James Kirkpatrick World War II Color Slides and Log Book

Training

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There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

sova.nasm.2012.0006

Topic: Douglas C-47 Skytrain Family; Curtiss C-46 Commando Family; World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations; World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Pacific Area

Summary: This collection consists of eighty color 35 mm slides taken by 1st Lt. James J. Kirkpatrick, U. S. Army Air Forces, during his World War II service in the Pacific Theater. The collection also contains Kirkpatrick's pilot log (1943-1946) and five copy prints of Kirkpatrick and the aircraft he flew, a Douglas C-47 Skytrain and a Curtiss C-46 Commando.

Biographical / Historical: James J. Kirkpatrick (1922-2008) served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, in the Pacific Theater. Kirkpatrick was a pilot of Douglas C-47 Skytrain and Curtiss C-46 Commando cargo aircraft, delivering food and medicine and transporting the wounded. After the war, Kirkpatrick graduated from the University of Tennessee, where he received his bachelor's degree (1948) and his master's degree (1949). In 1953, Kirkpatrick received his Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology from Syracuse University and was a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies. Kirkpatrick then became a full professor at New York University and was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant to research fair employment; he was the lead author in the resulting book, Testing and Fair Employment: Fairness and Validity of Personnel Tests for Different Ethnic Groups. Kirkpatrick was a leading expert on fair employment and he became involved in many leading precedent setting cases as an experienced expert witness. He was a professor emeritus at California State University at Long Beach.

Citation: James Kirkpatrick World War II Color Slides and Log Book, Acc. NASM.2012.-0006, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Processing Information: Arranged and described by Patti Williams, 2012; image descriptions by Allan Janus, 2015; revised and encoded by Melissa A. N. Keiser, 2021.

Rights: Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Scope and Contents: This collection consists of eighty 35 mm color slides taken by 1st Lt. James J. Kirkpatrick, U. S. Army Air Forces, during his World War II service in the Pacific Theater; Kirkpatrick's pilot log for the period 1943-1946; and five copy prints of Kirkpatrick and the aircraft he flew: Douglas C-47 Skytrain and Curtiss C-46 Commando. Kirkpatrick underwent his initial training at the Southeast Army Air Forces Training Center (Jackson, Tennesee), pilot training at Newport Army Air Field (Newport, Arkansas), advanced pilot training at Freeman Army Airfield (Seymour, Indiana), and additional flight training at Sedalia Army Air Field (Warrensburg, Missouri). The color slides include photographs taken by Kirkpatrick during training operations in 1944; views at Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii in 1945 en route to his service location; views taken in the Philippines of U.S. Army Air Forces camps and flight operations as well as civilian locations and activities, 1945; views of occupied Japan following the surrender, 1945-1946; and photographs taken on his trip back to the United States aboard a troopship in 1946.