(Photo credit - eBay seller exo) Last night I pulled the trigger on this token - $22. I've been watching it for a while but never looked it up or did any research into it. By looking at it I can tell it is pre-Air Force (18 Sep 47) issue - AAF means Army Air Force or sometimes Army Airfield. The eBay listing correctly identified it per Cunningham and as a token from Othello Air Force Base. So I researched Othello Air Force Base and that's when I became interested. Othello was an Air Force Station, that is, it was a radar station and was activated in 1951, four years after the Air Force was created. Fortunately this token has a unit on it, the 430th. The 430th was a Bombardment Squadron which was activated on 22 Apr 42 from the 44th Reconnaissance Squadron. When the unit was first designated as the 430th they were sent to Orlando AAF for training. In March of 44 the 430th moved to Dalhart AAF, TX then again to Harvard AAF, NE. After that the 430th was sent to Guam where they launched attacks against the Japanese. The 430th was inactivated 15 Apr 46. So I think Cunningham got this one wrong. In Vol 1 it's listed was WA460 and he gave a Curto number as R689. I'm not sure where this token was used specifically - I feel like it would have been used Stateside, but that's just a hunch because I haven't seen many bottle tokens for overseas editions (admittedly I haven't looked that hard). Tokens like this one get me excited because I can directly trace this one to a unit and can narrow down the time it was issued, somewhere between 1942 to 1946. Cunningham gave this token a value of $50 which I interpret it to mean scarcer since many tokens are given a value of $10 or less - and I fully understand how useless the value guide is. This token is not the best example, as it has rim damage and looks like it may have been harshly cleaned, but I've never seen another one.
Nice info Jack. Radar stations sound like something that could be and interesting niche. Radar was fairly new even in the 50's. I would bet the military activated hundreds of radar stations (just guessing) in the 50's & 60's to track dem Russkies.
There were tons of radar stations in the U.S. In fact, there's a group of people who hunt down and visit old radar sites and attempt to document them. I have some cool tokens from some of those Air Force Stations and I'll be posting them soon. Something I neglected to mention - the bombing runs conducted by the 430th against Japan were low level runs targeting their petroleum infrastructure with high incendiary bombs.
Great token for your collection Jack. Knowing the history makes a lot of difference. I think it makes collecting more interesting and adds a little extra "spice" if you will. Another extra is knowing when a certain piece was issued. In this case, I don't think the damage would make a lot of difference because it seems to be pretty scarce. Great addition to your collection. Bruce
I think they should reactivate some of those stations. I used to be radar operator on a destroyer. I have more faith in that than satallites that can be blinded or fried. I'm looking forward to seeing some of those tokens.
