Big Sandy High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Big Sandy, MT)

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DEDICATION - An excellent leader for Big Sandy High School definitely describes Mr. Hammond. He has listened to all sides of a story before judging, and he has gone out of his way for the students so they can be in many activities. We stu- dents would like to thank him for his interest in and concern for the school. We therefore dedicate the 1978 annual to him. Born in Westby, Montana, to Jens and Ella Hammond, Howard Swede Hammond was destined to not only help his country, but also to h lo the youtn in, Bainville, Kremlin, Big Sandy, and surrounding areas. Howard, better known as Mr. Hammond to kids in school, lost his father when he was only one year old. His mother, Ella, later married Alvin Olson. Mr. Hammond gained two brothers - Milton and Reinhart - and one sister - Beverly. Mr. Hammond's stepfather homesteaded 320 acres (one halt section) nortn oi aaco, a town near Malta. Being the oldest, Mr. Hammond did many things that we would never dream of having to do. When he was only nine years old he was hauling wheat to town in a wagon. This wagon was pulled by two horses and held sixty bushels - a far cry from the trucks of today that will carry up to 700 bushels. On his journey to town, he would pass the school that Chet Huntley attended. Mr. Hammond remembers talking to Chet before his death and reminiscing about the wagons passing by Chet's school. At the age of twelve, Mr. Hammond was working at various jobs during the summer. When he was only four- teen years old, he was driving the maintainer for the county. To attend school, Mr. Hammond rode horseback six and a half miles as there were not too many efficient cars at this time. The horses were stabled in a bam during school hours. Telephones were quite different from what they are today. The phones were crank operated and every crank would produce a ring. Each member of the community had a specific ring. For example one person's ring might be long-long-short-short while another person's might be short- long-long-short - slightly different than the constant ring of phones todav. Mr. Hammond had wanted to be a civil engineer as a boy. After graduating from Whitewater High School, Mr. Hammond attended several colleges and universities. Some of these included Montana State University, Northern Montana College, Universitv of Montana, Greely in Colorado, and Ohio State University. He received his elementary certificate at Northern Montana College in 1939 and taught at Kremlin in the fall of 1940. One year after receiving his job in Kremlin, Mr. Hammond took the test for enlistment in the Navy Air Corps. He had the enlistment contract sent to him in the spring, but was then ineligible because of his marriage to Ella in December. His second choice was the Air Force, so he went to Missoula to be tested for the Air Corps. He was accepted but then had to wait until the next fall (November, 1941) before going to the Cadets. Mr. Hammond was in the service for four and a half years (1941-1946). He pre-flight training began in Santa Ana, California in the fall of 1942. It was during this three-and- a-half-month training that he played football for the Air Force Cadets. Mr. Hammond then transferred to Ontario, California, for three to four months of primary flight training which included doing maneuvers. These aerial maneuvers were for the purpose of airborne gunnery and formation and precision flying. He also learned the tactics of parachuting bv jumping out of towers. He next travelled to Merced, California for basic flight training which also included doing maneuvers-except this time with heavier planes. For advanced training he went to Douglas, Arizona, where he did a great deal of ground work (school, physical training, drills, navigation, physics, and radio). Graduating from here in the summer of 1943, he flew twin-engine planes and bombers for bomber-pilo-: training. As a second lieutenant in 1943, Mr. Hammond picked up his crew in Moses Lake, Washington. It was at this station that he lost several of his friends in a crash and had to take their bodies home. That ordeal was a very emotional experience for him. His next base was at Wendover, Utah, where he prac- ticed bombing targets with flour sacks and also learned tlying planes m rormation. One type of formation was when his plane's wings were tucKed right up under the wing of the plane in front. Mr. Hammond's ability to fly these formations proves his exactness and excellence which ne carries with him to this day. He then transfer- red to Grand Island, Nebraska, and later overseas. In England he was assigned to the 401st bomb group in the Eighth Air Force in 1943. Every morning (anytime from 11 at night to 2-3 in the morning) the pilots, navigators, and bombardiers, would be briefed in one place about the assignment, while gunners were briefed at a different location. As soon as everyone was in the briefing room, which had no windows, the doors were locked and a map was pulled down to indicate the target or purpose of the immediate mission. This would be the first time that any of the men knew the assign- ment. On Mr. Hammond's first mission to Berlin, Germany, the planes were in the air, yet not in total formation, when the mission was recalled by the Eighth Air Force headquarters. Because of bad weather and being a great distance from the base, Mr. Hammond and 189 other planes did not hear the recall, so they went ahead and bombed Berlin. This was the first time that Berlin was oombea. Mr. Hammond went to Berlin to bomb seven times, and during his tour of missions lost three planes. The first plane was 064 which was called Hitler's Headache. Mr. Hammond crash landed this plane at Woodbridge, England, with two right engines on fire. The wheels would not come down, so he had to put it down on the belly. He and his men climbed quickly out and were able to run a few hundred yards before the plane exploded. The second plane lost was 098. This plane was called Easy Greasy. The instruments did not work very well, and it usually was greasy due to the lack of care by the crew chief because it was only a stand-by plane. The third plane that Mr. Hammond lost was lost when he was assigned to check out a new crew. The plane's name was Victory Lady and had to be ditched in the North Sea. Mr. Hammond received several awards and is one of the very few people who has received the Silver Star. He had to ditch and get all the men out of the plane in the North Sea. His plane had been hit by flack which damaged an engine. This engme was feathered (turned so it did not drag and slow the plane up), but unfortunately Mr. Hammond had to drop out of formation. Upon doing this, he was hit by an enemy fighter which damaged another engine that then could not be feathered. Mr. Hammond managed to get his plane into the clouds and radioed for fighters to support him to the North Sea. Before the fighters arrived to give Mr. Hammond and his

