This Homage to the 27 Designers
by Christopher Blake
keeps their conversation going.
The 27's archives are at Circle Campus UIC
Enjoy!
https://vimeo.com/192861614
https://vimeo.com/192861614
Friday, January 29, 2021
Monday, January 25, 2021
February 17th YaleChicago presents Author's Panel
with new books by
Madeleine Henry, Lana Harper and Margot McMahon
Alexandra Newman will be the moderator.
Yale Chicago is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Yale Chicago Authors' Panel
Time: Feb 17, 2021 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 912 6027 5033
Passcode: 421027
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www.AquariusPress.net, Parachuting Artists: Irene & Mac updated publication information will be posted.
Though Dad flew a B17 in WWII, in 2021 the military is reusing the Boeing 52 with new inner technology this year. Those planes were made to last!
For Wars of the Future, Pentagon Looks to Distant Past:
The B-52
A strategy shift focused on China and Russia—and stumbles in developing newer bombers—persuade Air Force to put new electronics in an old plane and make it last until 2050
OVER THE EAST CHINA SEA—“Go back,” the Chinese air controller warned. “You are now approaching Chinese airspace. Turn around immediately or you will be intercepted.”
The crew of the B-52 lumbering 100 miles off China’s coast rebuffed the warning that crackled through the radio, and the 60-year-old aircraft stayed its course.
This was a bomber presence mission, a taxing flight designed to demonstrate the U.S. military’s long reach and uphold the right of international passage in disputed airspace.
It was also a window into the Pentagon’s plan to rely on aircraft from the earliest days of the Cold War to prepare for the wars of the future.
The February mission began at dawn at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam when the aircrew donned oxygen masks and “poopy suits,” puffy outer garments to keep out the cold in case the plane was forced to ditch in the ocean.
Then the bomber, far older than the crew flying it, rumbled down the runway, relying on analog dials and aging radar to zigzag over the Pacific and maneuver inside the “air defense identification zone” that China has declared but the U.S. refuses to acknowledge.
After nearly two decades of waging counterinsurgency warfare in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the Defense Department has turned its focus to “great power competition,” its buzz phrase for a major shift in spending and programs to counter China and Russia.
The retooling is a costly reckoning for a military that was stretched by fighting militant groups and focusing on lesser dangers posed by rogue states in northeast Asia and the Middle East. The strategy has been broadly embraced by Lloyd Austin, President Biden’s defense secretary, who must now find a way to resource it.
The Marines are getting rid of their tanks and instead are developing the ability to operate from western Pacific islands to bottle up China’s fleet. The Army recently conducted tests of its ability to harness artificial intelligence and a network of sensors to take the fight to its foes. The Navy is pursuing the development of unmanned ships.
Monday, October 19, 2020
STALAG III Newsletter
“Pilots, man your planes!” blared over the speaker, followed by a sound like a giant’s jew’s-harp. Everything went as planned. Mac’s 16th mission was with the 303 Bomber Group of the 8th Airforce in a plane called “Red.” “At attention! Your assignment-- fly to Merseburg, Germany. Target Mannheim. Prepare to take over for a visual bomb-run.” Inhale. “Operation cancelled.” Exhale. An early helicopter was on the Allied Air Force runway near the crew.
“That silly-looking whirly gig of a piece of equipment, a helicopter, couldn’t possibly fly.” Mac said to “Tex”, Captain John Cornyn, laughing,” I’m never going up in one of those.”
Cornyn was curious to fly one. His response released Mac’s exuberance for anything new. A
natural curiosity for newfangled inventions piqued Mac’s interest. Mac sketched the helicopter.
“Operation resume.” Inhale. “Take your place in formation.”
