Description

WACO’s Aviation Lecture Series begins this month, Tuesday, November 21, 2023, and we have a few changes to announce. Due to the beautiful addition of the low-wing WACO RPT that was recently unveiled at the WACO 100th Anniversary Celebration, WACO’s Willis Wing does not currently have enough space to accommodate the popular lecture series. Troy-Hayner Cultural Center, located at 301 West Main Street in Troy, will be the temporary location of the 2023-2024 lecture series and is completely handicapped accessible. Kicking off this year’s series will be Brian J. Duddy, author of Invasion Stripes: The Wartime Diary of Captain Robert Uhrig, USAAF, and the Dawn of American Military Airlift. From the snows of Alaska to V-E Day in Europe, this is the biography of US Army Air Forces Captain and Springfield, Ohio Native Robert Uhrig during WWII. Told in his own words from extensive diary entries and letters to his wife, 'Toots,' the story starts in the late 1930s at Patterson Field, Ohio, and follows Bob through the war as an aircraft mechanic and then Engineering Officer for the 36th Troop Carrier Squadron and their Douglas C-47s. Bob's wartime career took him from the jump school at Ft. Benning to supplying British units in North Africa to the Sicily and Normandy (D-Day) invasions and all the other airborne operations in Europe. Invasion Stripes is also a deeply personal story of love as Bob and Toots endured almost three years of wartime separation with only their photographs and letters to sustain them across thousands of miles. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes tragic, it is a unique and detailed first-person story of the American airlift forces of WWII. Our speaker and author Brian J. Duddy, a resident of Dayton, attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, earning a BS in Aeronautical Engineering, and was commissioned through the Air Force ROTC program. He has an MA in History from Wright State University and is a graduate of the Air Force Air War College. He served 24 years in the United States Air Force, retiring in 2007 as a Lieutenant Colonel. He has previously written articles for Acquisition Research Journal, Flying Safety, Defense Acquisition, Unmanned Systems, and Military Modeling magazines. His first book; Wings Over LeRoy: the History of the Donald Woodward Airport, LeRoy, NY, about Golden Age aviation was published in 2008. His second book, Invasion Stripes, The Wartime Diary of Captain Robert Uhrig, USAAF and the Dawn of American Military Airlift, was published in 2012. His third book, Fox Fires, a Cold War adventure novel was published in 2022. All aviation lectures are free and open to the public and are held at Troy-Hayner Cultural Center in Troy, OH. Donations to the WACO Air Museum are gratefully accepted. Programs are scheduled to last one hour, beginning at 7 p.m., with questions to follow. All lectures are sponsored in part by Collins Wheels and Brakes. For questions, please call 937-335-9226 or visit www.wacoairmuseum.org.