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The Big Sandy High School Annual Staff Presents The 1978 PIONEER Table Of Contents: Introductory Pages pp. 1- 5 Grade School Students pp. 6- 13 Junior High And High School Students pp. 14- 27 Seniors pp. 28- 45 Staff, Faculty, And Administration pp. 46- 61 Clubs And Organizations pp. 62- 87 Sports pp. 88-115 Activities pp. 116-127 Advertising pp. 128-154 Directory pp. 155-160

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crew support, he advised his crew to bail out. This option to bail out would have meant that they would have the chance to walk out or be captured as POW's. They asked what he was going to do. His reply was that this was probably his last mission, so he was going to try to make it to the water. The men chose to stay with Mr. Hammond. They threw out any weight in hopes that this would insure their making it to the water. By this time two P-51's were there to escort the hopeful crew. Because the P-51's could not hold a great deal of fuel, they had previously radioed for P-47's to help keep the German Air Seas Rescue away; otherwise, Mr. Hammond and his crew would have been taken as POW's. At last the English Air Service Rescue picked them up and transported them to safety. Mr. Hammond had managed to save all his men even though they were in the water for an hour and forty minutes with only one dinghy. After they had hit the water, Mr. Hammond had to climb on top of the plane and open the canopy to release the dinghies before the others were out of the plane. He placed five in the one dinghy and tied the other five together with a line and had the men in the dinghy hold them so they would be together when found. During practice Mr. Hammond did not work on this technique because the windows were too small and he could not make it through them, yet during the ordeal, he was the first man out. His citation dealt with the activities over and above his duty to save his crew and get them back to the field. The Commanding Officer, Colonel Garland, recommended him for this award as this was his third plane that he had brought down without losing any men. Mr. Hammond earned the DFC award which also is not won by many men. The Distinguished Flving Cross award went to the pilot who had completed thirty missions. Mr. Hammond also has the air medal with five clusters. (Each time a person completed five missions he would receive an air medal.) After the first medal the person would get an oakleaf cluster for each five missions. Along with all these personal accomplishments, Mr. Hammond received unit citations. These were given any time the group did an outstanding job of dropping the bomb right on target usuali under adverse or unusual conditions. When Mr. Hammond left the Air Corps he was a captain and in line for a Major which is quite a high rank. During his last few years in the service, Mr. Hammond went through instrument training and taught his knowl- edge around the United States. In 1944 he started train- ing in Brian. Texas, which was the best training site in the country ai mat tune. After this instruction, he transferred to instructing instruments in B-17’s at Lockburn Army Air Base at Columbus. The following spring, Mr. Hammond went to Rapid City to instruct instruments in B-17's. He was a catcher for the 4th Air Force baseball team during his stay at this base. Biggs Field was the next place Mr. Hammond instructed. Here he instructed in B-29's. While he was here, he was given the opportunity to fly for McGinnis Airlines that served B-29 groups and flew mail routes. It was at this base that he flew as an operations officer. His duty was to fly e ?rtainment groups to the military bases where they pe . med. He picked the groups up at Mines Field in Los r. lgeles. All the expenses were paid for him while he lived with the group he was transporting. He was able to meet many people from this job. Mr. Hammond personally knew Red Skelton, Rus Morgan, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, and Bob Hope and has many pictures, autographs, and letters from these celebrities. One letter that he received was from Jimmy Dorsey's trombone player, Buddy Moitow, who wrote and asked Mr. Hammond to fly his band around the country. Mr. Hammond turned down this offer. He now feels that he likes working with students just as much as he probably would have enjoyed flying fo professional people. Mr. Hammond was also given the opportunity to fly for T.W.A. while at Lockburn Army Air Base. The inter- viewers took only those people with over 2, OCX) hours. If Mr. Hammond had taken this opportunity, he would have received lower pay and would have had to go through the T.W.A. 's special instrument school in Brian, Texas, from where he had just graduated. The company wanted to standardize procedures for transport pilots, yet he would have had to go through this school on his own time. Mr. Hammond turned this job down because he would have received lower pay and he wanted to buy land to start fanning. In the fall of 1947, Mr. Hammond went back to teach and farm in Kremlin. He purchased land and machinery in March of that year and hired his brother to work for him. Mr. Hammond had taught junior high school and coached high school athletics in Kremlin before entering the service in 1941. He had his elementary certificate from two years and a couple of quarters of college. After two years of teaching at Kremlin, Mr. Hammond went back to Missoula in 1950 to get his B.A., Master's and Administrator's degrees. He was offered the job as superintendent in Rudyard, but when he was in Havre at a district tournament, Mr. Miley, Mr. Schwartz, and Mr. Rickard (the superintendent of Big Sandy) asked him if he would be interested in coaching at Big Sandv. Mr Hammond accepted and came to this community in 1952. He coached for twelve years and took the State Basketball Championship in 1963. He and his wife, Ella, have lived in Big Sandy ever since that time. The Hammonds have three children - Mike, Patti, and Howie. Mr. Hammond will be retiring from the Big Sandy school system in 1979. From a small farm boy who rode on a wagon to town, Mr. Hammond became one of the top flyers in World War II. He flew overseas missions, flirted with death, and met many interesting people. He became a well-known primcpal in Montana and helped shape the Big Sandy High School. He served his country and his community. Big Sandy has been fortunate to have a man of such talent, and his service here will always be remembered and appreciated.