Over Mannheim, flak was accurate. Red took a hit under the turret chin. Ammunition exploded. Smoke filled the cockpit. Flake Dyson, the engineer, was blown out of the fuselage
and from turret position, ending up between co-pilots Jack Rose and John Cornyn. Then came the worst hit. In the right wing, behind engine number four. Flak left holes throughout the plane. More holes than Captain Cornyn had seen before. The first warning bell rang. Chutes were grabbed. Flak suits removed. The explosions were deafening without the headphones. Red’s crew prepared for bail-out. Mac was tying his boot. The ship nosedived in a spin. Mac faced down, spinning against his harness straps. He’d hit first of all the men after a five mile drop.
Keep your wits about you. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed it be thy name… No one could parachute out. The force was too great. Wings turned over. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He was whiplashed like the tail in crack the whip. As we forgive those who trespassed against us… Red wasn’t responding to controls. Rose throttled back on engines one and two. The ship righted. “Navigator!” came in through the headsets. “Set!” Mac gave him a heading. We might make it! If the fire blows out, we might make it! Second bell sounded. “Prepare to abandon ship.”
Thought left. His training kicked in. Fire in the wing was now burning near the waist gunner. It might blow out. By proper procedure, Mac was the first one out of the plane. Mac and his crew were captured and interrogated at Oberursel, Germany. He was a prisoner in Sagan’s Stalag Luft III, Stalag XIIID near Nuremberg and Stalag VIIA in Moosburg where he continued to draw guards, Kommadants and scenes of Germany while held captive. POWs exchanged cartoons and drawings, but Mac’s family does not know the artist (EGAP) of this “Popeye”, anyone know?
Franklin McMahon’s art has been collected by the Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Princeton University Art Museum, and the National Air and Space Museum. His artwork has been published by too many magazines, books and newspapers to list, yet includes The New York Times, The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Look and Life Magazines. He is awarded Illinois State Treasure, three Emmys and a Peabody for films and videos, inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, Martin Luther King Award for Civil Right Achievement and honorary degrees from Loyola University and Lake Forest College. His films have been broadcast by PBS, WTTW and CBS.
Martin, Douglas (March 7, 2012). "Franklin McMahon, Who Drew the News, Dies at 90". The New York Times
If Trees Could Talk
Parachuting Artists: WWII Scrapbook
Margot McMahon
Aquarius Press
June 2021 Launch
BOOK Launch June 2021 If Trees Could Talk & Parachuting Artists: Irene and Mac, Aquarius Press
If Trees Could Talk
Parachuting Artists: WWII Scrapbook
Margot McMahon
Aquarius Press
June 2021 Book Launch
Monday, June 8, 2020
The Great Escape, Hogan's Heros and liberation by Patton's Third Army, Who knew?
Recent online research and through the Stalag III Museum in Sagan, Poland, "From Interrogation to Liberation" by Marilyn Walton And Michael Eberhardt, I discovered more about Dad's WWII experience at Stalag III, Stalag XIIID, and Wermacht VIIA. "The Great Escape" movie tells about Stalag III and a massive escape the year before Dad became a POW. Twelve Tuskegee Airmen, The Lost Men of Buchenwald, and many artists and cartoonists. His second POW camp was at Stalag XIIID, reopened by necessity, with a fellow Lt, Robert Hogan. Robert Hogan told his kids there was an uncanny similarity of his experience to Hogan's Heros including a Kommadant who wore a monocle like Klink, a jolly oversized Seargent like Shultz and a covert radio that received more accurate BBC information than the German propaganda station so was allowed. They ate warm water with a few leaves of cabbage and shared with his barrack one sawdust filled loaf of brown bread filled daily.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
dad's POW 2 minute video with artwork
Marilyn Walton, who with Mike Eberhardt, has published two books and a Stalag III research center in Sagen, Poland to tell about POWs in German camps.
Two books by Marilyn and Mike,
Commander to Captive and Interrogation to Liberation
Ordering from Mike directly funds the SLVII research center
Michael C. Eberhardt
6006 Club Oaks Drive
Dallas, Texas 75248
972-567-0029
These are overview photos of XIIID See POW “signs” to allied airforce
These are Gramma Mac’s postcards from her European tour including Bavaria where dad has been a POW. And a response postcard from friends who said she was on a European tour in 1956, a year before we moved to Spain:
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