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Re: Seeking records of Charles Lindbergh landing Corsair in Norman, OK
Charles Lindbergh's papers are at the Yale University Library.
http://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/4817.pdf
If you enter "Corsair" into a search of the finding aid, you will see that there may be papers, notes, etc that would be relevant.
Found one brief newspaper article stating that he had been at Norman.
from The Oklahoma Daily (Norman, OK) 29 Dep 1943, p.1
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Re: Seeking records of Charles Lindbergh landing Corsair in Norman, OK
Just a quick note to say thanks! Every little bit helps. I was planning to travel (from Mexico, where I live) to the States earlier this year, but the pandemic has prevented that, so I can't get in to physical libraries for now.
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Re: Seeking records of Charles Lindbergh landing Corsair in Norman, OK
Rachael Salyer
Nov 2, 2020 6:35 AM
1 person found this helpfulDear Mr. Olsen,
Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!
It is our understanding that although Charles Lindbergh had been an officer in the Army Air Forces, he resigned his commission in 1941 and was not an active member of the military during World War II, therefore, his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) would likely not contain any information about Lindbergh’s activities in 1943. He eventually flew as a contract pilot with the Navy and Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater in 1944.
We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the series Official Civilian Personnel Files, 1921-1979 in the Records of the U.S. Civil Service Commission (Record Group 146) that includes the Fingerprint Form for Charles A. Lindbergh from 1944. It has been digitized and can be viewed online using the Catalog.
We also located the series World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories, ca. 1/1/1942 - ca. 6/1/1946 from the Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (Record Group 38) that includes a file for the Marine Aviation Detachment, 5/1-31/1944 at the Naval Air Technical Training Center in Norman, Oklahoma. This file has been digitized and can be viewed online via the Catalog.
In addition, we located the series War Diaries, 1946-1953 in Record Group 38 that includes the file unit “Norman Naval Air Station, January 1 – February 28 1946” in Box 52. We reviewed the finding aid for the series World War II War Diaries, 12/7/1941-12/31/1945 in Record Group 38 but we were unable to locate files related to a Naval air facility in Norman. These records have not been digitized. For information about and access to these records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) at archives2reference@nara.gov.
Next, we located the series War Diaries, 1941-1946 for the Eighth Naval District, where Norman is located, in the Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments (Record Group 181). These records have not been digitized. Please contact the National Archives at Fort Worth (RM-FW) at ftworth.archives@nara.gov with any questions you might have about these or similar records.
Plus, we identified 6 results for Charles Lindbergh in the digitized War Diaries for World War II that are available online via the National Archives digitization partner Fold3.com.
Further, we searched the finding aids for several other series in Record Group 38, and we identified a file for “Lindbergh, Chas. A. (1945)” in box 11 of the series Office of the Chief of Information (CHINFO) Speech Files, 1917-1981 and a file for “Lindbergh” in box 74 of the series Formerly Security Classified General Correspondence, 1929-1943 that may contain some information relevant to your search. These records have not been digitized; please contact RDT2 with questions about them.
According to this biographical sketch of Lindbergh that we found online, he consulted in 1943 with United Aircraft’s Chance-Vought Division, which produced the F4U Corsair fighter plane. We located 4 series related to United Aircraft and Chance-Vought in the 1940s in the Records of the Bureau of Aeronautics (Record Group 72) that include correspondence, reports, and technical data; the series Classified Administrative Correspondence, ca. 1921-1947 from the Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (Record Group 38); and the series Research and Development Files from the Records of U.S. Air Force Commands, Activities, and Organizations (Record Group 342) that both contain information about United Aircraft and Chance-Vought. We identified 4 series related to Corsairs in the 1940s in Record Group 72 and the series Confidential and Secret General Administrative Files, ca. 1/1943 - ca. 5/1945 from the Records of Naval Operating Forces (Record Group 313) that includes photographs of carrier landings of the experimental version of the Grumman F4U Corsair fighter. It is possible that some information about Lindbergh’s connection to and activities with the United Aircraft in 1943 may be located in these records. Most of these records have not been digitized. Please contact RDT2 with any questions you may have about these series.
There may be more relevant records related to Charles A. Lindbergh in the Catalog as well.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and pursuant to guidance received from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), NARA has adjusted its normal operations to balance the need of completing its mission-critical work while also adhering to the recommended social distancing for the safety of NARA staff. As a result of this re-prioritization of activities, you may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgement as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2 and RM-FW.
You might wish to contact the Moore-Lindsay Historic House Museum in Norman, Oklahoma, which has a collection of photographs related to World War II Navy bases in Norman available on their website, and the Cleveland County Historical Society in Norman has some information online about Norman’s naval bases, as well. The Oklahoma History Center may also be able to offer you some assistance, and their website includes links to the Gateway to Oklahoma History newspaper portal that may be useful in searching for news reports about Lindbergh’s activities in Oklahoma during World War II.
Also, it is possible that Lindbergh kept a personal account of his wartime pursuits. There may be some record of his flight in Norman in the Charles August Lindbergh Papers at Yale University, for example, and the Minnesota History Center has a helpful Guide to Primary Sources related to Lindbergh on their website.
Finally, you may wish to contact the Archives at the Museum of Flight and the Archives at the National Air and Space Museum to see if they can offer you any assistance.
We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!
[Some information provided by Nate Patch, Subject Matter Expert]
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Re: Seeking records of Charles Lindbergh landing Corsair in Norman, OK
Wow! Thanks! I wasn't expecting anything, much less that amount of leads. I will check them out. If we weren't in a pandemic, I'd go to Yale. Oh, a short story that might prove useful if the topic comes up again:
I was able to look online at the 1,000-page book “The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh,” via Internet Archive. I was looking for corroboration that Lindbergh flew a disabled Corsair into Norman, Okla., in late 1943. I checked the book’s index and also searched the text using keywords such as Corsair and Norman etc., but found nothing -- and then I bumped into a notice, tucked in between the last entry of 1942, around November, and an entry in late December of 1943, which said Lindbergh did NOT make any entries in his journal for about a year -- which covers the time period my dad was training in Norman and during which he says he saw Lindbergh land the Corsair with a blown out tire. The note says Lindbergh was busy improving the F4U Corsair during that period. So, Lindbergh may have done a million things that year, but he did not record them.
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