The struggle to keep memory
alive
By
Will Collette
Before restoration |
Each year, we have ended this series on Charlestown’s major role
in World War II as the host to the Ninigret Naval Auxiliary Air Field (NAAF) with an essay by Frank Glista on efforts to keep those memories
alive.
Frank
had secured and restored one of the most iconic relics of the NAAF, a large
practice “bomb” that was used to train flight crews in the delicate art of
loading aerial bombs onto the craft that Naval flyers were being taught to fly.
The "Ninigret Bomb" in its new home. |
The
bomb was never filled with explosives. Unless it fell on top of you and crushed
you with its weight, it posed no hazard to human life.
The
Ninigret Bomb is an important artifact of that period. In fact, its appearance
in many photos taken in that era seems to show the pilot trainees thought it
was an important symbol of their mission.
But
year after year, no one would allow Frank to donate the Ninigret Bomb for
display. Read about his quest for a “forever home” for the Bomb by CLICKING
HERE.
Thanks
to the Charlestown Historical Society, the Ninigret Bomb has now found a
forever home at the Society’s main building on Old Post Road (next to the
library), as part of a growing collection of NAAF articles on display.
Further,
another important NAAF artifact is now on display, this time at Ninigret Park
near the other memorials to the veterans of that period.
As
the Charlestown Historical Society reports:
In time for Memorial Day, the town of Charlestown has put in place a new memorial at the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Memorial at Ninigret Park. This propeller was pulled out of Charlestown Pond on May 12, 2004.
It is from a F6F-5N Hellcat Nightfighter which crashed through the ice upon takeoff during a training exercise on March 4, 1945.
The pilot, Lt. JG Kenneth Bruce McQuady, USN, was 21-years old and lost his life upon impact. He left behind his wife Guilda and daughter Karen, who was only a few months old.
It
would be better for the world if wars never needed to be fought. But if ever
there was a war that was necessary to
fight, it was World War II. It may be the only war in the lifetimes of those
still alive where there was a national consensus for total commitment to fight
to win.
Charlestown,
like every community across the land, pitched in. The changes that World War II
brought to Charlestown were profound and to a large degree permanent.
But
on Memorial Day weekend, we look back at that Navy base and reflect on those
wide-eyed young men who were being trained in how to tame those wild machines
of war before they were sent to the Pacific to fight for their country.
More
than a few of those flyers didn’t make it through their training alive.
We
thank them all for their service.
And
I add my personal thanks to Frank Glista who has, in my opinion, done more than
anyone else to add to our knowledge and to keep the memory alive of the brave
souls who passed through the Ninigret Navy Auxiliary Air Field.