20 Comments

Selfridge ANG Base, formerly known as Selfridge Field & Selfridge AFB is named in honor of Lt Thomas E. Selfridge. There is a great little museum there, Selfridge Military Air Museum, that is open to the public, April through October.

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Where is this base?

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Tara, I didn't know about Lt. Selfridge before. While he was the first casualty in aviation, his vision and enthusiasm apparently carried on with the Army where airplanes became a valuable tool in the arsenal.

Thank you Tara. You are correct, Americans were tough then. "They imagined. They created. They persevered-and they overcame."

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Great men take great risks that in time benefit all.

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Agree.

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I trust we still have the “hutzpah” to get up from failure as our forbears did. We cannot afford to whimp out in the face of failure and opposition to doing the right thing. There was a saying in the old Texas Rangers that you just can’t stop a good man in the right who jut keeps coming.

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Tell that to grieving Uvalde parents . Absent the US Border Patrol officers the massacre would have continued as the entire local PD and Rangers did NOTHING ! 😢

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That is the truth. And those officers have and continue to face consequences for their lack of action. They wronged those children and their families. Definitely not in the spirit of the Texas Rangers tradition.

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Aviation is still a dangerous business, especially for the military. And keep this in mind next time you board an aircraft, and DON’T BITCH AT THE AIRCREW!

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Had no idea someone died on a wright bros plane ride. Good info Tara!

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An Air Force Base was named after him. He was a force getting military flight off the ground. A pioneer and leader. RIP.

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Doing what Americans do best! Isn't that the Truth. Thank you Tara for another great TDIH 👍 👌

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Always love your lessons.

❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

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Cars and planes were both very new back then. Flight is much safer now than automobile travel.

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Great read Tara

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Early pioneers of flight would be astonished at how far aviation has come but flabbergasted at the lack of quality control of our commercial aircraft. Doors falling off because they were Never bolted on at all or tightened enough to keep them in place might be shocking to them ! 🤷🏻‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

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Thank you, Tara.

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"They created. They persevered—and they overcame.

Americans doing what Americans do best."

Hoping we remember that...of course, teaching our actual history

would be a great start.

Thanks, TR!

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Interesting history of American flight ingenuity. Lt. Selfridge was instrumental in the development of airplane design. Sad he died so young. I did not know much about him. His affiliation with the Wright brothers is new to me. I’m sure they both felt terrible about his death and that it happened while he was flying with Orville. It is indeed a dangerous business, but the continued progress up to today is evidence of the American can do spirit.

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Excelsior!

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