World War II veteran navigator to fly again

“They removed the blindfold and told me to find my way home,” Wakefield recalled Monday, 73 years later from his Goshen home. “I was a celestial navigator and used the stars to head home. It took me about four hours, I think."
A World War II veteran, Wakefield, 94, was the navigator on Boeing B-29, based in Tinian in the Mariana Islands. Wakefield said his crew completed between 25 to 32 missions against Japan. 
The veteran, now a resident at The Maples at Waterford Crossing in Goshen, described sitting left of the pilot with a little desk in front of him during their missions in the B-29 bomber.
“We had a fantastic crew. The pilot was calm and easy-going. We left at dawn (on bombing missions) so we couldn’t be seen and I used star constellations while flying over water, because there was no visible land,” Wakefield said. “We ... we would be tired at the end of a mission. They (a bombing mission) usually averaged 13 hours so we got pretty tired. We got to rest and get the planes ready between missions on the island. It almost seemed like a southern vacation, sometimes, because of the sunshine.”
Wakefield said he opted to join the Army Air Corps after completing his second year of college in 1943.
“The air training sounded a lot better than the Army ground training,” he said, and attended navigation school in southern Texas. After the war, Wakefield returned to college and received a bachelor’s degree in engineering. He was married to his wife, Joan, until her death in 2014. The couple had three sons.
“It’s been a wonderful life and the Lord has been good to me,” Wakefield said.

RELIVE JAPANESE HISTORY WITH A TRIP TO A FAMOUS BATTLEFIELD JUST OUTSIDE OF TOKYO

Japan is one of the oldest cultures and nations on the planet. That means that over the years, civil wars have inevitably happened, and indeed the country has a fascinating military history that continues to inspire films, books, and games to this day. You’ve heard of samurai and ninja, right?

And one of the best battlefields to visit is just a couple of hours out from Tokyo.



One of the most famous periods of military history in Japan is the Sengoku (or “Warring States”) Period―the time leading up to the Tokugawa shogunate in which a very fractured Japan witnessed endless battles between rival daimyō (大名; warlords). With so many colorful heroes and villains throughout the conflicts (think Oda Nobunaga, Sanada Yukimura, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Akechi Mitsuhide), the era has become a happy hunting ground for literature (Yoshikawa Eiji’s Taiko), video games (the Samurai Warriors series), and film and television for many years. Indeed, every year, NHK focuses a series of period dramas on a specific character from the Sengoku Period; last year it was the Sanadas’ story. This year the focus is on one of the most important women of the era: Li Naotora.

One of the most famous rivalries of the era was between two of the most powerful warlords in Japan: Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, who clashed over and over again in battles where the two of them just could not come to a decisive victory. The most famous battle between the two was the fourth battle of Kawanakajima (川中島), which now exists as a lovely park and small open-air museum in a sleepy little part of Japan. 

The Butterfly: A Complex History for a Complex Stroke

Photo Courtesy: Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee


By Joe Buchanan, Swimming World College Intern.

The butterfly stroke is a test of endurance, fortitude, and shoulder strength. Often regarded as the most complex stroke to learn, it has become a staple of swim meets and punishing practices.

The history of this infamous stroke is confusing and attribution for its creation varies from source to source.

In all accounts of its history, the butterfly stroke began as a mutation of the breaststroke. Like the stroke itself, its history can be split into two parts: the dolphin kick and the pull.

The Dolphin Kick

 

There are two people recognized as the creators of the dolphin kick: Volney Wilson and David Armbruster.
Wilson was a physicist in the early 1900s who was most well-known for his work on The Manhattan Project and was recognized as the originator of the dolphin kick by historian Richard Rhodes in his 1986 book “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.”
Wilson was an avid swimmer in his life, and according to Rhodes’ account, began to study how fish moved through the water at a local aquarium. Wilson noted the back and forth movement of the fish’s tails and began to mimic it.
Wilson used this new kick, paired with the breaststroke pull, in swim meets and eventually in the 1938 Olympic Trials before being disqualified, as the kick was deemed illegal under FINA’s breaststroke guidelines.
The International Swimming Hall of Fame recognizes Armbruster, University of Iowa’s swim coach from 1917-1958, as the creator of the dolphin kick.
After watching a demonstration by George Corsan Sr. of a kick in which both feet moved together, Armbruster began to develop what would be known as the dolphin kick with one of his swimmers, Jack Sieg. In its beginning stages, Sieg swam on his side, beating his legs in unison. Eventually, the stroke developed into Sieg using the dolphin kick while face down in the water, paired with the breaststroke pull.
The dolphin kick is not only notable for its place in the history of the butterfly stroke, but also in the history of swimming. The dolphin kick is the fastest kick recognized by FINA and is used after the flip turn in both the freestyle stroke and the backstroke. The development of this kick, whether by Wilson or Armbruster, was a monumental development for the sport of swimming.

The Butterfly Pull

The originator of the butterfly's pull is vaguer than that of the kick's. There are four men noted as potentially being the creator of the pull: Armbruster, Erich Rademacher, Henry Myers, and Sydney Cavill.

In the early 1900's these four men were developing different methods to improve their breaststroke times.

Rademacher, a German swimmer, used the butterfly pull paired with the breaststroke kick in swim meets in the late 1920's.

Myers, an American swimmer, is noted for using the pull in a swim meet against Wallace Spence, the medley champion of the time. Though confused by the pull, the officials determined Myers was still legally performing the breaststroke.

Armbruster is reported to have developed the pull while looking for a quicker recovery method for his breaststroke swimmers.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame though, credits Australian swimmer  Cavill as the developer of the pull.
The Butterfly Stroke

The first person to connect both the kick and the pull is either credited to both Armbruster and Sieg, or Japanese swimmer Jiro Nagasawa.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame credits Nagasawa as one of the first to perform the stroke, setting the first world record in the butterfly stroke, as well as winning many breaststroke races using the butterfly-breaststroke.

Armbruster was said to be the originator of the butterfly stroke as he combined the pull he was working on for breaststroke with the dolphin kick that he had developed with Sieg.

FINA officially recognized butterfly as a legal stroke in 1954, while the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games were the first to feature butterfly as its own event.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.