A Tribune story about the conversion of the Pratt Army Air Field parachute shop to a museum (March 2) touched a chord with an area resident. Jim Bertoglio, Medicine Lodge, not only knows how parachutes were packed, he watched them being made. He also documented wartime activities in photographs.
Bertoglio was a 17-year-old completing high school in California while also attending photography school, in the early part of World War II. As an assignment, he took photographs at a women’s bathing suit factory that had retooled to produce parachutes for the war effort. He followed the process from cutting to sewing to packing and drop testing. He got a pretty good grade on the project, he recalls.
Three months after his 18th birthday, he was drafted and served as a photographer for the 94th Fighter Squadron in Italy during the last 19 months of the war. He documented activities on the ground, but not in combat. His photographs were sent by wire back to the United States for publication.
During that time he photographed only one plane crash — of a B-17 that he was supposed to be on, but was for some reason “forgotten” in the loading. The plane stalled on take-off and all crew members were killed. Bertoglio arrived on another plane shortly after the crash.
At the end of the war, Bertoglio saved some of the negatives and later, in cooperation with the Litwin Gallery in Wichita, had 34 black and white prints made and framed for exhibit. The photos toured for several years in Texas as part of Exhibit USA. In 2005, the foundation that had provided funding diverted its money to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and Bertoglio’s photos were returned to him. He donated most of the collection to the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka.
Ten photos are on permanent display in the State Capitol appropriations room. Bertoglio and George Chandler, Pratt’s ace fighter pilot, testified before the Kansas Legislature in support of a project to record and archive stories of World War II veterans. With the 10 prints, they raised $150,000 in about 20 minutes to start the project, Bertoglio said.
One of his favorite photos of the era is not one of his own, but one in which he is a subject. He and a buddy were cooking breakfast in a shack they built out of shipping crates. The pancake griddle was the top of a turbocharger off an Allison P-38 engine. The cook stove was fueled by drops of 90 octane gasoline stored in the shack.
He developed his own photos in a lab in a “German field officers’ kitchen on rubber” that had been captured in North Africa. The equipment was pretty basic, but the “Brits down the road had a fine photo section with a good enlarger,” that Bertoglio was able to acquire.
Pilots received a fifth of whiskey every week. They traded whiskey to the photographers for pictures to send back home to their wives or girlfriends. The photographers, in turn, traded the whiskey to the British for an enlarger.
Cigarettes were also valuable currency, Bertoglio noted, with a carton worth about $75.
After the war, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill and continued his schooling at the University of Colorado, then in cinematography in Los Angeles. He did some freelance photography before returning to Medicine Lodge, where he purchased his father’s General Motors dealership.
When he retired, he returned to his first love, with a particular interest in western photography. He and his son Chris have gone into business together. They will have about 50 photos in a book titled, “The Vanishing Cowboy,” with Kansas author Jim Hoy writing the text.
At 85, he has a recommendation for retirement — “don’t quit your day job” — in other words, stay active and involved. He is fortunate that his retirement job is one in which he already had expertise and a great deal of experience.
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A Tribune story about the conversion of the Pratt Army Air Field parachute shop to a museum (March 2) touched a chord with an area resident. Jim Bertoglio, Medicine Lodge, not only knows how parachutes were packed, he watched them being made. He also documented wartime activities in photographs.
Bertoglio was a 17-year-old completing high school in California while also attending photography school, in the early part of World War II. As an assignment, he took photographs at a women’s bathing suit factory that had retooled to produce parachutes for the war effort. He followed the process from cutting to sewing to packing and drop testing. He got a pretty good grade on the project, he recalls.
Three months after his 18th birthday, he was drafted and served as a photographer for the 94th Fighter Squadron in Italy during the last 19 months of the war. He documented activities on the ground, but not in combat. His photographs were sent by wire back to the United States for publication.
During that time he photographed only one plane crash — of a B-17 that he was supposed to be on, but was for some reason “forgotten” in the loading. The plane stalled on take-off and all crew members were killed. Bertoglio arrived on another plane shortly after the crash.
At the end of the war, Bertoglio saved some of the negatives and later, in cooperation with the Litwin Gallery in Wichita, had 34 black and white prints made and framed for exhibit. The photos toured for several years in Texas as part of Exhibit USA. In 2005, the foundation that had provided funding diverted its money to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and Bertoglio’s photos were returned to him. He donated most of the collection to the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka.
Ten photos are on permanent display in the State Capitol appropriations room. Bertoglio and George Chandler, Pratt’s ace fighter pilot, testified before the Kansas Legislature in support of a project to record and archive stories of World War II veterans. With the 10 prints, they raised $150,000 in about 20 minutes to start the project, Bertoglio said.
One of his favorite photos of the era is not one of his own, but one in which he is a subject. He and a buddy were cooking breakfast in a shack they built out of shipping crates. The pancake griddle was the top of a turbocharger off an Allison P-38 engine. The cook stove was fueled by drops of 90 octane gasoline stored in the shack.
He developed his own photos in a lab in a “German field officers’ kitchen on rubber” that had been captured in North Africa. The equipment was pretty basic, but the “Brits down the road had a fine photo section with a good enlarger,” that Bertoglio was able to acquire.
Pilots received a fifth of whiskey every week. They traded whiskey to the photographers for pictures to send back home to their wives or girlfriends. The photographers, in turn, traded the whiskey to the British for an enlarger.
Cigarettes were also valuable currency, Bertoglio noted, with a carton worth about $75.
After the war, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill and continued his schooling at the University of Colorado, then in cinematography in Los Angeles. He did some freelance photography before returning to Medicine Lodge, where he purchased his father’s General Motors dealership.
When he retired, he returned to his first love, with a particular interest in western photography. He and his son Chris have gone into business together. They will have about 50 photos in a book titled, “The Vanishing Cowboy,” with Kansas author Jim Hoy writing the text.
At 85, he has a recommendation for retirement — “don’t quit your day job” — in other words, stay active and involved. He is fortunate that his retirement job is one in which he already had expertise and a great deal of experience.
