By Sgt.Rocco F (Rocky) Sitone
When the Bruning Army Air Base opened the commanding officer was 1st Lt. Adolph N. Nelson. Major Frank Quindry came later.The crew that opened the Bruning Base came from Pocatello, Idaho. We were the 382nd Air Base Squadron. 100 of us were shipped to Bruning form the 510th Air Base Squadron, with only 3 commissioned officers and 1st Lt. Adolph Nelson as commander, temporarily.
When we arrived in Fairmont, the troop train had to go back and forth several times to get on the right spur to get to Brunin I noticed a big yellow sign saying "Harrington's" what ever that is.
Arriving in the AM in Bruning and getting off the train I noticed a small shack type building as the train station or depot. I thought, "Here's trouble with the men as they ar expecting To see a Penn Station or Grand Central Station as in New York as that is where many of them came from" Sure enough there was a lot of yelling and tunes of "Lets go back to Pocatello" It was a job getting them off the train. Finally I ca ed for transportation for 100 personnel.
The concrete runways were not cured enough to accept heavy bombers. The first heavy bomber was a B-24. Later there were a variety of planes coming in many fighter and pursuit types as well as other smaller lanes. The base was not ready for our troops. It was not fully furnished or equipped as an Air base. There were no pictures taken of our arrival. I was to head the photo lab which was still on the drawing board. I took many trips to Fairmont, our o icial headquarters to get a lab started.
It was July 14, 1943, when I got the OK to have my lab going. I arrived in Bruning February 1943 and it took until August before I had a full running photo lab. Only high priority pictures were permitted to e taken with a camera borrowed from the Lincoln Air Base and I had to make many trips to Lincoln to gets these films processed.
I was asked to experiment with Infrared film to detect emery camouflage (It worked real well.) The chlorophyll in veget ion and especially the trees would print up white. This way we knew real vegetation from camouflage covers.
My duties as head of the photo section were many. On sabotage reports I worked with S-2 (intelligence) and AD (Additional duty). I was al assigned the crash board duties, AD, pictures of Crashes etc. On these special assignments I was permitted to use special equipment. In additional duress I was also assigned to the FBI with photographic assistance.
Of a personal nature, I married a Bruning girl, Rosaline Bowman, and I am still married to that wonderful Bruningitte. Many predicted that our marriage would fail as they would say, "What can a man from New York City find in a county girl?" "It can't last". Well, it did! I rem ber the Saturday night dances and the KASSEBAUM BUS COMPANY which went to Hebron and Fairbury.
Taken from excerpts by Rocky Sitone
