Maxene Graham, Program Chair

May 30^th we will be celebrating Memorial Day, first called Decoration Day, which was started not long after the Civil War. 

Its been said if there’s been no trail make one.   Our speaker today is blazing trails…

Anthony Atwood – Time to Remember

Mr. Atwood is a third generation Miamian.  He is currently a Navy Reserves officer with 12 years of active Navy duty service on his resume.   After 12 years stationed on the fleet out west, the post cold war peace dividend got him an early retirement. 

For a second career he wanted to become a historian

He loves history and has a Bachelors from UM and Masters from FIU in History and is currently working on a Ph.D.

However, there are no weekend warriors (reservists) after 911. He was recalled for one year.  Afghani prisoners were being sent to Guantanamo and he was stationed to guard them.  In the Iraq war since there are no adversarial navies, the  burden falls on the army staff.  Army Reservest have been recalled 2-3 times.

NEW PROJECT IN THE WORKS:

The Miami-Dade electorate in 2004, voted on the GOB issue. This was a compendium of issues from drainage to a Military Museum of S Florida.   Anthony Atwood is now the Executive Director of this museum which will have a groundbreaking this summer and tentatively open in 2009.

This museum will span our local and future history. 

Slide show:

1)  One of four Navy owned Zeppelin type A rigid airships that was phased out because wind would bend the steel supports and break them  Vintage 1920’s-1930’s stationed at the Opa Locka  airport.  They held a crew of 30-40 with Sparrow Hawk airplanes inside lowered by a winch and pulley Large canvas bags of helium

2)  Pearl Harbor 1941 Most of the US fleet was sunk

3) Nazi and Japanese Empire attacked by submarines – their navies had approximately 1,000 U-Boats

4)  U-Boats chose FL as one of their targets since the straights below us is strategically important.  Primary location since we are in the midst of the Caribbean.  Coastal air bases were established from Canada to Brazil.  The Panama Canal was extremely valuable and vital since gas and fuel came from TX in the 40’s.

5)  Blimp station considered for type B airship (The word BLIMP stands for balloons that go limp when deflated)  

6)  The Richmond family gave land to the Navy to build an airship station – Richmond Height area today.

7)  Blimps are sausage shaped for aerodynamic reasons with cables holding 10 crew members with sonar (cable into ocean) and radar, 1 machine gun and 4 bombs

The Richmond Station was fully mobilized almost immediately. Three blimp hangers each13 stories tall.  Down the center of each was a railroad line – a spur line of the FEC went right into the hangers for supplies.

Blimps are still useful for slow monitoring of any space.  During the 1940’s, submarines could not travel for long periods of time diesel motors expelled carbon monoxide and asphyxiated submariners.

Blimps were big, obvious targets that were not supposed to engage in combat.  Calling for backup was the policy.  However, on June 17, 1943, while patrolling over the straights of FL, one US blimp saw a freighter, a tanker patrol and then a UBoat readying for an attack. 

A first ever - blimp vs submarine combat. 

The submarine used its anti-aircraft guns and the blimp pilot shot his firearm out the cabin window.  The sub’s weapons tore the nose off the blimp. Bombs were released from the airship.

The blimp rose up to 10,000 ft and then lost helium and went into the ocean. The radioman got off a mayday.  Dinner Key and KWY sent a destroyer. 

This was midnight.  Crewman had life jackets and hung onto the blimp as it deflated on the ocean surface.

The submarine left the area and 15 years after WW2 radio transmissions were found explaining the outcome.  The blimps bombs did not miss – there was damage.  The sub took periscope and ballast tanks damage.  It made it to Spain where a British bomber sank it.

Come daybreak, the commander of the seaplane out of Dinner Key rescued nine crew, but sharks ate one. 

The machine guns on the deck of the destroyer kept the sharks back  at daybreak when they feed.

Richmond was a military hospital as was Biltmore Hotel. 

Then why isn’t Richmond station common knowledge to Floridians?

Because the base disappeared overnight on 9/15/45.  A hurricane came through two weeks after WW2 was over.  The hurricane’s path made the naval station ground zero.  50 sailors were on duty in each hanger.  In the middle of the storm the hangers caught fire – a beam worked loose and fell – sparked and fire with wind. This was the largest fire on federal property. 

The location was off of Coral Reef Road.  It was bulldozed and the Navy blew up the rest.

Now it is our Metro Zoo and as the Goldcoast RR museum which parks its trains on the tracks that weren’t damaged.

The master plan for the future Museum will be ready in one month by the same designers of the New Orlean’s D Day museum.  Re-Construction starts this summer 2007. 

Note:  One corner from the old hanger still remains. 

No sea vessels were lost off the Florida coast once this base was established.

Question for the audience:  What was Roswell?

6.000 Japanese fire balloons were sent into the jet stream timed to go down in the NW US as incendiary devises to burn forests.  They were coming down in N Mexico and Chicago for years. 

To assist Mr. Atwood’s attempt at getting federal matching grant funding, he requests that our Rotary club write an endorsement letter supporting the museum project.