Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D13274-2
Date(s)
- 1942-08-17 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
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This is Staff Sgt. Richard L. (Dick) Larson, Tacoma's first Army glider pilot. The 23-year-old serviceman, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Larson of American Lake north, was home on leave in mid-August of 1942 after graduating from glider school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was a 1938 graduate of Stadium High School. He was interested in glider flight even before joining the Army and was a charter member of the Tacoma Soaring Club. Sgt. Larson saw a large future for gliders in the military transport field. In World War II troop-transport gliders were used for aerial invasions. The gliders were launched and towed by cargo aircraft to the invasion area, where they were released. Richard Larson survived the war and made a career of the U.S.A.F., retiring as a Major. He passed away at the age of 69 in 1988 while vacationing on Vancouver Island. (T. Times 08-19-1942 p.1; TNT 7-28-88-obituary)
Larson, R.L.; Air pilots; World War, 1939-1945--Military training;