Results tagged “Jacob L. Devers” from York Town Square

The York Airport can be seen running along Roosevelt Avenue in this 1957 photograph. The track at center is the York Fairgrounds. From that reference point, find Roosevelt Avenue and follow it out. Find where it bends. You'll see a runway at top center. (See additional links to aerial views of York County sites below.) Background posts: Museum exhibit brings back early days of high fliers and Map aficionados will love bird's-eye view of York County and Absorbing photo and overlay shows locations of six Susquehanna bridges

After seeing views of the old York airport in a previous post, eagle-eye Joe Stein found an aerial view of the York Airport in 1957, still there along Roosevelt Avenue a year after it closed.

I've always placed the sprawling airport near the Sylvania Plant along Roosevelt, which appears to be a relatively close landmark designating its northern part.

John F.M. Wolfe, in "Profile of Aviation," gives the following facts about the airport, which sported two grass runways, including one 3,000-foot strip:

York native Jacob L. Devers, third from left, surveys Hitler's home in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Devers' men helped capture this hideaway, 'Eagle's Nest.' From left, Sgt. John Turnipseed, from Devers' staff; Gen. Wade H. Haislip, commanding general of the 6th Corps, and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, 101st Airborne Division, join Devers. Ken Burns' is exploring heroes like these in "The War," broadcast at 8 p.m. today and Tuesday at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WITF-TV (Ch. 33) and WMPB-TV (Ch. 67).

The airing of Ken Burns' "The War" prompted me to write a primer on local World War II highlights in the York Sunday News.

I included my two favorite local stories as part of that piece, titled "York/Adams residents contributed to 'The War.'"

The first one brings together the type of contributions to the "Arsenal of Democracy" by farm and factory:

Factory space is so scarce in York that one small businessman, Charles Coffey, set up a machine shop in the end of City Market, where farmers still sold their wares. He crafted parts for York Safe & Lock machines that, in turn, made armor plates.

The City Market, now demolished, was the largest and most ornate of the five covered market houses in York.

This was, indeed, an example of farm and factory literally working together... .

York County connections run deep.

Vacationing in my Brandenburg, Ky., hometown recently, I ran across a Devers Youth Center advertisement in a newspaper from nearby Fort Knox.

The ad flagged a number of summer camps at the center: Wilderness enrichment, fine arts, Native American Week summer enrichment programs, among other things.

I wondered whether the youths at the center -- tagged as a "place for Middle School Teens grades 6-12 to hang out" -- had an idea about the center's namesake.

Jacob Loucks Devers, a York native, was commander of Fort Knox early in World War II and later went on to earn four stars as the commander of an Army group invading France and Germany... .