Chapter 33

"Well! So much for secrecy!" Bill was looking right at Megan when he said it.

Mina laughed, "She didn't do it ... you did."

"Me? I never said a word."

"No, Bill. You never said anything. I'm a History professor ... remember?"

"What's that got to do with it?"

"You've been careful ... except ... for these." Mina pulled a yellowing envelope from her home office desk.

She opened it ... with a flair ... If there had have been a band, they would have played stripper music. As it was, Mina was dancing to her own internal music. She slid the contents out and back in with an exaggerated bump and elbow grind, laughing all the time.

They were photographs ... fifteen photographs ... pictures of Bill negotiating the first sale ... oh, sure, the pictures were grainy but there was no denying Bill's height.

"This first set of pictures were sent from the heirs of 'Jolly' Jim Anderson. That's him in the flannel shirt."

"Anderson? You know, I never asked his name. I didn't want to know it. Why on earth did they call him "Jolly"?"

"Probably because he so seldom laughed," laughed Mina.

Megan was standing there ... mouth wide open, nearly drooling.

"Close your mouth, Megan ... the pictures I have of you and you and Bill are great photographic evidence. I got these from the Army Archives. It took a while, mostly because I didn't know about the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The RFC. Not that many people did know.

"Things back then weren't like things today. Congress could keep secrets. That bunch of blabbermouths we voted into office couldn't keep their mouths shut with zippers."

Mina switched into professor mode. "The RFC was a mostly behind the scenes government agency started in 1931 to loan government money to try and pull us out of the depression. They supported banks, manufacturing, home loan agencies to the tune of six billion dollars, by 1934.

"That's One trillion, Six hundred eighty four billion, Three hundred forty seven million, Eighty seven thousand dollars in today's money.

"Bail out the Automobile industry? They did that then ... but only four companies; Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and Studebaker. Those four were the giants ... and they built cars for the common man. Roosevelt was a great champion of the common man.

"The RFC sunk a bunch in the railroads and the trucking industry and kept a chosen few shipyards afloat.

"They loaned money to iron mines and steel mills and fishing boat owners ... to big farming corporations and giant canneries.

"From 1934 to 1940 they were financing 'Recovery' from the Depression to the tune of Three hundred million ... and change ... if 47 million can be called change ... a year. Nearly every penny was paid back and it didn't go for executive's bonuses.

"Then came the war and the War Department pretty much took over spending. The RFC was called in to help straighten out the mess after the war."

(In 1945 the RFC established five large storage, sales and scrapping centers for Army Air Forces aircraft. These were located at: Albuquerque, NM; Altus, OK; Kingman, AZ; Ontario, CA; and Walnut Ridge, AR. A sixth facility for storing, selling and scrapping Navy and Marine aircraft was located at Clinton, OK.

It is estimated that approximately 10,000 warbirds were flown to Walnut Ridge in 1945 and 1946 for storage and sale. Some sources report the number to be over 11,000. It is reported that at least 67 of the 118 B-32 Heavy Bombers built were flown to Walnut Ridge, many straight from the assembly line. Of the remaining B-32's, at least 37, perhaps more, were flown to Kingman.

Four thousand, eight hundred and seventy-one (4,871) of the aircraft stored at Walnut Ridge, primarily fighters and bombers, were sold to Texas Railway Equipment Company in September 1946, to be scrapped. The bid price was $1,838,798.19. On the southwest corner of the ramp, two giant smelters were constructed to melt the scrap aluminum, which was formed into huge ingots for shipping.) (Thanks Wikipedia)

"What you two didn't know about was the cameras that took pictures of each and every private sale."