80 Years of Oregon Air National Guard Veterans and Veterans Days
Thirteen of the original Charter members of the 123rd Observation Squadron stayed with the unit through the war with its various redesignations. Here, ten of them gather for a group picture at the squadron’s headquarters at Chanyi Air Base, China. The squadron operated the high-performance Lockheed F-5E Photo Lightning reconnaissance aircraft at Chanyi and several other detached locations, covering imagery targets in the vastness of southern China and Southeast Asia from Burma to Thailand to (then) French Indochina. From left to right, they are(kneeling) First Sergeant John Flavin, S/Sgt John Buckner, M/Sgt Kenneth Miller and M/Sgt Jack Shaylor. Standing from left to right are S/Sgt Harry Bachman, M/Sgt Roy Wolford, T/Sgt Charles Estes, Capt Harvey Lounsbury, S/Sgt Lorne Restau and S/Sgt Cyrus Dolph. Note some of the men standing sport the distinctive Redhawk emblem of the 35th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, a version of which is the emblem today for the 123rd Fighter Squadron and which we can trace back to the unit’s service overseas in 1944. (142nd Wing History Archive)