Colonel Don Patton, US Army Retired, who is one of the founders of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch WWII History Round Table in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, dropped by to visit the First Aero Squadron 1916 Airfield here in Columbus, yesterday.  After touring the FASF Headquarter’s Office, and the Airfield, Colonel Patton and Ric Lambart picked up another FASF long time member, John Read, Manager of the Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, and went to Palomas, Mexico to have lunch at the world renown Pink Store.  The picture below, of Col. Patton, John Read and Ric Lambart was taken by another long time FASF member, Yvonne Romero (scroll down to the Pink Store), the creator – and owner/manager – of the  Pink store.  Any of the below photos can be seen in full-size by simply clicking on them.

L to R: Col. Don Patton, John Read, and Ric Lambart – Photo by Yvonne Romero

Col Patton standing by the wind-sock pole at the 1916 Airfield with Columbus in the background.

After his visit to Columbus and Palomas, Mexico, Colonel Patton departed for Holloman Air Force Base, to join his son, Colonel Jeff “Tank” Patton, USAF, who commands the Base’s 49th Operations Group at the Air Base.  After touring the Pancho Villa State Park with John Read, the Colonel visited the home of Richard and Betty Dean.

Dean is considered to be the foremost local historian on matters related to the infamous raid on Columbus in 1916 by Pancho Villa and Richard is also the President of the FASF’s sister organization, the Columbus Historical Society, which operates the well known “Depot Museum” in town.  Mr. Dean’s great-grandfather was one of the victims of Villa’s marauders on March 9, 1916.  Dean has appeared on both PBS specials about the Raid and also on other national TV networks regarding the same infamous historical event.

Col. Patton standing on the E-W Airfield Runway.  The view is to the East towards El Paso, Texas.

Colonel Patton fills our his FASF Membership Application.

Colonel Patton poses in front of the Pancho Villa State Park’s historic Curtiss JN-4 Jenny Airplane.

L to R: John Read explaining some of the historical facts about the infamous raid of March 9th, 1916 by Pancho Villa, Col. Patton.

L to R: Col. Patton listens to more about the 1916 Raid from John Read.

L to R: Col. Patton listens to John Read explain how this 1914 photo of U.S. General Black Jack Pershing, with Pancho Villa has most often misidentified his Aide de Camp as Lt. Patton (later General George Patton of WWII fame – who was involved with Pershing in the 1916 Punitive Expedition, but was not in that particular photo.  The man so often misidentified as young Patton, was actually the General’s Aide de Camp, Lt. James Lawton Collins, who sometime after WWII also became a Major General himself.).  Our new member is not related to General George S. Patton. 

Colonel Patton had recently booked one of our long time Advisors, Dr. Roger Miller, former Deputy Historian for the United States Air Force, to speak to his WWII Round Table in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Dr. Miller made presentations about both the First Aero Squadron’s involvement in the 1916-17 Punitive Expedition, and also the Berlin Airlift.  Both topics are specialties of Dr. Miller’s.  The former USAF Historian has also authored some well known books on both those episodes of U.S. History.