I have eliminated all the individual photo album posts and decided to send you directly to Picasaweb. To date I have 340 albums and over 83,000 photos hosted there. This link should take you to all my albums:

If the link doesn’t work, then you need to copy and paste it into your browser. For some reason my ability to create hyperlinks stopped working on my WordPress several months ago, but I figured out a back door.

The Chinese historic and museum photos are placed first, beginning with Beijing, then Xi’an, Chengdu & Sanxingdui, Henan Province and its many sites, and then the other provincial capitals. Then I have all the albums from the rest of the world. This includes recent visits to Cambodia and Vietnam, Mesoamerica, Egypt, Europe, and the Philippines. American photos are next, followed by the airplanes, ships, trains, and large weapons. Finally I have photos of personal collections like Chinese weapons and coins. My essay postings will remain on the WordPress site. They include six essays by Lee Rorex (after whom I received my middle name) about fighter missions he flew in World War II with my Dad in the 389th Fighter Squadron of the 9th Army Air Force.

This chair may have belonged to Chinese royalty. It’s probably not a throne, but, rather, a garden-parlor chair. Family tradition suggests it was possibly looted from the Summer Palace during the Boxer Uprising (Eight Power Invasion) of 1900 and brought to America. The owner is interested in returning it to its home. Any information, ideas or suggestions would be most welcome. Send to LeeFoxx1949@gmail.com. https://picasaweb.google.com/116512474184071531500/QingRoyalThrone

This is the 6^th and last of the essays Lee Rorex sent me in early 2001. He and my dad flew together in the 289^th Fighter Squadron, 266^th Fighter Group, 9^th U.S. Army Air Force, the tactical Air Force in the European Theater. I remember in a letter to me he once referred to himself as a “hired assassin.” This surprised me. Vietnam had made me decidedly cynical, but I had thought World War II was the “good war.” But my dad almost never talked about it, and Capt. Lee was still having nightmares 40 years later. I guess there really is no “good war.” —Gary Lee Todd Continue reading →

My dad was a writer, too. He was aviation and business editor of the Rockford Register Republic from 1954 until he retired in 1981. He edited and actually did much of the writing of Fish Hassell’s autobiography, A Viking with Wings. But so far as I know, he never wrote about his own experiences as a P-47 pilot with the 9^th AAF. Lee Rorex did, 40 years after the war was over. He told me my dad – Dean Todd – was with him on most or all of the missions he wrote about. So this is my dad’s story as well as Capt. Lee’s. —Gary Lee Todd Continue reading →

This is the 4^th of 6 autobiographical accounts by a P-47 pilot in the 366^th Fighter Group of the 9^th Army Air Force in Europe in 1944-45. Lee Rorex, the author, sent them to me in 2001 shortly after my dad passed away. He and my dad had flown together, and in many ways these essays tell the story my dad rarely talked about. I didn’t want the stories to be forgotten, so I decided to put them on my website and give them to the world. —Gary Lee Todd (and this is where I got my middle name, Lee) Continue reading →

Captain Lee Rorex and my dad flew in the 389^th Fighter Squadron, 366^th Fighter Group, of the 9^th United States Army Air Force in Europe during World War II. This is their stories. See intro to first post for more. I dedicate this work to Maj. Dean Todd (ret.) and Capt. Lee Rorex, who were ordinary guys who did a great job and are true heroes, though they would never call themselves that. — Gary Lee Todd Continue reading →

Captain Lee Rorex and my dad flew in the 389^th Fighter Squadron, 366^th Fighter Group, of the 9^th United States Army Air Force in Europe during World War II. This is their stories. See intro to previous post for more. I dedicate this work to Maj. Dean Todd (ret.) and Capt. Lee Rorex, who were ordinary men who did a great job and are true heroes, though they would never call themselves that. — Gary Lee Todd Continue reading →

Captain Lee Rorex and my dad flew in the 389^th Fighter Squadron, 366^th Fighter Group, of the 9^th United States Army Air Force in Europe during World War II. Dad flew 75 combat missions, earned at least three Air Medals, and a Presidential Unit Citation for destroying 40 German locomotives during a 36-hour period. Capt. Lee flew with him on many of those missions. This is where I got my middle name – Lee – after Lee Rorex. In the 1980s he wrote a number of essays about his experiences during the war. He may have published them, so I suppose my putting them on my website without permission is piracy, but I thought the stories were too good to lie forgotten. Shortly after my dad passed away in 2000, Capt. Lee sent me these stories. My dad rarely talked about his war experiences, which is a common reaction among people who have seen real combat. So this was a welcome insight into my own father’s experiences. I dedicate this work to Maj. Dean Todd (ret.) and Capt. Lee Rorex, who flew these missions together. — Gary Lee Todd Continue reading →

I have long studied and taught history. I have been very good at seeing the details, but have generally missed the broader themes which help one to better understand and interpret those details. I’ve seen the trees, but I have missed the forest. Recently I have begun to see the forest, and, seeing it, have begun to make some sense out of many things I had never before understood or had chosen to ignore. Continue reading →