to be evacuated to Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, California. After surgery and recovery, Dad was assigned to the 47th Bomb Group Tactical Air Command, stationed at Biggs Air Force Base, El Paso, Texas.

Dad was assigned as a crew chief on the B-26 light bomber from 1948 to 1958. The bomb group was transferred to Barksdale Air Force Base in 1948, where they replaced the B-26 with the B-45 4-engine jet bomber.

Also my dad met my mom Cleo Bardon on a blind date and they were married on April 30, 1949. Mom and dad raised two daughters and one son. My mom passed away January 20, 1992.

August 1955 to January 1956, dad was reassigned to Scoulthorpe RAF Station, England working as a flight chief on B-45’s.

January 1956 dad was re-assigned to the 55th Air Weather Squadron located at McClellen Air Force Base, Sacramento, California. Dad worked in the maintenance section on B-50, B-47, and B-45 aircraft. Dad starting having problems with his hearing, and upon being examinated had sustained a severe hearing loss and due to this injury was removed from the flight line.

Dad was re-assigned to SAC Larson Air Force Base located in Moses Lake, Washington, in December 1957. Larson was one of the SAC B-52 bases where dad was assigned to the Field maintenance Squadron.

On March 31, 1963 dad hung up his wings after serving 21 years, 11 months of active duty.

Dad still worked in the Air Force as Civil Service from 1963 to 1982. Dad worked at the base supply and Civil Engineers until Larson was going to be closed in 1966. Dad requested a transfer to Luke Air Force Base located in Glendale, Arizona.

Dad worked in the Jet Engine Shop at Aircraft Maintenance from 1966 to October 1982, where Dad retired from Civil Service with 19 years’ service. Dad’s final rank was Senior Jet Engine Technician.

Dad’s hobbies were building model planes both in plastic and wood. He loved to build and fly free flight airplanes, which I spend a lot of hours chasing down. Another hobby dad loved to do was building ships-in-a-bottle, which I still have a couple.

My dad was a quiet man, did not talk much, but we think that due to his hearing loss he had a hard time communicating with us and everyone else. Dad did get to meet his grandkids, and great grandkids.