Page 104 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

J.W. Hamby “How Much Paper Have
.W. Hamby (now 94) of
Plainview, Texas started
Jin business at 17 years
old. He “saved and borrowed
$110 to buy 1/10 interest in
the Plainview Flying Club.”
His drive to succeed in
business served him well in
later years. He was born at
home in Plainview on May
18, 1925 to Buford W. and
Eva (Hall) Hamby. He was
an only child. His father was
“a farmer, day laborer and
whatever else he could find
to survive the dirty 30’s” - the
Great Depression and Dust
Bowl days. Life was hard on
the South Plains, like the rest
of America during that time.
Hamby went to school a half
day at Plainview High School
in the morning and worked
a half day in the afternoon
in Distributive Education,
graduating in the spring of
1942. When still only 17 years
old, Hamby enlisted in the
104 Lubbock Senior Link
You Got?”
by Larry A. Williams, Ted and Jody Wilson
Army Air Corps because he
said, “I wanted to fly. I took
basic training at Sheppard
Field in Wichita Falls. In
those days, even the Air Corps
guys went through infantry
training.” Sheppard Field
had just opened as a training
facility in October 1941 on a
300-acre tract of land sold by
Wichita Falls cattleman, J.S.
Bridwell, for just $10. After
basic, Hamby was transferred
to a college training
detachment in San Marcos,
Texas and took a lot of college
courses for five months. “They
needed pilots in those days
and were running a lot of men
through there,” he added. The
men were trained to be pilots,
navigators, bombardiers and
radio and communications
experts. After months of
training on a B-25, Hamby
was ready to put his training
to use overseas. However,
the war in Europe ended in
May 1945. Sent to Lincoln,
Nebraska, he “drew a crew to
fly a twin-engine plane in the
Pacific, but our assignment
was shot down.” In August of
1945, the atomic bombs were
dropped on Hiroshima, then
a few days later on Nagasaki.
The war on both fronts was
over.
Hamby was assigned to the
th
47 Bomb group at Lake
Charles, Louisiana as the war
came to a close, and a rapid
demobilization began. Over
12 million men and women
were in the military during
WWII - 9% of the country’s
population. By June 1947,
only 1.5 million (a whopping
90% reduction!) of active duty
soldiers, sailors, Marines,
and airmen in the armed
forces remained. As J.W.
noted, “Many men wanted
to stay in the service, but we
had four Colonels, twelve Lt.
Colonels and Majors were a
dime a dozen.” The service
neither wanted nor needed
(they thought) that large of
a military force. Americans
were tired after over four
years of war. Hamby noted
that he “had to get a physical
exam to fly 100 hours per
month, and we flew wherever
we wanted to go which was
fine with me. I loved to fly.”
He said his scariest time
was when he “took off from
Pampa Airfield in a B-25 at
night and lost an engine. My
co-pilot was scared to death,
but I tried everything and
finally trimmed it up and was
able to land safely back in
Pampa.”
J.W.’s last flight was from
Lake Charles, Louisiana to
Denver, Colorado in an A-26
where he was separated
from active duty and put