WD74W2

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1 During his brief stint as a fixed wing aircraft mechanic
with the United States Army, Norm worked on Cessna
L-19 Bird Dogs. He is seen here (on the left) while
stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington, in 1953.
2 Norm receives a brief respite from the grueling
conditions he encountered while undergoing
basic training for the infantry, at Camp
Breckenridge, Kentucky.
3 The handwritten note on the back of this photo
states: “Oh my Airplane! Quite a mess, isn’t it?
Nobody hurt! Keil, Germany, 1954.“
“I went down to Spartan School of Aeronautics down in
Tulsa, Oklahoma with he intent of getting my airframe and
powerplant license, and my commercial license. My old man
could only afford one, so I got my A&P license, and graduated
from Spartan in 1951. Then I got a job with Wisconsin Central
Airlines, which most people don’t remember,” recalled Elickson.
In 1951 Wisconsin Central Airlines, which was based in
Madison, Wisconsin, served 19 cities, and had just received six
Douglas DC-3s purchased from TWA. Ellickson arrived almost
at the same time as the DC-3s, “When I got there in ’51, the
company had just started to park six old Lockheed 10As, which
had been their main aircraft. They bought six old DC-3s that
were surplus. All of our DC-3s were powered by Curtis Wright
1820s. Normally you saw them with Pratt and Whitney 1830s.
If we got an airplane with 1830s we pulled them off, and put
1820s on them. I was a young mechanic, and I never thought to
ask why they had that particular preference. If I recall we ended
up with 20, or 21 DC-3s. While Ellickson would cut his teeth on
the 1820 as a brand-new aircraft mechanic, the experience with
that engine would serve him well over forty years later, with the
similarly powered B-17.
He didn’t have an opportunity to get too comfortable in
the Arline business, when Uncle Sam came calling. “In 1953 I
was drafted, and I had an A&P license,” chuckled Ellickson, “so
of course they sent me to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky, to the
infantry. I kept telling them I had an A&P license, but in typical
Army fashion, no one was listening. I can remember when we
left basic training, the first Sergeant said ‘now guys when you
get to Korea, if we get into combat your life expectancy is nine
minutes.’ I don’t have too much of a memory of that time period,
but I remember that! That got my attention. I really wanted to
use my A&P license after that! Anyway, we were shipped out to
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• warbird digest
warbird digest
• sept/oct 2017
• sept/oct 2017