Manion's International Auctions - COL. LARRY K. CALLAHAN OF THE 148TH AERO SQUADRON WWI PILOT GROUPING

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Time Remaining To Bid: 14 days 8 hours 8 mins. 30 secs.
Item Will Close On: Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 8:30:00 PM CST

Lot Number: 5935659

Category: O82 - Personal Letters & Papers

COL. LARRY K. CALLAHAN OF THE 148TH AERO SQUADRON WWI PILOT GROUPING

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Lawrence K. "Larry" Callahan, age 23, volunteered for aviator training when America entered the war in April 1917. Callahan and John McGavock Grider met on the campus of the University of Illinois at a ground school established for cadets who had joined the fledgling American air service. Later they were sent to flight school on Long Island, assigned to different units. Grider asked his sergeant, Elliott Springs, to have Callahan transferred. "Grider had found out that Springs played bridge and liked music," Callahan remembers, "so he said, `I have a friend over here at this other place that`s a good bridge player and plays the piano. You better get him over here.` So he did." 
Callahan later was made a flight commander in the 148th and by war`s end was officially an `ace` as a result of having shot down five enemy aircraft. We know that he became an intelligence officer with the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II. But there are no extant letters or memoirs from his later life, only the presentation he gave in 1968 before a group of World War I historians, recorded on audiotape and transcribed in Marvin Skelton`s book Callahan: The Last War Bird (1978). Taking questions from the group in 1968, Callahan showed why he had been popular among his comrades back in 1917 and 1918, displaying an easy wit and charm and a total lack of pretense as to his accomplishments. He felt World War II pilots were much braver than those in the first World War, because their planes were so much faster and as a result much more dangerous. He did admit that having a parachute in World War I would have been `nice`. 
Callahan died in 1977 and is buried in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Grouping includes 4-photos clipped from magazine articles with description of each writen in his own hand writing and signed by him. Dated 1961 + typed letter on his letterhead. 

For more information on this collection go to http://www.manions.com/block.htm  Condition: 7

Opening Bid Amount: $30

Current Bid Amount: $0.00 Total Bids: 0
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Manion’s International Auction House understands some of the artifacts listed in our catalog may be deemed sensitive by some. Manion’s does not support or glorify Nazism, fascism or any other dictatorial regime or destructive ideology. We present all artifacts in their original historical context to historians, private collectors, museums, archives, and re-enactors.

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