Air Force Materials & Manufacturing History
PERSONAL STORIES
This page includes individual remembrances that may not directly relate to the laboratory history. They are interesting observations from laboratory personnel that come from the same historical timeframe.
A Personal Account of Pearl Harbor by Don Forney
Click on image to enlarge slide show
In addition to having a long, distinguished career with the Materials laboratory, Don had a notable personal history--at age twelve he was living with his family at Hickam Field when the Pearl Harbor attack occurred in December 1941. These slides and the accompanying description are from Don's personal account of that period in his life. The photos to the right were taken when he gave a presentation of his story at the Engineers Club for the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.
Separate from this personal history, he published a historical report of NDE activities that is included on this site.
Remembrances of Don Forney
Merrill Mingus
In 2017 when the alumni were working with AFRL/RX on Centennial Year documentation, Jim Mattice noted that Don Forney had written a book on the history of NDI/NDE in the Materials Laboratory. This is a very important and impressive ‘original source’ document, including a chapter Don prepared with pictures and names of many of the ML and UDRI NDI teams, led over the years by Tom Cooper, Tobey Cordell and Don, I and others are putting together some highlights from this book, along with remembrances by a number of alumni of Don’s years in the Laboratory. The materials written so far may be seen using the link below.
A Personal History of Wartime Britain
Terry Ronald
Having read and been inspired by Don Forney's account of being at Pearl Harbor at a turning point in history, Terry was moved to relate his own experience of growing up in wartime Britain near Liverpool, a city that was the second most bombed city after London.
