20 April 2008

The Private Collection of Alpha A. Fowler

Over a month ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Susie Fowler in my quest to discover more information on Jerry Hunter’s life in Douglasville. Susie is the widow of retired USAF Brigadier General Alpha A. Fowler, the man who took Jerry Hunter for his first airplane flight in 1957.

Unfortunately Susie could not remember much of the relations between her late husband and Jerry, however she did elaborate of Alpha’s (locally known as Sonny) military career while serving in the Army Air Force with the 15th Air Force, 483rd Bomb Group, based in Sterparone, Italy from 1944-1945.

During the war Fowler was a captain, whom was later promoted to the rank of major, acting as a squadron commander that flew B-17s on bombing raids into Eastern Europe. Fowler took a tremendous amount of pictures both in Italy and on missions, capturing classic wartime images of B-17s flying in formation to the aftermath of bombs hitting targets.

Being that project Saving Hunter is looking into all aspects of Lt. Robert Hunter’s life, it is suspect that Alpha Fowler had some influence in joining the Air Force. Fowler injected the “fly bug” into Hunter while relatives on the Olge side had served in the military, most of which were enlisted into the Army.

With the permission of Susie Fowler, her husband’s photographs from World War II have been digitally restored and publicly released for viewing on flickr. Also a copy of the restored photographs has been sent to the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama to be looked over and added to the 15th Air Force, 483rd Bomb Group official history.