Major Correia

Captain Fomby

Baseball team Manager, Rockow and The Chief

Our Commanding Officer was Major Antonio A. Correia. He was originally from Taunton, Mass., the Major now calls Atlanta, GA his home. He assumed command of the 55th Air Police Squadron on the 12th of June in 1951, succeeding Captain Welbon D. Burnham. The morale of the squadron was extremely low at that time, but shortly thereafter it started to rise. With the exception of several months while he was at Camp Carson, the Major has been the "old man" of the squadron. Major Correia started his military career when he applied for Aviation Cadets shortly after Pearl Harbor and was accepted in March of 1942. He survived the rigors of pilot training and was awarded his wings in March of the following year. In World War II he flew 72 combat missions totaling over 1300 hours flown over enemy territory. This included 18 night landing behind enemy lines while flying food, clothing, guns and ammunition to members of Marshal Tito's underground organization in Yugoslavia. On these trips he brought back over 200 American and British fliers who had been shot down behind the line in enemy territory. The Major was awarded many decorations for his action including   the Distinguished Flying Cross with one cluster, the Air Medal with three clusters and the Partisan Star, awarded him by the Yugoslav government.

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Captain Fomby claims Notasulga, Alabama as home and is proud of it. He arrived at Ramey on the 2nd of March 1951 and performed many duties. He has been at one time or another the Squadron Adjutant, Operations and Training Officer and Executive Officer, as well as taking over as Squadron Commander during Major Correia's absence. Captain Fomby entered Cadet Training in August of 1942 and received his wings in November, the following year. After being checked out in B-17's, he was shipped to the European theater Operations, and in the period from March to August in 1944 flew thirty-five missions while assigned to the 8th Air force in England. He later became a B-17 instructor and imparted much of the knowledge and experience he gained to many other fliers. In 1947 he took up flying C-54's and during the Berlin Air Lift flew 180 missions in about eight months. Captain Fomby first became involved with the Air Police Squadron at Barksdale AFB where he was Commanding Officer of the 301st Air Police Squadron before he came to Ramey. The Captain was a fly-hawking outfielder for the "Old Men's" softball team in 1953.

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The Squadron had many fine athletes. Here the 1952 baseball team.
 

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