Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Guide to the Richard L. Calkins Collection
- Dates:
- 1942-1971
- Abstract:
- Enclosed are photographs, military documents, government documents, and a single published yearbook from Lubbock Army Air Field, that document the high school and military experience of Sacramento aviator Richard L. Calkins.
- Extent:
- .1 Linear Feet
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Richard L. Calkins Collection, MC 116, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This limited collection is made of paper items. Two black and white photographic prints show Calkins in group portraits while at Sacramento High School. The bulk of materials are composed of discharge papers from the United States Army and then from the California Air National Guard. Also included is a poem written by Calkins called "The Unsung Hero's Lament" and a published yearbook entitled "Wings Aloft" which covers life at Lubbock Army Air Field in 1944. Photographs are in Mylar sleeves and the entire collection is housed in a single acid-free folder.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Richard Leslie Calkins was born on October 24, 1924, in Lomita, California, to Harold and Blanche Calkins. Calkins spent most of his youth in Lomita, prior to moving to Sacramento, California, where he would go on to attend Sacramento Senior High School, graduating in 1942. Calkins entered service with the United States Army on March 12, 1944, going on to train at as a pilot at Lubbock Army Air Field and then at Liberal Army Air Field in Liberal, Kansas. It was at Liberal that Calkins became learned to pilot the B-24 heavy bomber. As a First Lieutenant in the 15th Air Force, Calkins went on to serve in European, African, and Middle Eastern theaters of combat during World War II and saw action over the German Rhineland, Italy's North Apennines and Po Valley, and the Balkans. Calkins then served during the Korean War where he piloted an F-86. He was awarded a Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and Bronze Star during his time in Korea. Upon leaving the military, he became a commercial airline pilot and then spent 12-years as the executive pilot for California Governors Goodwin Knight and Edmund Brown. He also retired from the California Air National Guard in December 1971 as a Brigadier General. In 1972 he went on to manage Capital Sky Park in West Sacramento, California. He married wife Ebba in May 1946 and the two were the parents of Cynthia, born in 1959, and Craig, born in 1957. Calkins died on July 14, 2007.
- Physical facet:
- 1 archival folder
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-06-20 12:39:26 -0500 .
Access and use
- Terms of access:
-
All requests to publish or quote from private collections held by the Sacramento Public Library must be submitted in writing to sacroom@saclibrary.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Sacramento Public Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Richard L. Calkins Collection, MC 116, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California
- Location of this collection:
-
828 I StreetSacramento, CA 95814, US
- Contact:
- (916) 264-2976