By Sara Jane Richter
How do historians record American history? Two methods exist: secondary research and primary research. Secondary research, on the one hand, comes in the guise of books, films and articles written by someone who researched the event. On the other hand, primary research requires historians to capture history via primary sources, involving researching history provided by people who experienced the actual moment of history. These participants can write about their experiences, record videos or films about the events, or speak to share their experiences in a particular historical moment.
Kim Hobbs of Hennessey, Oklahoma, has opted to help preserve mid-20th century American history via primary research by helping to organize, promote, and share information regarding meetings and conferences attended by American flyers and combatants of World War II. He became interested in preserving this history when he realized that his father, Dr. Charles Hobbs, was a chief actor in the European and North African theaters of war during the 1940s world conflict; he signed up in May 1941, long before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
In the aftermath of the 1973 Kingfisher County flood, Kim found his father’s military footlocker floating around in the family home’s basement. Retrieving it and allowing it to air and dry out, Kim discovered a wealth of information about his heroic father that was unknown to him at the time.
The elder Hobbs piloted a B24 bomber nicknamed “The Wild Wolf” in North Africa and Europe in 1943; Hobbs found himself stationed in Libya soon after. From this location, he flew 50 successful combat missions, including the bombing run to destroy a vital fuel target in Europe. This mission became known as Operation Tidal Wave, during which US Army Air Forces planes bombed nine oil refineries around Ploiesti, Romania, on August 1, 1943, to deny Axis forces access to petroleum. It was a successful and dangerous mission, and one for which the squadron received a Distinguished Unit Citation. The group also secured the same citation type for operations over North Africa, Sicily, and Romania.
From 1942 to 1945, Dr. Hobbs flew as a member of the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy). The group saw combat as part of the 9th, 12th, and 15th Air Forces in the combat area of Libya-Egypt and Italy. Hobbs and his fellow soldiers continued to share each other’s lives from 1946 to 1962, when reunions were held annually at various locations in the US. Here, combatants shared insights and memories and strengthened the bonds of comradeship that they’d initiated during the war itself. Time, family, distance, and age caused reunions to end until Kim Hobbs learned of the group from reading a document in that once-wet footlocker.
Kim sought to help revitalize the reunions after having no organized gathering of these men for many years. He found a list of men in his father’s unit and started doing detective work to get the group back together after 33 years. That group of men met in Charleston, South Carolina, and the rest is history, as the saying goes. The younger Hobbs volunteered to be the group’s president in 2009, and since then, he has worked with others to keep the group afloat and invited other bomber groups to join this original group. In October 2024, twelve such bomb groups joined the 376th and met in Tucson, Arizona, to talk about old times and keep that history alive.
Since then, the Hobbs have attended many reunions across the nation: Washington, D. C.; Kansas City, Missouri; Phoenix, Arizona. Early on, perhaps 300 men and their families joined in the festivities and reunion; however, the group has decreased in number because of natural attrition. In addition, some of the men’s ill health has prevented them from attending. The original members have left the group one by one through the years, but interested people continue to keep the story alive. Family members are always welcome at these events, too in order to network with other people who have this common historical link to their families and America.
The meetings have encouraged many of the participants to write their war stories, record videos of the group and WWII activities, reconnect with old friends, spark friendships, interview family members to keep histories alive and share memories of an exciting and earth-shattering event in world history. The history shared by Dr. Hobbs, his compatriots, and others has provided a wonderful assembly and collection of soldiers, airmen, historians, and family members to learn about what their relatives did to save the World from the evil of Nazism and the harsh effects of war.
It is a bond without paper; it is a bond of pure emotion and action that cannot be articulated ormeasured. Thank you to all veterans who have sacrificed for their nation and for my future. God bless each of you.
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