Blast From The Past – February 2, 1985 – A High angle close-up view of Space Shuttle Enterprise in launch position on the Space Launch Complex (SLC) #6, commonly known as “SLICK 6”, during the ready-to-launch checks to verify launch procedures at Vandenburg AFB, California. – USAF Photo by TSgt. James R. Pearson

Blast From The Past – Summer 1972 – Firefighters practice putting out a fire at a fire training academy at Hurlburt Field, Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. Hurlburt Field, also called Eglin Air Force Base, Aux Field #9, was my first duty station out of basic training where I was assigned to the 25th Special Operations Squadron. I enjoyed my tour here and won Airman of the Year for my volunteer work with the local Boys Club and photography I did for the base paper.

I’ve not found many pictures I shot there, but one of the memorable assignments I had there was to photograph inside the climatic laboratory on the main base at Eglin. It was a huge hanger where they could bring in just about anything from large aircraft, to small parts and create a cold climate for testing purposes. I can recall a time when it snowed in the hanger in the middle of summer in Florida!

According to Wikipedia: The McKinley Climatic Laboratory is both an active laboratory and a historic site located in Building 440 on Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The laboratory is part of the 96th Test Wing. In addition to Air Force testing, it can be used by other US government agencies and private industry.

On October 6, 1997, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The laboratory was named a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1987.

In 1940, the US Army Air Force designated Ladd Field in Fairbanks, Alaska as a cold-weather testing facility. Because sufficiently cold weather was not predictable and often of short duration, Ashley McKinley suggested a refrigerated airplane hangar be built. The facilities were constructed at Eglin Field.

The first tests started in May 1947. Airplanes that were tested included the B-29 Superfortress, C-82 Packet, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, P-80 Shooting Star, and the Sikorsky H-5D helicopter. More recently, it has tested the C-5 Galaxy, the F-117, the F-22] the Boeing 787, and the Airbus A350 XWB

On 12 June 1971, the hangar was dedicated as the McKinley Climatic Hangar in honor of Col. Ashley McKinley, who suggested the facility and served at Eglin during its construction.

Blast From The Past – Summer 1980 – Today’s photograph is of me standing in the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. The Colosseum’s original Latin name was Amphitheatrum Flavium, often anglicized as Flavian Amphitheatre. The building was constructed by emperors of the Flavian dynasty, following the reign of Nero. This name is still used in modern English, but generally the structure is better known as the Colosseum.

Blast From The Past – Winter 1994 – People go about their daily life as they visit Moscow’s Red Square. It was taken during “Provide Hope” a humanitarian operation conducted by the U.S. Air Force to provide medical equipment to former Soviet republics during their transition to capitalism.

Just about everywhere I visited on photo assignments for the Air Force we were able to get out and tour around on our own most of time and Moscow was really no exception. I found the people on the street to be friendly and open to Americans for the most part. I know we were watched to some degree while we were in some countries, especially since our job was to take pictures! I can’t say for sure, but the guy looking back in my direction in the center of the frame seemed to be around a lot during our time out walking around, but maybe I was being paranoid!

During Operation Provide Hope, Sixty-five C-5 and C-141 missions flew 2,363 short tons (2,144 t) of food and medical supplies to 24 locations in the Commonwealth of Independent States during the initial launch. Much of these supplies was left over from the buildup to the Persian Gulf War.

For nearly two weeks, US Air Force C-5A’s and C-141’s delivered several hundred tons of emergency food, medicines, and medical supplies to all twelve new independent states of the former Soviet Union, not only to each capital city but also to several outlying cities, especially across Russia. Small teams of US personnel from various government agencies (On-Site Inspection Agency, USAID, and USDA) had been placed in each destination shortly before the deliveries, to coordinate with local officials and to monitor to the best extent possible that the deliveries reached the intended recipients (i.e., orphanages, hospitals, soup kitchens, and needy families).

For 6-months of this operation I was the photo editor for a Combat Camera team that worked out of Aviano, Italy covering the operations.

Blast From The Past – Fall 1987 – An F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft is refueled on the flight line during a training exercise on a Danish Air Base in Denmark during one of the annual Autumn Forge Joint Nation Military Exercises. This was one of the annual exercises that brought me back to Europe many times over my carrier where I was part of a military documentation team in Combat Camera. Our jobs were to document the military operations and provide imagery to the Joint Combat Camera Center located at the Pentagon. These images and video/motion picture footage were used to brief at the Pentagon, the White House and document the history of the military overall. Selected imagery was also release by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense to the general news media. – USAF Photo by SSgt. James R. Pearson

Blast From The Past – Summer 1990 – Jeepneys are a common mode of travel in the Philippines. Here we see a couple heading down the streets of Manila, taken during the time I was stationed at Clark Air Base from 1989-1991. It was an interesting assignment where I lived off the base in a compound where we had armed guards, due to the threat from the Abu Sayyaf militants group, among other such groups during the time I was stationed there. During my tour there I didn’t get to travel as much as I wanted due to these threats to American Military. Otherwise, it was a great tour and I made many great new friends.

Also, the days leading up to my return to the states and a new assignment the Mount Pinatubo volcano was spewing gas and debris. After I was at my next duty station at Norton AFB, California it erupted on June 15th, 1991 covering most of the regions around and Clark with ash! The base was closed by the United States in the early 1990s due to the refusal by the Philippine government to renew the lease on the base.

Blast From The Past – Summer 1994 – A teenager waits patiently for his train to depart the Budapest-Nyugati train station in Budapest, Hungary.

According to Wikipedia: The Nyugati pályaudvar (English: Western railway station), generally referred to simply as Nyugati, is one of the three main railway terminals in Budapest, Hungary. The station is on the Pest side of Budapest, accessible by the 4 and 6 tramline and the M3 metro line.

The station was planned by August de Serres and was built by the Eiffel Company. It was opened on 28 October 1877. Previously another station stood in its place, the end station of Hungary’s first railway line, the Pest–Vác line (constructed in 1846). This building was pulled down in order to construct the Grand Boulevard (Nagykörút) which is now smaller than the outer ringroad (Hungária körút – Hungary Boulevard) and the recently opened motorway ringroad M0 (2008).