Scope and Contents

This small collection contains six 35mm color slides of military aircraft at US bases in Puerto Rico, the Pacific, and Korea, and two items of ephemera Fobes probably picked up on his 1947 trip to Japan: a menu from the Army Air Forces Air Transport Command (Pacific Division) Terminal Restaurant at Hickham Field, Oahu, Hawaii; and a pamphlet issued by US Navy Naval Air Transport Squadron 3 (VR-3) providing information to passengers travelling aboard their "Nonstop Hot Shot" coast-to-coast transport service flights between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, California.

Biographical / Historical

Ramon D. Fobes enrolled in the Vermont National Guard while attending college in Burlington, and was commissioned in June 1925. Fobes retained his inactive military status, so when he was called up for World War II he entered active duty with the US Army as a first lieutenant. By 1944, he had been promoted to rank of Captain, and was assigned to Antiaircraft Artillery; he spent the whole of the war in the continental United States. After the war he made at least two trips to Japan (in 1946 and 1947), passing through Hickham Field, Hawaii, en route. From March 2 through May 23, 1951, Fobes (now a Major) was assigned to temporary duty with the 63rd Antiaircraft Artillery Missile Battalion, and was at Fort Clayton (Panama Canal Zone) and Camp Tortuguero (Puerto Rico). In late 1953 to 1954, Fobes was stationed with the 739th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, 10th AAA Group, near Seoul, Republic of Korea.