DOUGLAS COUNTY

PARTICIPANTS AND/OR OBSERVERS

OF

HISTORIC EVENTS

By: Bill Palmer

 

History, by definition, is a narrative of particular events that occur in a chronological order. Here in Douglas County, we have a rich historical heritage – not only among those who’ve always lived here, but also from others attracted to this area who participated in significant historical events on local, national or international scenes. 

 

Several have been found to have interesting backgrounds by having participated directly in an historical event, or they have close friend(s) who did. Most lived, or continue to live, quiet lives here and for the most part, have remained relatively unnoticed. 

 

As an example, I was once privileged to know a man who moved here to Gardnerville named Gil Jay. He was a Marine during World War II and participated in landings on Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. Before he passed away, Gil often remarked how, during the Iwo Jima campaign, he had been in the same squad with a fellow Marine -photographer Sgt. Bill Genoust. It was Bill Genoust who was present on Mt. Suribachi during the second flag-raising, made famous by the still photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. He was standing near Rosenthal and simultaneously photographed the same event, but with a movie camera. Unfortunately, few days later, he was killed in action. His motion pictures of this historic flag-raising survived and are now viewed worldwide – and Gil knew him personally.

 

Another man now retired and living here in Gardnerville, was a crewman on board Howard Hughes’ huge plywood amphibious airplane, the “Spruce Goose.” With Howard at the controls, he flew with Howard during his historic, albeit short (a little over a mile), test flight back on November 2, 1947.  The “Spruce Goose” never flew again, but was placed on display in Long Beach, California, near the luxury liner Queen Mary. It has now been re-located from Long Beach to Evergreen International Aviation in McMinnville, Oregon, where it is now housed and once again on public display.

  

A retired pilot, who lives here locally, was once one of a select few who qualified and flew missions in Lockheed’s historic and legendary supersonic “Blackbird” reconnaissance aircraft. Beginning in the early 1960s, this supersonic plane was able to safely fly at will, over the most dangerous and hostile of territories. Over the years, its amazing performance has gradually been selectively declassified. But, at the time, both the airplane and its operations were so highly classified that only a few inside or outside our government had any idea it was flying.  However, the Soviets, Chinese, North Koreans and North Vietnamese were well aware of it, but remained powerless to stop it. Now designated the SR-71 “Blackbird,” it still retains the record as the world’s fastest aircraft.

 

An interesting sidelight to the plane’s SR-71 designation was provided by yet another local resident who used to work at the “Skunk Works” (Lockheed’s advanced development organization, where this amazing plane was produced. 

 

The “Skunk Works” was named by Kelly Johnson, the organization’s design head, after the ‘secret cave’ in Al Capp’s comic strip “Lil Abner,” where ‘Kickapoo Joy Juice’ was made.)  Originally, the SR-71 was designated the AR-12, then later, after modifications, this was changed by the Air Force to RS-71. However, President Johnson, in a speech that officially announced existence of the plane, mistakenly referred to it as the “SR-71.” To avoid embarrassing the President, the “Blackbird’s” designation was officially changed to SR-71.

 

Yet another resident who retired here in Carson Valley was sent by his company in 1991 to Kuwait just after the conclusion of the Gulf War. That was when the Iraqis had set fire to Kuwait’s oil wells. He was present there for both the historic efforts to extinguish these flames and remained to help restore the oil delivery systems to production again. In relating some of his experiences, he mentioned how the most effective means of fighting individual oil well fires turned out to be a system developed by one of the former Iron Curtain countries. They modified a Soviet-made heavy tank and securely mounted a jet engine on it. It was driven up close to the burning wells and the exhaust from the jet was directed at the base of the flames. The jet engine’s exhaust was so powerful that it blew out the fires. This was quickly followed by dousing the well head with water, thus cooling it to prevent re-ignition. The wells were then re-capped and are now back in production.

I’m reasonably certain there are many other historic events that have either direct or indirect connections to residents here in Douglas County. Their stories would also contribute and/or provide clarity to a different series of events that make up the historic ‘tapestry’ of our time.  Sometime perhaps they too will ‘step forward’ and enable their stories to be added to these.