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This donation consists of 65 negatives taken in 1937 and 1938 by Major Tweedy who was an Aerial Photographer with the 2nd Observation Unit, stationed at Nichols Field, Philippines. Along with images of Nichols Field and officers of the squadrons based there, the following aircraft are featured: Boeing P-12 (Model 102), Boeing P-26, Thomas-Morse O-19C, Keystone B-3A and Martin B-10B. The collection also includes an 11-image sequence documenting a parachute dummy test drop at Nichols Field in 1938.
2nd Observation Unit Photography, Philippines [Tweedy], 2003-0047, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Katheryn Brown, Gift, 2003
Major George M. Tweedy (1915-2001) attended San Diego State College before leaving in 1935 to join the Army Air Corps. Tweedy's military career spanned 26 years, and much of it concerned military photography. He was in the Philippines with the 2nd Observation Unit during the 1930s shooting aerial photography, and in 1941 he was in Canada and Alaska providing aerial photographs which were used in the building of the Alcan Highway. During World War II, he was stationed mostly in England with the 409th Bomb Group as a photo officer. After the war, Tweedy was an agent for the Army Counter Intelligence Corps in Alaska and then transferred to the Air Forces Office of Special Investigations. Tweedy was also a photo officer at Fort George Wright before retiring in 1961.
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