Guide to the Richard L. Calkins Collection MC 116
James C. Scott
Sacramento Public Library
2023
Contributing Institution:
Sacramento Public Library
email: sacroom@saclibrary.org
phone: (916) 264-2795
Title: Guide to the Richard L. Calkins Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MC 116
Physical Description:
.1 Linear Feet
1 archival folder
Date (inclusive): 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.
Language of Material:
English
.
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.
[Identification of item], Richard L. Calkins Collection, MC 116, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California
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.
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