Viewing page 262 of 521

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[newspaper clipping]]

LT. COL. MANILA TALLEY
She's Still Flying High

[[image - photograph of Manila Talley receiving graduation certificate from Air War College]]
[[caption]] ONE OF ONLY THREE women ever to graduate from the Air War College, CAP Lt. Col. Manila Talley of Mangum receives her graduation certificate from Col. Raymond R. Deitch, commander of the 11th Strategic Aerospace Wing, at Altus Air Force Base. She completed the College's correspondence course to add to her many career achievements. [[/caption]]

A Mangum woman has become only the third woman ever to graduate from the Air War College, but being a pioneer in completing courses is nothing new for Civil Air Patrol Lt. Col. Manila Talley.

Col. Talley received her graduation certificate for the Air War College correspondence program in ceremonies at Atus Air Force Base from Col. Raymond R. Deitch, commander of the 11th Strategic Aerospace Wing.

Prior to this new achievement she completed Command and Staff School for another highlight in her career than began in 1930 where she was the first woman to complete the Army Air Corps Officer Reserve Course. In 1952 she completed the CAP Squadron Officers' Course in New York City.

The Mangum woman, wife of a retired Army general, was the first person to join the Civil Air Patrol at Anchorage, Alaska - signing up just four days before Pearl Harbor. During World War II she served as intelligence officer for the Seattle CAP group. She also has served as a squadron commander or staff officer in five separate wings at different times during her CAP career, and as the information officer for two regions. Her last assignment was as the Oklahoma Wing information officer at Tinker AFB.

For several months last year she was on leave in Vietnam on research for a book.

Over the many years, Col. Talley has been flying - since 1929 - she has obtained a search-and-rescue rating and a senior pilot's rating. While in CAP she has participated in a number of international cadet exchanges and four cadet encampments.

From 1930 to 1933, she was active in close course racing and in 1931 was one of 12 contestants in the National Air Races, flying a Great Lakes solo from New York to Cleveland. She also flew experimental planes during that time. 

Col. Talley was born in Flatwoods, W. Va., and attended West Virginia University for three years, majoring in music and science. She is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston, and spent a year at the MIT Guggenheim School of Aerodynamics. She also worked for a Boston firm demonstrating and selling planes. 

On her recent research stay in Vietnam, Col. Talley saw that possibility presented when her husband Gen. (ret.) Robert Talley was called in by the government and asked to go to Vietnam in a civilian position with the [[strikethrough]] Corps of Engineers [[/strikethrough]]. ^[[ [[underlined]] US NAVY [[/underlined]] ]] He returned only recently, sometime after her return to Mangum.

The Talleys have one son, Maj. Robert E. L. Talley, serving with the U.S. Army in India. 
[[/newspaper clipping]]

Transcription Notes:
this page is a duplicate of page 4