THANK YOU!

YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS

Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register 1925-1936 with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables

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The Congress of Ghosts (available as eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register 1925-1936 is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Art Goebel's Own Story by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.

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I'm looking for information, and especially photographs, of pilot Clachko and his airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

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Thanks to Guest Editor Bob Woodling for help researching this page.

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ADOLPH BERNARD CLACHKO

Adolph Clachko was born in Brooklyn, NY on August 25, 1922. He has moderate coverage online and in various newspapers. The earliest census information I could find for him was in the New York State Census for 1925. At age 2, he lived at 556 West 181st St., NY, NY. Today that address is a period, five-story apartment building flanked by a Payless shoe store and an Hispanic restaurant at street level. His paternal grandmother, Nettie (age 58), was head of the household. With her lived her son Josiah (29; 1897-1975), who was Adolph's father, and daughter-in-law Fannie (28), his mother (1896-1971). Both his grandmother and mother were Russian immigrants who had coincidentally arrived in America before the turn of the century. His father was employed as a draftsman.

The 1930 U.S. Census placed the family in Queens, NY. Adolph was 7 years old, and he had gained a 3-year old sister, Marion. His father was a draftsman for a hospital appliance company. In 1940, the family lived at 155 6th Street, Ridgefield Park, NJ. His father was now employed as a "designing engineer" at a hospital equipment factory. He owned their home, which was valued at $5,000. Besides his mother, father and sister, the family was joined by a 23 year old maid, Lucille Drant. I have no information about his early education or other activities.

Clachko signed the Pitcairn Field Register twice. Both times he was flying the Piper J-3 Cub he identified as NC38762. His first visit to Willow Grove was on Tuesday, January 6, 1942. He carried a single unidentified passenger. They identified their home base as Easton, PA and their destination as Mercer Airport, Trenton, NJ. His second visit, solo, was two days later on January 8th following the same itinerary. Note that his landings occurred just a couple of weeks before the Register entries were terminated on January 25th.

Concerning his airplane, NC38762 (S/N 7239; manufactured in 1941) was registered with the FAA through February 23, 2017 by a gentleman in Minnesota. On that date the registration was cancelled. But the number was reserved for future use (reservation to expire February 23, 2022). That suggests the airplane is or was being restored transferred. If anyone is familiar with the fate of NC38762, please let me KNOW.

Continuing, for context, president Roosevelt and Congress had declared war against Japan and Germany the month before Clachko's landings. That probably explains the termination of the Pitcairn Register, for security reasons. Also, we could easily surmise that Clachko was learning to fly in order to add value to an enlistment in the Army Air Corps. He was 19 years old when he signed the Register.

About six months after he signed the Register, he was registered for the draft, below.

A.B. Clachko, WWII Draft Registration, June 30, 1942 (Source: ancestry.com)
A.B. Clachko, WWII Draft Registration, June 30, 1942 (Source: ancestry.com)

According to a biographical sketch, below, he left Lafayette College after 2 years. Clachko enlisted in the Army Air Corps February 26, 1944. He soon after became a navigator and flew his first mission over Normandy on D-Day (table below).

Clachko in the History of the 458th Bomb Group (Source: 458bg.com)

"The Lockridge crew was assigned to the 754th Squadron in May 1944.  The crew flew their first mission on June 5, 1944 and the next two on D-Day.  By mid-July 1944, the crew was regularly flying in the group and squadron lead positions.  As such, co-pilot William Swartz, navigator Adolph Clachko, and bombardier John Gorman were assigned to another crew or crews in the 754th.  These three men completed their tour of missions in October 1944.

"Also, in October the 755th Squadron became the designated lead squadron in the 458th and on the 23rd of that month all lead crews from the 752nd, 753rd, and 754th squadrons were transferred to the 755th.  All of the wing crews in the 755th were transferred to the other three squadrons.  The Lockridge crew went to the 755th on this date...."

