Harold Maples
Bio
Harold Maples served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. He discusses with his friend, Guy Metcalf, the refueling stations around Cold Bay, Alaska used during the Korean War. As part of his role during the war, he calculated the range of the DC-4, known as the Skymaster. The Skymaster was a four-engine, long range, heavy transport used by the United States and Canadian Air Forces along with the United States Marine Corps. Harold discusses the refueling needs for the Skymaster in the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea. He focuses on Shemya Island, which only had a four by five mile landing strip with one set of lights. To highlight the dangers of landing at Shemya Island, he discusses one incident in which a pilot was concerned about missing the runway.
Photos
Harold Maples Writing Home
Photo submitted by family member through The 22.
Maples Sergeant One Stripe
Photo and description submitted by family member through The 22
Harold missed the deadline to apply for rank so that all of his peers went up in rank without him. They joked with him about how he didn’t have his “stripes” which you can see in the black and white photo. So he filled out the paperwork and went about his business.
Photo and description submitted by family through The 22.
He was asked to go play basketball in Seoul for a good will trip over one weekend. When he came back, he found his whole “team” was in trouble for leaving without permission. It turned out to be a mix up but he was threatened with worse punishment because he outranked his team. He was so confused until he realized that they had jumped him two ranks over the weekend while he was gone. They all had a good laugh about it. The color photo shows his new “stripes”.
