Here’s a look at some stories from the week of Feb. 25-March 2.
Feb. 27, 1942: Dayton nurses join Army
Among the first Dayton nurses to join the army were Betty Baker and Eunice Thorp.
The first assignment for the nurses, who joined at Fort Hayes, was to report to Fort Benjamin Harrison.
Both had been assigned to active duty at Billings General Hospital at the Indiana Army post.
Baker graduated from Miami Valley Hospital in 1939 and was in business as a private nurse. Thorp graduated from Miami Valley in 1937 and had been working as an industrial nurse at the International Envelope Co. in Dayton.
Both women said their patriotism led them to enlist as Army nurses.
Feb. 29, 1952: Girls lead boys 3 to 1 in “Leap Day” derby
Girls took a 3-1 lead among the first “Leap Day” babies arriving early in the morning Feb. 29, 1952, in Dayton.
The first baby arrived at St. Ann’s hospital at five minutes after midnight.
The baby, who was yet to receive a name, had two sisters. The parents wanted another girl and they got one. About missing out on birthdays, the father said, “We’ll just have a party on Feb. 28 or March 1, or on whatever Sunday is the closest. That way we can pick out when we have a birthday party. It’ll be better that way.”
The first baby at Miami Valley hospital showed up at 2:07 a.m. Next was a baby at Grandview hospital at 2:38 a.m.
Feb. 25, 1962: Ice belt ties Miami Valley in $1 million knot
A $1 million total in damage started to take shape after a major ice storm in the Miami Valley in 1962.
More than 10,000 service calls were received by Dayton Power & Light Co. in a little over a 24-hour span from families shivering from spending the night without electricity.
A full day later there were still 800 homes in the Dayton area without power.
Power failures were caused by broken electricity lines leading into homes themselves. This meant a crew of linemen had to go to each home to string a new power line, at least an hour’s job.
Rural areas in Greene, Fayette and Clinton counties were harder hit, and would have to wait at least another day before crews could get to them.
Some 45 linemen from Cleveland were flown in to assist 300 local workers on the fallen lines. Workers were also brought in from Piqua and Middletown.
The Bell Telephone Co. also had 150 repairmen working to restore telephone service.
Street crews were also busy at working through the nights, clearing away thousands of splintered tree limbs, snapped under the weight of the heavy ice. One Piqua street worker died of a heart attack while cleaning up debris.
Feb. 27, 1972: It’s a plane! It’s a car! It’s both!
Air Force Maj. Richard A. Strong, stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, had spent $15,000 of his own money and 4,000 hours of his time pursuing the development of a combination automobile-airplane.
His efforts had led to a patent, a two-foot-long wooden model and lots of correspondence with other fellow “aircar” dreamers.
Strong was studying systems management at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson. His studies were cutting into his time for his “roadable airplane” as he preferred to call it.
Strong also served as the Dayton chapter president of Mensa, a club composed of people who have scored in the top two percent on intelligence tests.
His plan was to build and test a prototype within five years. Strong believed the vehicle, which he called the Strongmobile, was the most convenient one ever designed.
The wings on his vehicle folded easily and neatly back into the fuselage instead of having to be detached. This would make for a quicker transition “from runway to highway.”
Feb. 28, 1982: ‘I don’t want it’ Enola Gay bombs out with Air Force Museum director
In 1982, a joint House-Senate resolution, sponsored by Sen. Neal Zimmers Jr. D-Dayton, was approved without dissent. The resolution called for the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber which dropped the first atomic bomb in World War IIB, to be displayed at the Air Force Museum in Dayton.
Col. Richard Uppstrom, director of the Air Force Museum, however, didn’t want it.
Uppstrom didn’t want to make the people of Ohio mad, but said, “I have no place to put it. I have no people to put it back together. I’ve got an 18-year backlog of other airplane restorations.”
The Enola Gay was in pieces in a Smithsonian Museum warehouse at the time. Restoration was completed in 2003 and it is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)’s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Dayton’s Museum already had on display a similar B-29, called Bockscar, which dropped the second atomic bomb at Nagasaki three days after the Enola Gay’s bomb fell on Hiroshima.
Sen. Neal Zimmers said he never thought of checking with the Air Force Museum: “I guess it was an oversight. I just thought the museum would be a good place to display the Enola Gay and I still think it would, I thought they would want any well-known airplane.”
Feb. 27, 1992: It’s a grand old, old flag
A piece of Dayton history was rediscovered in an oak tool box backstage at the Scottish Rite Cathedral of the Masonic Temple in 1992.
A 40-by-24 foot cotton flag, soiled but still in good shape, had been in storage for at least 80 years. The only other thing in the tool box was a 1937 newspaper.
The 46-star flag was one of two identical flags that was draped in front of the Montgomery County Courthouse for a 1913 flood rally. The whereabouts of the other flag remained unknown.
The rally was held to raise money for construction of a flood control system.
The flag, which had been folded military-style for storage, was turned over to the Miami Conservancy District. The organization was collecting flood memorabilia for a future museum exhibit.
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