North High School Wall of Honor
Edwin Arthur McDaniel
Class of June, 1948
Research done by Claradell Shedd, Class of 1953. PAGE IN PROGRESS
Edwin Arthur McDaniel

Ed graduated in the June, 1948 North High class. His service number was ________. Ed's next of kin was listed as Mr. B.D. McDaniel, 3719 3rd Street, Des Moines, IA.

Edwin Arthur McDaniel
Year   Rank   Status
June, 1948   Graduated   Graduated from North High School, Des Moines, IA.
Fall, 1948 x Enlisted/US Air Force x Recruiting Office at KRNT Theater.
date x Basic Training x *Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, TX.
date x Training x **Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, CO.
date x Training x Hamilton Air Force Base north of San Francisco, CA for training in multi-engines.
Fall, 1949 x Duty x ***Eielson Air Force Base, AK north of Fairbanks, AK. RB-50 Reconnaissance. 375th Bombardment Squadron. 18 months.
date x Duty x Tokyo, Japan
Fall, 1952 x US Air Force/
Discharged/Sgt.
x Discharged at Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, TX
Fall, 1952-
Jan.,1990
x Employed x Northwestern Bell. Then US West. Then Qwest. While at US West, retired as Director of Outside Plant Operations for the state of Iowa
1990-Present x Retired x Retired and living in IA.
*Sheppard AFB, Wichita Falls, TX
Air Education and Training Command
Sheppard Air Force Base (IATA: SPS, ICAO: KSPS, FAA LID: SPS) is a United States Air Force base located five miles (8 km) north of the central business district of Wichita Falls, in Wichita County, Texas, United States.[2] It is the largest training base and most diversified in Air Education and Training Command. Comptroller, transportation, and intelligence training moved to Sheppard from Lowry AFB, Colorado, in the fall of 1954.

**Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, CO
Air Training Command
Lowry Air Force Base (1938?1994) is a former United States Air Force base located in the cities of Aurora and Denver, Colorado. Its primary mission throughout its existence was Air Force technical training and was heavily involved with the training of United States Army Air Forces bomber crews during World War II. It was also the home of the United States Air Force Academy from 1954 to 1958, until the Academy's permanent site in Colorado Springs was completed.

With the beginning of the Korean War, Lowry Air Force Base expanded its training program. Courses taught, in addition to photography and armament, included rocket propulsion, missile guidance, electronics, radar-operated fire-control systems, computer specialties, gun and rocket sights, and electronically operated turret systems.

***US Air Force; 375th Bombardment Squadron
Activated in early 1942 in Idaho as a long-range B-24 Liberator bombardment squadron under Second Air Force. For the next three months little training occurred while the unit worked through its growing pains, resolving administrative and personnel acquisition difficulties. Then a totally new problem arose....all but four personnel were transferred to the 330th Bombardment Group! While active on paper, it wasn't until September that personnel were taken from the 39th Bombardment Group to form a headquarters cadre for the 308th Group, again making it a viable unit. On 29 September the squadron was designated an Operational Training Unit (OTU) with Wendover Field, Utah as its home station. The unit was fully manned by November, after receiving personnel from the 18th Replacement Wing.

Reactivated in Alaska in 1947 as a Strategic Air Command weather reconnaissance squadron. Gathering weather information for combat readiness was an integrated part of strategic aerial reconnaissance. Weather recon, though, was a particularly loose term. There was a constant need for weather information, but weather flights were also a convenient cover for the more covert missions with RB-29 Superfortress photo-reconnaissance aircraft over the eastern frontier of the Soviet Union. Inactivated in February 1951.

Reactivated a few months later in October with new B-47E Stratojet swept-wing medium bombers, capable of flying at high subsonic speeds and primarily designed for penetrating the airspace of the Soviet Union. In the early late 1950s, the B-47 was considered to be reaching obsolescence, and was being phased out of SAC's strategic arsenal. B-47s began being sent to AMARC at Davis-Monthan in July 1959 and the squadron went non-operational. Was inactivated on 25 June 1961.

Eielson Air Force Base (AFB) (IATA: EIL, ICAO: PAEI, FAA LID: EIL) is a United States Air Force base located approximately 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska and just southeast of Moose Creek, Alaska. The host unit at Eielson is the 354th Fighter Wing (354 FW) assigned to the Pacific Air Forces Eleventh Air Force. The 354 FW primary mission is to support Red Flag – Alaska, a series of Pacific Air Forces commander-directed field training exercises for U.S. Forces, provides joint offensive counter-air, interdiction, close-air support, and large force employment training in a simulated combat environment. Eielson AFB was established in 1943 as Mile 26 Satellite Field. It is named in honor of polar pilot Carl Ben Eielson. The 354 FW is currently commanded by General James N. Post III. The 354th was at Ladd Air Force Base.

On 1 December 1947 Strategic Air Command B-29 Superfortress bombers arrived at 26-Mile Airfield with the deployment of the 97th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy, from Smoky Hill AFB, Kansas. The wing reported to Fifteenth Air Force, Strategic Air Command (SAC), although the Yukon Sector of the Alaskan Air Command controlled its operations. At the end of the Alaskan deployment the wing returned to Kansas on 12 March 1948. A year later, however, Eielson moved from under the shadow of Ladd Field when the Alaskan Air Command assumed organizational control. Also in the fall of 1947, Colonel Jerome B. McCauley assumed duties as commander. The primary missions of Mile 26 were to support Arctic training for USAF tactical and strategic units, as well as defend the base itself. Headquarters USAF General Order 2, dated January 13, 1948, redesignated Mile 26 as Eielson AFB. It was named for Carl Ben Eielson, an Alaska aviation pioneer who was killed, along with his mechanic Earl Borland, in the crash of their Hamilton aircraft in 1929. Eielson and Borland were attempting a rescue flight to an icebound ship in the Bering Sea when they were killed. On April 1, 1948, the Eielson AFB Wing (Base Complement) was formed. The host-unit subsequently would be dubbed the Eielson AFB Bomb Wing, and finally, in January 1949, the 5010th Wing. Colonel John L. Nedwed, the third commander of the base since it fell under Alaskan Air Command fifteen months before, became the first to head the 5010th.

Edwin Arthur McDaniel
Sergeant
375th Bombardment Squadron
United States Air Force

US Air Force Seal






Photo of Ed McDaniel

375th Bombardment Squadron
References
(1) Information was obtained from the Records on Military Personnel Who Died, were Missing in Action, or Prisoners of War as a result of the Vietnam War. This document can be found online at the National Archives and Records Administration at http://www.archives.gov/.

(2) The comprehensive list of names from North High's 1893-2018 graduation classes are from Claradell Shedd's North Des Moines High School website. The names of North High School graduates can be found online at: http://www.ndmhs.com/. Edwin Arthur McDaniel's 1948 class page is: http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1948(2008.60).html.
01/24/11: Currently living in IA.
Music: "Wind Beneath My Wings"
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