Alexander, Thomas E.

views updated

Alexander, Thomas E.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Colorado, B.A.; American Military University, M.A. (with honors).

ADDRESSES:

Home—Kerrville, TX. Office—Texas Historical Commission, 1511 Colorado, Austin, TX 78701. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, historian. Former owner/operator of the Alexander Cattle Company; Neiman Marcus, Dallas, TX, former executive vice president of marketing; Texas Historical Commission, Austin, professional historian, 2003—; president of Alexander Company (an historical research, television documentary development, and consulting firm). Military service: Served as a captain in the Air Force and as a major in the Illinois Air Guard.

MEMBER:

Western Writers of America, Texas State Historical Association, East Texas Historical Association, Panhandle Plains Historical Society, West Texas Historical Association (member of board of directors), Air Force Association (life member), Military Officers Association of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

AWARDS, HONORS:

San Antonio Conservation Society Book Citation, 2001, for The Stars Were Big and Bright: The United States Army Air Forces and Texas during World War II; Rupert Richardson Award, West Texas Historical Association, for the best book on West Texas history, and Military Trader's Winter Reading Recommendation, both 2006, both for Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield in World War II.

WRITINGS:

The Stars Were Big and Bright: The United States Army Air Forces and Texas during World War II, Eakin Press (Austin, TX), Volume 1, 2000, Volume 2, 2001.

The Wings of Change: The Army Air Force Experience in Texas during World War II, McWhiney Foundation Press (Abilene, TX), 2003.

Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield in World War II, State House Press, McMurry University (Abilene, TX), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Since 2003, Thomas E. Alexander has served as a professional historian with the Texas Historical Commission. In this capacity, he has helped to establish historical markers at sites throughout the state which commemorate Texas's role in World War II. He also serves as president of the Alexander Company, which specializes in historical research, television documentary development, and consulting. Alexander is also the author of several books which document the World War II era in Texas history: The Stars Were Big and Bright: The United States Army Air Forces and Texas during World War II, The Wings of Change: The Army Air Force Experience in Texas during World War II, and Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield in World War II. "With military air bases in Texas edging ever closer to extinction," wrote Jack Loftis in the Houston Chronicle, "author Thomas E. Alexander has done his part to keep some of the bygone installations alive in our memory."

The two-volume The Stars Were Big and Bright examines many of the sixty-five airbases established in Texas during World War II. Because of the state's mild weather, flat land, and central location, Texas was chosen as an ideal spot for bases where pilot training and aircraft maintenance could be performed. Containing personal interviews with those involved in the airbases of the time, the book chronicles the impact that the influx of military personnel had on towns all over Texas. The Wings of Change further examines the changes that followed the arrival of thousands of military personnel during the war.

Alexander's Rattlesnake Bomber Base chronicles the creation and eventual closure of one particular airbase in Texas. Located in the west Texas town of Pyote, the 3,000-acre Pyote Army Airfield was nicknamed the Rattlesnake Bomber Base because of the many snakes in the surrounding desert. During World War II, it served as a training center for B-17 and B-29 bomber crews. After the war, the base served as a storage and radar facility until finally being closed down in 1963. Alexander recreates the political battles that led to the base being established in Pyote, the work down there during and after the war, and presents personal accounts from those who lived and worked on the base. According to Christopher Koontz in the Journal of Southern History, "Rattlesnake Bomber Base presents a micro-historical case study, and one with merit." "Histories that encompass all aspects of base and community life, such as this, are much needed," Bruce Ashcroft wrote in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Michael J. Carson of the Reviewer's Bookwatch concluded that Rattlesnake Bomber Base was "very strongly recommended."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Houston Chronicle, August 4, 2001, Jack Loftis, review of The Stars Were Big and Bright: The United States Army Air Forces and Texas during World War II, p. 37.

Journal of Southern History, August, 2006, Christopher Koontz, review of Rattlesnake Bomber Base: Pyote Army Airfield in World War II, p. 711.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005, review of Rattlesnake Bomber Base, p. 287.

Reviewer's Bookwatch, June, 2005, Michael J. Carson, review of Rattlesnake Bomber Base.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 110, number 1, 2006, Bruce Ashcroft, review of Rattlesnake Bomber Base, pp. 154-155.

Western Historical Quarterly, winter, 2005, review of Rattlesnake Bomber Base.