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Show Museum greets millionth visitor I A Clearfield resident, Amy Sparkman, was taken totally off guard when she became the millionth visitor to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum Saturday afternoon. Amy's blue eyes widened as she was greeted by Col. Larry Wheeler, 75th Air Base Wing commander; John McCleary, museum director; and a host of excited museum volunteers who had wait- ed throughout the cold, snowy day for the visitor couni io total a million. It was the first visit to the museum by the Sparkman family. Amy. her husband John, two sons and daughter saw the large crowd attending the museum's biannual food drive where visitors Vol. 50 No. 16 Hill AFB, Utoh 84056-582- 4 - can actually tour the inside of many of the display aircraft and decided to take a look. And the rest, as some say, is history... Amy was presented with a television, flowers, a jacket and others gifts supplied by the museum the museum gift shop and the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. When some of the shock the whole h.ad worn off' Amy 8aid she thing was "really neat!' : The museum, which opened in May 1987, has fast become one of Northern Utah's top tourist stops. Nearly one in three of the million visitors are from out of state or country. l0"' iilllllillivAs I Amy Sparkman, the Hill Aerospace Museum's millionth visitor (center), stands with Col. Larry Wheeler, 75th Air Base Wing commander (left), and John McCleary, museum director, after receiving a totally unexpected bundle of gifts, including flowers, to celebrate the facility's important milestone. April 25, 1996 Wizard of Waste celebrates 'Great Warrior' award Recycling or... Awareness honors Vernon Ligon W.O.W. RAH, RAH!! Week, by Sgt. David P. Masko '"Air Force News Service ' - Some men fight and LAS VEGAS lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat. That statement- - was used to remember P. Ligon Jr. a at the recent. prisoner in three wars Ninth Air Force Association convention in Las Vegas. The association honored Ligon with its "Great Warrior" award in 1995. It was a posthumous award, for he died just a few months before his friends would meet to celebrate his long Air Force career. But this was not the first honor for the legendary Air Force fighter pilot. Former Sen. Jeremiah Denton's book about "When Hell being a POW in Vietnam was in Session" tells about Ligon's bad luck and great courage when both shared command of the "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp. Denton's book became famous for exposing the incredible cruelty suffered by American POWs during the Vietnam War. Ligon, for example, was interned in the Hanoi Hilton for five years and four, months where he suffered isolation, starvation and torture. Prior to that he was in a Korean POW camp, and fought for his life in Germany's notorious Dulagluft and Stalagluft III POW camps during World War II. "There was a contrast between the World War II laughing, squadron-mat- e pilot we knew and the normally quiet, but almost eerie Vera who attended our Ninth AF Association reunions in the '80s and '90s," said Chuck Mann, a former Air Force Army pilot who served with Ligon in the 362nd Fighter Group. "We saw him most always with red eyes and frayed nerves, never staying very long at any function. This was just some of the tragic proof of what the torture of Vietnam did, even to a strong man," Mann explained. It was not uncommon for Allied pilots fighting Nazi Germany during World War II to have problems staying aloft ... the number of missions they flew, and devil-may-ca- the Luftwaffe's ground and air resistance, forced many AAF pilots to the ground. That dilemma resulted in the sharp rise in the number of American POWs near the end of World War II. After graduating from pilot training school at Luke Field, Ariz., in 1943, Li gon joined the 362nd FG forming at Westover Field, Mass. The group arrived in England in November 1943 the first 7 group assigned to the 9th Air Force. According to AAF records, Ligon was . flying his 26th mission over Belgium when his Thunder-- ; on April 22, 1944 bolt was so severely damaged by t'flak'. that he was forced to parachute into;,? , enemy-hel- d territory. ; Ligon said "heavy'' interrogation followed for two months in Brussels, and at Dulagluft POW camp near Frankfurt, . until the Germans decided they could not get useful information from him. He . was then transferred to Stalagluft III POW camp. In January 1945, Ligon said he and other prisoners were forced to walk in the cold and snow for about 100 miles to Hammelburg, where they were taken by train to Nuremburg prison for three months. During another forced march, he escaped only to be recaptured and taken to another camp near Munich. Ligon was lucky. Records show that 50 prisoners who also got out were killed. After a year in the German POW camps, Ligon was freed in April 1945 Photo by Sua Bark when Gen. George Patton's Third Army broke through enemy lines. are tan, trash bins are brown bins Recycling "The other day I visited a German inTo help individuals recognize recycle bins from trash dumpsters, the Reternment camp. I never dreamed that cycle Center has painted all recycle bins tan. Trash dumpsters are painted such cruelty, bestiality and savagery dark brown. The Wizard of Waste (Alyric Ray, base recycling manager) conworld. could really exist in this It was sults with Larry Voss about the new color scheme. See story on page 11. horrible," explained Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to Mamie Eisenhower on April 15, 1945. William Ligon also said Korea is someAt a Pentagon press conference on - From 1945 until 1967, Ligon served in June 18, 1945, Eisenhower praised the a variety of Air Force assignments in- thing that he knows little about. "My courage of American POWs and cluding range officer at Patrick Air father was very' private about his miliForce Missile Range, Fla., and as a logisHolocaust survivors, and blasted Gertary service to most individuals outside many. "When I found the first camp like tics officer in the Philippines. He also of his peers in the Air Force, and that bethat I think I never was so angry in my worked at the Air War College and in havior carried over into his family life. bomber training. "Most of the information I have to life. I think people ought to know about such things. It explains something of my During this period of the Korean War, offer is bits and pieces, picked up from attitude toward the German war crimi- Ligon also was involved in flying mis- analogies he would use from time to time nal. I think the people at home ought to sions. "We know details about his World to compare the type of hardship he had know what they are fighting for and the War II experiences, and Vietnam, but to endure compared to the average pernot so much about Korea," explained son," William Ligon explained. kind of person they are fighting." The son's indictment focuses, in part, War has always involved death, most Edward MacLean, a 7 AAF pilot who obviously of military combatants, but in served with Ligon during World War II. on Ligon's involvement in three differwork camps Unlike his other internment's, ent wars, and the Ligon's case his first taste of war left him even more determined to fight the MacLean said Ligon only served for a where prisoners were tortured or forced short time in a North Korean POW to participate in death marches. "We will evil that men do. when it came to never know what was really going on insaid a son, William, being camp. "He was gun-sh- y Ligon's POW should have made him quit after that ... being a POW so many times. side," said Mann of his friend of 50 v World War II. But it didn't. William said What he suffered in Germany and at the years. After the Korean War and assign- his father was dedicated to the Air Force Hanoi Hilton are the things we usually See Ligon, page 10. remember about him." and wanted to continue flying. P-4- . 54 m B-4- 7 P-4- POOR COPY |