[Archie Stewart--home movies] Reel 022

Date1931

Can DescriptionsNHF cataloguer's notes, 4/96: Reel 22: Archie Stewart can notes: 1931 Air trip to Maine and a game dinner. Interesting. 1. PD & I fly the two passenger Douglass to Unknown Lake, November 1931. 2. Scenes on Unknown Lake. 3. Annual Venison Dinner at 388 Grand Street. 4. Among those present were: PD & Admiral, Rob & Kitty, Wes & Herbie, Roy & Brad, ETC & ETC. Screening notes: Mary Stewart and Billy Weikert and Mary Weikert and Mrs Mary Stewart (women in furs) pose beside pontoon airplane. Aerial views from plane, wing in frame of some shots. Faded and underlit shots of Rob laughing. Rob Golding stands in canoe to paddle across calm lake, deer carcass in bow (beautiful scene). Pontoon plane lands on lake. Views of hunters landing canoes, toting their kill through wooded paths. Gutting and skinning deer. Preparing pontoon airplane for takeoff. Dinner party in kitchen at 388 Grand Street. Pan of men in business suits, eating. Mary Stewart Hafer notes: PD is John M Weikert, Admiral is Gen Turner A. Sims, USMA '26. Rob Golding, Kitty is Howard Kendall. Before Stewart Field was acquired, the only way for flying officers stationed at West Point to maintain their flying proficiency was to fly pontoon aircraft that were kept in a riverside hangar. This is the background for scenes with women in fur coats Mary Weikert and my mother, and two children, Billy Weikert and me. Lt. John M. (P.D.) Weikert is the flying officer shown, and my father is shown getting into flying clothing. I'm not sure it as totally legal for my father, a civilian, to be lying in military aircraft, but it was done with the full knowledge of Weikert's superior officers. John M. Weikert, USMA '23, served in the Air Corps in WWI; became, at Father's request, the first C.O. of Stewart Field '41-'43, was promoted to Major General during WWII and served in MacArthur's staff in Japan after the war. His nickname "P.D." was given to him at the Academy. It stands for Pennsylvania Dutchman. He came from Gettysburg, PA. The aerial views are of the West Point Parade Ground, the famous Old Storm King Highway, and Newburgh, NY.