Highland Lakes Squadron
By Judith Shabram The defining moments in our lives are those that forever characterize who we are, and how we respond to them will define who we become in our families, communities, and nation. One of those defining periods was World War II, which brought nations together and divided countries as people sought to make sense of the violence, the irrational destruction of entire cities, and the wanton loss of life that accompanied this unchecked anger and desire for power. When America entered the war, it would take the commitment of a group of young people, many of whom were barely old enough to be drafted, to Photo by David Matney/ come together in unity in an attempt to Contributing photographer preserve a way of life that some would not live to enjoy. The Highland Lakes Squadron of the Commemorative Air crop dusters doing what they loved to do and Force is an organization of men and what they knew how to do, which was flying. Lloyd women who take seriously the responsibility to Nolan is credited for getting it all started when keep our history alive by preserving the planes he discovered that many old WW II planes were from World War II that shaped the people who flew in junkyards. Lloyd would realize, however, that them helped turn the tide of the war. Even though buying them was the easy part. According to Sonny the CAF members live all across the United States, Croom, Adjutant at the Highland Lakes Squadron, the bulk of them are in Texas, which is where this “the junkyards were selling the planes so cheap labor of love began when former U.S. Army Air that sometimes the gas in the aircraft was worth Force Instructor Pilot Lloyd Nolan and some of more than the plane.” The other source for these his friends, and later Lefty Gardner, decided that old planes was the military from their reclamation these old planes deserved better than the scrap system that had stockpiled the aircraft. However, heap and that the pilots who flew them needed to due to an aluminum shortage after the war, many be remembered and honored as the heroes that old planes were sold quickly as scrap and sent to they were. The effort became a tribute to keep our the smelters since there was value in the metal, but history alive and allow the next generation to enjoy some were sold to private individuals. One of these the exhilaration of flying in these remarkable aircraft was the Texas Zephyr, later owned by Karl Ritter, and learn something of the people who flew them in who loved to fly and was a big fan of this aircraft defense of our nation. affectionally labeled the “gooney bird” because Many of those coming back from World War II it appeared so cumbersome in its takeoff yet so were from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and Squadron continued on page 56 because jobs were scarce, many of them became 2022 Spring/Summer Page 19
