Arthur I. "Ike" Guessford
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Arthur I. "Ike" Guessford
was born on farm outside Odessa. In 1949, he was recruited for the
Delaware Air National Guard and became part of the 142nd Air Fighting
Squadron. Ike went to radio school for training and in February 1951
his unit was put on active duty during the Korean War. They reported
to the New Castle County Airbase, which had been closed after the
Second World War. The single-story barracks had been unoccupied, and
some of their time was spent repairing the aging buildings. Guessford
remembered the circumstances under which he received training at Dover
Air Force Base
Guessford ended up spending 36 years in the Air National Guard, with most of his duty as a technician served at the New Castle County Airport. For a brief period during his active duty, his unit worked at McGuire AFB in New Jersey as support when the planes there were grounded. Over the years, he remembered working on T-6s, C-45s, C-47s and his favorite, the F-51. "Of all the airplanes I've worked on I think that it was the neatest plane ever built…just the looks of it and to see it flying in the air and to see what it did during the Second World War. I just became attached to it." |
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