Lagens Field, Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal



This is one of my uncle's photos. My uncle, Ens. Willy Kaiser, copilot, is in the forward lookout position scrutinizing the take-off from Lagens Field on Terceira Island in the Azores. I'm not sure but it looks like Lt. Homer B. Bly, pilot, behind him on the elevator and Ens. Warren Henry Ireland, copilot, looking out the starboard window.


Squadron commander Emmett Sullivan's blimp, the K-130, was the first to land in Morocco but the K-123 was apparently the first blimp to take-off from the Azores according to my uncle's notes on the back of this 96th Construction Battalion photograph that is stamped May 31, 1944.


This is the crew that flew the K-130 from the Azores to Port Lyautey, French Morocco.


This is the crew that flew the K-123 from the Azores to Port Lyautey, French Morocco on the first transatlantic flight. My uncle, Willy Kaiser, is kneeling second from the right. Kneeling next to my uncle is the navigator, Ens. Fredrick W. Miehe. Nearly all of the personnel on all of the transatlantic flights were USN Reserve. However, as told to me by USN navigator Andrew Papageorge who navigated K-ships between Newfoundland and the Azores in 1944 and Bermuda and the Azores in 1945, the six navigators on the transatlantic flights were recent graduates of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD who had requested LTA duty assignments. Miehe (USN) was the navigator with the above pictured crew on the lead ships for the second two flights from the Azores to Port Lyautey on June 15th (K-134) and July 1st (K-112) 1944.




This is another of my uncle's photos. He labeled it "Sullivan - Steffen Azores" as shown. I don't know who the other two guys are on the right.



Photos from Blimpron 14 Overseas:
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Photos from my uncle Ens. Willy Kaiser:

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Contact: don{dot}kaiser{at}gmail{dot}com