509th Composite Group Material [Korff]

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of approximately 0.38 cubic feet of material relating to Frederick Francis "Bud" Korff's service with the 509th Composite Group. There is a folder of correspondence between Korff and various friends and relatives, most frequently letters from Korff to his mother. The collection also contains news clippings; "The Atomic Blast" newsletters, dated June-July 1946, issued by the 509th Composite Group from Kwajalein Island; several issues of the Kwajalein newspaper "The Hourglass"; yearbooks for various units under Task Group 1.5 (formed from the 58th Bombardment Wing, part of Joint Army/Navy Task Force One, which conducted the Bikini Atoll tests) including Headquarters, The Air Photo Unit (1.52), Air Instrumentation and Test Requirement Unit (1.53), and the Air Transport Unit (1.54); blank stationery with letterhead art work for the 58th Bomb Wing Crossroads Project and with two different designs for the Operation Crossroads Atomic Tests; Kwajalein Island orientation materials; and a copy of Korff's discharge certificate. Other items of interest include a postal cover flown aboard Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Dave's Dream" in the first atomic test of Operation Crossroads, and a short snorter in various sizes designed for Joint Army/Navy Task Force One/Operation Crossroads. The largest copy of the short snorter measures 13 by 6 inches and is signed by various members of the group.

Biographical / Historical

Frederick Francis "Bud" Korff (1926-2016) served as an airplane and engine mechanic with the 509th Composite Group, first at Roswell Army Airfield, New Mexico and later as part of Operation Crossroads, an atmospheric nuclear weapon test series conducted in the summer of 1946 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Korff was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Air Forces in November 1946.