It Came From the Archives: RAF pilots trained at Napier Field near Dothan

Class SE-42-H before Napier Field HQ building, 1942. (TROY photo/Wiregrass Archives)

Class SE-42-H before Napier Field HQ building, 1942. (TROY photo/Wiregrass Archives)

During World War 2, the skies over Great Britain were filled with too many German airplanes, and the weather was too inclement, for pilot-cadets to train safely.  So they trained in colonies like India and South Africa, but they also trained in the US from June 1941 to March 1943.

AT-6 trainers on Napier Field. (TROY…

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It Came From the Archives: Tragic train wreck led to a shift in safety procedures on the Atlantic Coast Line tracks

The wreck of the

The wreck of the "Second 180" and "Extra 452" in the Wiregrass led to changes in train management.

On Sept. 24, 1945, at 2:05 p.m., Atlantic Coast Line train “Extra 452 West” from Dothan collided headlong into ACL “Second 180 East,” killing the 452’s engineer, James A. Mangum of Montgomery, and injuring 16 others.

Tom Solomon, a resident of Headland, employee of the ACL, and “well known railroad artist and train enthusiast” owned…

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It Came from the Archives: A Girl the Wildcats left behind

Two of the Tallassee boys who answered the call in World War I, Willie Pierce, left, and Loman Ballard.

Two of the Tallassee boys who answered the call in World War I, Willie Pierce, left, and Loman Ballard.

When soldiers fight away from home, they leave behind non-combatants – mothers, fathers, siblings, and friends.  Some friends were young women with whom the soldier-boys (and don’t forget that most of them were exactly that) had grown up.  Today’s post concerns one young woman soldiers corresponded with, and what those letters tell us not only about them…

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Olliff receives Troy University’s Wallace D. Malone Distinguished Faculty Award

Dr. Marty Olliff, recipient of the 2022 Wallace D. Malone Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award, receives the University's Mace from Dr. Lance Tatum.

Dr. Marty Olliff, recipient of the 2022 Wallace D. Malone Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award, receives the University's Mace from Dr. Lance Tatum.

Dr. Martin T. “Marty” Olliff, Professor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives at the Dothan Campus, has been awarded Troy University’s Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award.

Dr. Olliff was presented the award during the University’s annual Faculty/Staff Convocation on Friday at the Troy Campus.

The award consists of a $1,500 cash…

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