The Cool Jazz of Camp Dick

Friend of Unfair Park Peterk, always on the lookout for vintage Dallas photos of note available on eBay, sends our way this morning a genuine (and genuinely cool) relic: a photo of the Camp Dick jazz combo. And what, you might be asking, was Camp Dick? Well, writes Art Leatherwood...

By Robert Wilonsky

October 31, 2009

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Friend of Unfair Park Peterk, always on the lookout for vintage Dallas photos of note available on eBay, sends our way this morning a genuine (and genuinely cool) relic: a photo of the Camp Dick jazz combo. And what, you might be asking, was Camp Dick? Well, writes Art Leatherwood in the Handbook of Texas Online, "Camp John Dick Aviation Concentration Camp, also known as Camp Dick, was a personnel holding pool for graduates of ground training schools. It was located on the State Fairgrounds in Dallas from January 1918 until January 1919."

A little further digging turns up this nugget concerning its connection with General Jimmy Doolittle, who led the first raid on Japan following Pearl Harbor: "Commissioned a second lieutenant on March 11, 1918, Doolittle was assigned to Camp John Dick Aviation Concentration Camp, TX as a flying instructor." I think I just found my Halloween costume.

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