Historian preserves Grissom's story

Published Sept. 24, 2008
By Staff Sgt. Chris Bolen
434th ARW Public Affairs

GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind., -- From Normandy to the Berlin Airlift, to Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 434th Air Refueling Wing has played an integral role in the nation's defense.

Keeping track of the unit's many accomplishments can be a daunting task, and many people don't realize that the wing has roots all the way back in World War II, said Master Sgt. Les McConnell, historian.

The 434th "Hoosier Wing" flew C-47 transport aircraft and participated in the Normandy invasion of Europe, as well as the resupply of Patton's Third Army and the encircled city of Bastogne during the "Battle of the Bulge," said Sergeant McConnell, whose job is to know these and numerous other interesting facts about the wing.

Sergeant McConnell, a traditional reservist and full-time civilian fire protection specialist with the Grissom Fire Department, moved into the historian position in April 2006.

"My job is to tell the history of the wing and all its accomplishments, awards and anything significant it participates in or does," he said.

The report is done on an annual basis and the information is sent to the Air Force Reserve Command chief historian, who then sends it on to the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Ala.

And acquiring all the information can be quite a job, he said. "I gather information from all available sources to include photos, reports, change of command paperwork, special mission documentation, flying debriefs, end of action reports, and even monthly or quarterly squadron reports," stated the historian. "I have to pursue many organizations on base to gather information or have them submit it to me which is very time intensive." Sergeant McConnell said gathering such information is important for many reasons.

"Information, good or bad, about the past is recorded for future analysis,
rather than going by memory," he explained. "For example, as members leave, transfer or retire their particular expertise for a previous exercise, mission,
or process, will be lost forever. My job is to retain needed documents for future use. I need all members' help in saving our 434th history."

Because of the information flowing from historians from different bases, that aircraft problem may become more visible, he said.

It is critical that all historians keep information submitted in their reports as factual as possible, he added.

Historian's reports will be used for Congressional reports and the Air Force will also refer to them for various other reasons, Sergeant McConnell said.

"The wing's history is important in that it tells how we do our job," he said. "What we do can be looked at later to see how we have done and how we contribute to the overall mission of the Air Force."

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Historian keeps track of unit's past

Historian preserves Grissom's story

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