Westover Air Force Base Post Engineer Scrapbook

Westover Air Force Base Post Engineer Scrapbook

Westover Air Force Base

The WAFB Post Engineer scrapbook is a collection of newspaper articles and photographs created by Otto C. Kohler. Kohler was the head of the maintenance staff at Mount Holyoke College in 1940 and also a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Engineers at Westover. He was one of the first officers to work at the base when development began in the summer of 1940, and Kohler worked specifically on the communications system being installed at the base. He returned to his job at Mount Holyoke in September 1940, but was back in uniform and assigned to the engineers at Westover by early 1942. He was promoted to captain and transferred to Boston in 1943 to be the head of the utilities branch and in charge of the Contract Termination Branch for the First Service Command. He was promoted to major in 1944 and received a special citation for his work before returning to his job at MHC in the fall of 1945.
The scrapbook contains materials related to Kohler’s time at Westover and also to his other duties during his service in the Army Corps. of Engineers. There are also newspaper articles and photographs of formal events by official Army photographers. A small number of more personal items and snap shots are also in the book. There is a series of photographs of two planes that had collided at the base showing damage to both planes. The scrapbook was donated to the Chicopee Public Library and Chicopee Archives Online by Kohler’s daughter Carol.

Otto C. Kohler

1940-1945

Scrapbook