The City of Moses Lake served the Air Force well

City of Moses Lake, a KC-135 Stratotanker, in a 19...well the exact date of the photo is unknown, but we suspect it is in the early 1960s. The people are unidentified as well. Anyone know who they are?

Moses Lake's Mike Garneau provided a book, which tells the history of the plane, Serial number 55-3126: roll out was March 29, 1957, first flight was May 17, 1957, delivered to the Air Force on June 25, 1957 and the Air Force flew it away on June 26, 1957.

General LeMay established an unofficial speed record in KC-135-3126 flying from Yokota AB to Andrews AFB on Sept. 13, 1958. The aircraft flew 7,100 miles unrefueled in 12, 28 minutes for an average speed of 570 mph.

Interesting fact: The aircraft landed on Sept. 13 at 7:24 a.m. Eastern time, which was 32 minutes "on the clock" before it took off on Sept. 13 at 7:56 a.m. Japanese time.

This aircraft is also said to have been one of the first Airborne Command Posts, where an aircraft with personnel capable of making command decisions was in the air 24 hours a day.

Aircraft 55-3126 was retired on Jan. 5, 1978 at Andrews AFB. Actually the word used is attrited, which means worn by rubbing or friction; affected by wear; damaged by long use.

So 55-3126 was worn out, exhausted, used up and just plain tired. The aircraft has been stored at the Military Aircraft Storage & Disposition Center in Arizona and is now listed as scrapped.

First YOU fundraiser two weeks away

From Cindy Carpenter:

"Less than 30 tickets remain for the first official YOU dinner and auction, so that is awesome. The event will take place at Sporty's Steakhouse on Thursday, March 31st. Dinner starts at 6:30 and auction to follow.

"Tickets are available at Sporty's and are $40 per person with $25 being donated to Youth Outdoors Unlimited. 100 percent of the auction proceeds to benefit Y.O.U. If you would like to donate an auction item please contact Cindy Carpenter at (509) 431-1604.

Note from Dennis: This event is a first for the YOU organization. An ad in the Columbia Basin Herald listed the many items donated so far for the auction. Garnet and I have our tickets and will attend.

Wilson Creek history

The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.

Today we continue the story of The Rev. C.H. Hart Family:

The Rev. C.H. Hart Family

By Rev. C.H. Hart

I remember the flood of Feb. 1957, and how the people of the town and surrounding farm families worked so hard to help each other and to help those who lost possessions and homes. We saw the concern of neighbors in the actions of the people during this time of hardship. Not only during the time of the flood but during all the years it was our privilege to live and work in Wilson Creek, we saw this quality in the people.

Our family increased two more children while we lived in Wilson Creek and we were seven when we moved to Nebraska in 1960. We served a church in Nebraska for 10 years, then moved to our present home in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1970. I served as Volunteer Visiting Minister until poor health has forced me to stop this year.

Our children spent part of their growing up years in Wilson Creek and are now scattered across the United States. Bette Ellen our eldest, lives in Kansas City, Kansas with her husband and our two grand children.

Joseph lives in Columbus, Indiana with his wife and works as a Computer Analyst for Cummins Industries. Mary lives in Estes Park, Colorado and with her husband owns and operates the Carriage Art Gallery and Photography Studio. Clifford "Herb" Jr. and Thomas both live in Fort Collins. Herb is General Manager for the Homes by Holz Construction Company, and Tom is a Sub contractor in the Construction Business.

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins:

From the Columbia Basin Herald on June 27, 1963:

Beef on the hoof for Friendship Day

Civilian and military officials of the military affairs committee of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce inspect beef animals of the H.R. Short Ranch that are to be butchered for use at Friendship Day, July 4, at Moses Lake State Park. Meat form three animals will be barbecued in pits at the park. Inspecting the beef are Col. Clyde W. Owen, commander of Larson Air Force Base; D.A. O'Dell, Vic Sebens, Lt. Col. A.C. Easterbrook, James Tyson, chamber president and Staff Sgt. Charles Keip.

Dennis note: Keep an eye on this column for more information on a July Fourth celebration with the troops at McCosh Park this year.

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.

Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we backtrack a bit and continue the story of Coulee City, by Alfred Twining recorded July 30, 1975:

A fellow by the name of Hazen run the first stage between here and Waterville. He had a homestead around Badger Mountain to start with and then he settled another preemption or something around Farmer. Then he come down just north of my father's place in the Coulee and started a ranch down there. I don't know how he got title to that, probably took it as a timber culture.

They had three different ways of taking property in them days. Jim lived down there until after his kids got to be school age or more and he started in horses, he had several head of horses and he got the livery barn in Coulee City and the stage line to Waterville.

Bert Garland and Alfred Greenough were two drivers I remember best. They got to handle a whip so good they could almost pick flies off a horse's ears and pretty nearly every day they had one or two wild horses in their team when they started out. I remember seeing Bert one day, in them days they had no gravel roads and the roads in the Coulee would be muddy and snow on the hilt and the chuck holes would be a foot or two deep and then they'd freeze and it would be just like driving over a bunch of scab rocks.

So Bert was coming down the road there one day in the stage on a dead run pretty near, bouncing all over them rough pieces of mud. The wind was blowing and his hat started to blow off his head. I was standing there watching him, and I bet his hat wasn't six inches from his head until his whip was back here and he spun around on two wheels. I thought he was going to tip over, but he didn't. He stepped down where the had stopped and got off and held onto the lines and got his hat and away he went again. That's the last I seen him on that day.