Veterans History Project: Daniel Kinnison

By March 1944, World War II was being fought on many fronts, costing thousands of lives and even more injuries.

There was progress being made in Europe as well as in the islands in the Pacific. Less than six months before, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met to coordinate plans to smash German forces and their nasty leader. The Russians had driven the German Forces out of Leningrad. Big things were in the works.

Daniel E. Kinnison was a strapping 20 year old man who knew that the Selective Service System was active in the northern Colorado area, near Keota. He had been contacted by the Draft Board.

At first they granted him a deferment so he could stay home and help his ailing father with the farming operation. When his father’s health situation improved, Kinnison met his obligation by volunteering for the Army Air Forces.

At this point in time, Fort Logan was a full service installation. Here Kinnison received his standard issue haircut, new clothes, an armful of shots, and lots of new friends.

His wish was to be around airplanes, especially hoping to fly them. Within a few days, he was sent to Amarillo Army Air Field, about ten miles east of Amarillo, in the panhandle of Texas.

The new trainees were assembled and formed into a group and marched to a tenting area where they would stay their first night–before the cadre could figure out where to house them. As the night went on, a serious rain storm blew into the area. The tent designed to protect the guys from the elements collapsed. They received an unplanned soaking.

The sun did come out the next day.

There was some aptitude testing that went on early in his early days there. The best outcome was to synchronize the man’s skills with his plans, if at all possible. Kinnison passed the test for becoming a pilot.

After training, he was directed to Gardner Army Air Field, near Taft, California. The aircraft being used there was a BT-13. This plane was powered by a 450 horsepower radial engine made by Vultee. The guys called it a “Vultee vibrator.”

The new cadets were arranged in classes called flights. This group of men would live and train together until they graduated. As their start time approached, the events of World War II were moving. Kinnison and his flight were changed to a holding status.

He was ordered to Kingman Army Airfield, near Kingman, Arizona. This was a major training site for aerial gunnery. Personnel being schooled there worked in the B-17 platform, including work on the chin gun, waist guns, turret guns, belly guns and tail gun.

Kinnison and his group were under the command of a lieutenant but worked with a Master Sergeant (MSGT) who happened to be Native American. As Kinnison worked with the MSGT on B-17 electrical problems, his proficiency was noted and he was picked to work exclusively with the MSGT.

Oddly, the MSGT was re-assigned to another base and Kinnison received a field promotion to electrician.

At first he was reluctant but officers told him to just “get out there and learn.”

Kinnison received a letter (dated May 7, 1945) from the Commander of the Army Air Forces Training Command. It informed him and many others in a similar situation that due to the resounding success of our Armed Forces in the European Theater of Operations, a new appraisal of the needs of the military had been completed.

Since the war in Europe was going to end, there were plenty of trained pilots now and additional training of new ones wasn’t necessary. Kinnison was to be withdrawn from the aircrew training and diverted to other assignments that would contribute to defeating the Japanese.

The Commander knew this was going to be a “keen disappointment” to the men.

Kinnison ended up at Williams Air Field near Chandler, Arizona, a training field for crews learning the B-24 Liberator. He and a buddy were assigned as “dampers.” When a windstorm blew into the area, the ailerons on the B-24 could be caught in such a way that the plane’s wings would flop around like a piece of cloth. The ailerons had to be dampened to prevent that potential damage.

During all this training and movement, Kinnison acquired a Harley Davidson motorcycle (the Big Twin 74) from a fellow soldier. He rode it around the area of north Texas and made a trip home on. When he was leaving, a rain storm had come through the area. Water crossing the road caused him to crash, damaging the motorcycle.

He got a friend to fix most of it, except the brakes. He still rode the motorcycle to northern Colorado--no brakes.

While at this installation, the bombs had been dropped on Japan. In early October 1945, Dan and his other compatriots received another letter. This one was also from the Commander of the Army Air Forces Training Command. The holding pattern that he and 16,000 other young men were in was coming to an end. They were given some options.

Kinnison got an opportunity to go back to Amarillo Army Airfield where he would learn to be a flight engineer on the B-29 (the Super Fortress). While the schooling was in progress, the students were called to a formation and their discharges were handed to them.

He returned to farming. He used the GI Bill to finance his yearning to fly an airplane.

In time, he moved his family to Kimball. There he developed several businesses and created inventions which he patented.

He was president of the Chamber of Commerce and is a Charter member of the Kimball Rotary. He is also a tremendously skilled woodworker.