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Acknowledgments First, I must thank the Leave of Absence Committee of Tarrant County College, Fort Worth,Texas, for granting my request for a sabbatical for the 1996–97 school year. As a result, I spent two full semesters of research time on the topic of “The Impact of the Military on Tarrant County.” Other projects interfered, and years passed before I returned to the massive task that I had set aside. I am most grateful to Norman Robbins, director of community relations at Lockheed Martin, for reading the two “bomber plant” chapters and for helping me with Lockheed photographs. I also want to thank the ladies at the Lockheed Martin Library who were there when I did my earliest research: Gale Harris, Linda Brown, Virginia Smith, Maxine Merriman, and Debra Johnson. At Bell Helicopter, my thanks go to Terry Arnold, who headed public relations at the time I did my sabbatical, and to Sheldon Cohen, Ron Whitley, Ben Gilliand, and Bridget Hall for photographs. I appreciate the kindness of Webb Joiner, former president and CEO of Bell, for taking time from his retirement to read the Bell chapter and for granting me an interview a decade earlier. Dominick J. Cirincione also made suggestions concerning the Bell chapter. Bobbie Skipper at the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Library (formerly the Carswell Library) was also a great help to me. I want to thank several people at the Special Collections Library at the University of Texas at Arlington: Gerald Saxon, Kit Goodwin, Sally Groce, Jill Jackson, Brenda McClurkin, and Carolyn Kadri. My appreciation goes also to Jane Dees, former research librarian and archivist at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and Christina Hardman, who took her place; Erik Carlson, former coordinator of the Special Collections Department at the McDermott Library at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Paul Oelkrug, senior curator there. My appreciation goes to Meg Hacker, director, and Barbara Rust and Rodney Krajca at the National Archives and Records Administration, Southwest Region, in Fort Worth for their help. At the Tarrant County Law Library in Fort Worth my thanks go to Peggy arsenal of defense xviii Luttrell Martindale, assistant director; at the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas to Cammie Vitale; and at the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University in Lubbock to Janet Neugebauer and Victoria Jones. At the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce I want to thank Andra Bennett , Marilyn Gilluri, and Lauren Turner. I also appreciate the help of Loyd L. Turner, former special assistant to the president of General Dynamics, who steered me to many interesting people to interview. He also helped me locate Beryl A. Erickson, chief test pilot for Convair, who sent me clippings from his own files. Gene Schulte of Bridgeport allowed me to go through his 1938–42 issues of Southern Flight Magazine. Thanks to Dalton Hoffman who shared his military photographs with me. Stanley Cole of Target Marketing, former publisher of the Carswell Sentinel , graciously allowed me to sort through and copy many stories from his bound back issues. Also helpful with my Carswell research were Tate Reid of Congresswoman Kay Granger’s office, Captain Paula Bissonette, and Master Sergeant Robert Romanelli, the latter two stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene where some Carswell records were moved. Dr. Griffin T. Murphey shared his information with me about the Canadian fliers in Fort Worth during World War I, and invited my husband and me to the biannual Memorial Day observance in their honor. Fellow Azleite Harry Evans, who worked at General Dynamics for many years, allowed me to interview him and put me in touch with a chain of people. Gretchen Barrett , daughter of Harry Brants, and Lucy Brants, his great-niece, helped me track down the story of their relative who was a World War I Fort Worth flier. Dee Barker of the Tarrant County Historical Commission shared information with me that she had researched on Bird’s Fort, and Susie Pritchett of the Tarrant County archives helped considerably. One of the most memorable events of my sabbatical was when Max Schelper took me on a tour of Lockheed and then introduced me to the Carswell and “bomber plant” retirees who were completing a total of 94,000 hours restoring five airplanes. They had spent 43,000 of those hours on the last B-36 to be built in Fort Worth. I was even invited to climb up into the cockpit of the restored...

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