 

The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH), December 9, 1944 (Source: newspapers.com)

 

He then was assigned to another crew and flew the remainder of his required 35 missions, a list of which can be found at the 458th Bomb Group Web site (scroll down to the table of his pilot William Swartz's missions). He was released from the service October 27, 1945. He received the Air Medal and a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) along the way. One or both might have been awarded in the aftermath of the incident with Swartz's B-24 documented at the link. Some crew were commanded to bail out over France due to a landing gear problem developed during takeoff. The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH), December 9, 1944 provided little information regarding context for the DFC, right.

He kept his parachute and the following article, below, appeared in The New York Sun January 4, 1945 (Source: Woodling) .

 

 

Girl in 'Chute Gown Is Wed to Officer

His bride wearing a nylon wedding gown made from ten panels of a parachute in which he bailed out of a B-24 over France, Lieut. Adolph Clachko, bomber navigator, of Ridgefield Park, N. J., was married last night at Hotel Esplanade to Miss Miriam Sachs, Easton, Pa. Lieut. Clachko, who won the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal during thirty-five missions over Europe, recently returned home with the parachute, which was fashioned into a princess style gown with a long train for his fiancee. The Rev. Dr. Samuel Sachs, uncle of the bride, performed the ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similarly, in the Wilkes-Barre Evening News of the same date, below.

 

Wilkes-Barre (PA) Evening News, January 4, 1945 (Source: newspapers.com)

Wilkes-Barre (PA) Evening News (Source: newspapers.com)




Wilkes-Barre Evening News, September 5, 1949 (Source: newspapers.com)
Wilkes-Barre Evening News, September 5, 1949 (Source: newspapers.com)

 

 

 

 

 

Four years later, Clachko's sister married. She wore the same dress as her brother's wife as shown, right, as worn in 1949 by Marion. The text of the article from the Wilkes-Barre Evening News of September 5, 1949 described the dress as follows, it had a skirt that, "was fashioned of ten panels of parachute material." The remainder of the dress was satin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the 1940s, news coverage focused mostly on birth notices and his deliveries of numerous children to families in his practice area, Hackensack University Medical Center. In 1959, he and Miriam appeared on immigration forms recording their flight from Montego Bay to New York aboard Avianca 670. In 1968, his oldest son, Marc, was married, below.

 

Bridgeport Post (CT), August 3, 1968 (Source: newspapers.com)

Circa 2000, a Lafayette College alumni summary provided a brief summary of his life, below.

Alumni Updates – Spring 2000 [Lafayette College] (Source: Woodling)

A.B. Clachko ’44: A.B. writes: I left Lafayette after my 2nd year to serve in the Army Air Force.  I spent most of 1944 as a Navigator of a B-24 in the 8th Air Force over occupied Europe and Germany. Post Graduate Education: M.A. Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University; M.D. from Boston University.  I have been certified by the American Board of Obstetric and Gynecology, and am a member of FACS and FACOG. Now I’m trying to get used to retirement after 4 years. Family: Son Marc ’67, and two granddaughters are Lafayette graduates. My wife of 54 years I met in Easton.  She is a Moravian graduate. Other grandchildren made mistakes—Colgate and Maryland. Memories: My fondest memories of the Psychology Department have to do with the small classes under the trees with Dr. Herbert Rogers who is responsible for the balance of my whole career.  He got me out of airplanes and made me continue with my pre-war plans.  As long as I live, I will be indebted to him.

Adolph Bernard Clachko flew West April 5, 2004 from Teaneck, NJ at age 81. He was one of a handful of Golden Age Register pilots who are known to have lived to see the 21st century (see also Alexander Chase, Harold Boddorff, John Miller, Bobbie Trout, Bill Piper, Jr., Ken Rearwin, Jesse McClure, Cameron Briggs, Busch Voights, and Bob Buck). All these pilots signed one or more of the airfield Registers that are the focus of these Web sites.

A.B. Clachko Obituary. The Record (Hackensack, NJ) and Herald News (West Paterson, NJ), April 6, 2004 (Source: Woodling)
CLACHKO - Adolph B., 81, of Teaneck on April 5, 2004. An OB/GYN for forty years at Hackensack University Medical Center. Survived by his beloved wife Miriam; son Dr. Marc and his wife Gayle Clachko; daughter Jan and her husband Lewis Paper; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Services are Wednesday 1:30 PM at ....

 

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