Marvin MacKin:  

My McMechen immigrant arrived in New Castle, Delaware prior to 1721, subsequent ancestors located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington, State and California. Delaware land records showed their present in the American colonies prior to 1721. Our family surname has seen several iterations starting with our immigrant William McMechen, later a fourth great-grandparents used the surname spelling McMakin, my third and second great grandparents used the spelling McMackin, my great grandfather George Eugene Mackin and his siblings shorten the name to Mackin sometime between 1859 and 1862. My father was a rancher and businessman on his father's Levi Mackin's homestead northwest of the town of Broadus, Montana they operated cattle/sheep ranching operations according to the anticipated market, They also had wheat thrashing teams, operated saw mill and well drilling operations. My Father Gardiner Stephen Mackin in 1942 had traveled to Salt Lake and Fort Douglas to enlist in the Army and in early 1943 he traveled to Fresno for boot camp and indoctrination into the Army at Camp Fresno (Fresno Fair Grounds) and while there he applied for the Army Air Corps. Dad also met my mother Helen May Henton In early 1943 at a USO dance, During aviation cadet training in Santa Anna they were married in santa Ana, Orange County, Dad did primary flight training at Gary Field Blythe, CA, basic and advanced flight training Marana Field and Luke Field, Arizona this was single engine training, and he had to be trained on multi-engine aircraft so he was sent to Sacramento for training in twin engine aircraft, Then he was assigned to the night fighter training program then being shifted by Army Air Corps from Boca Raton, Florida to Hammer Field, Fresno, California A.K.A. ( now Fresno Yosemite international Airport ) In late 1944 Dad was assigned as a replacement pilot for the 426th night fighter squadron, Dad deployed from Hamilton Field, Marin County for flight to Florida then via transport ship to India and then flew over the Hump onto China, My father was killed on his 11th mission in central China along the Han River, while strafing a column of Japanese vehicles and personnel, the night of 15 May 1945. He was piloting a Black Widow P61A -15-NO, 42-39351, operating out of forward airfield in Ankang, China. The mission of the night fighters had changed shortly after their introduction, into China. After several successive radar intercepts and shoot downs by Black Widows of Japanese bomber aircraft who were attacking B-29 bases near Chentu/Chendu the Japanese decided not to attack at night. The mission of the Black Widows changed from night intercepts to night interdiction missions, These missions proved dangerous to the aircrews because of this large twin engine aircraft operating so low to the ground at night, On one mission my father returned from a mission with part of this outer wing panel missing, Another crew in 426th night fighter squadron returned from a mission and found part of the human skull embedded in the bottom of the tail section of their aircraft, Obviously they had hit a Japanese soldier standing in the rear of a truck while strafing the Japanese convoy. My father lost his life along with his flight officer Donald Jay Hadra when his aircraft wing struck a utility pole and his aircraft cartwheeled into an embankment along the side of the Han River in Central China. The accident scene was surveyed by Major Robert R. Scott who reported to my grandfather Levi Mackin via letter dated April 24 1946. My mothers parents the Henton's had a small 20 acre farm just north of Hammer Field, along the northside of Ashland Ave, the southwest corner of their farm would be at the Northeast corner of Ashland and Willow avenues in Clovis, when I was a young child they grew wheat and cotton on their farm in later years they switched to raising chicken's for egg production. I was born at Hammer Field military hospital in the fall of 1944, near Peach and Shields avenues, my mother and I lived with my Henton grandparents until about 1950, when mother purchased her own one-bedroom home on south side of Dakota Avenue just west of Cedar Ave. My mother Helen, had earned her cosmetology license after completing eight years of education at Scandinavian school, after which she attended beauty college to get her cosmetology license, Mom operated three different beauty salons on Belmont Avenue one in the rear of Mr. Merks barbershop between Van Ness Ave and Fulton St. another salon on West Belmont Avenue in the same building occupied by Betsy Ross bread bakery in the early 1950's, about block east of the RR/underpass on south side Belmont Avenue leading to Roeding Park. It was through a customer, Josie Nocito, a sister to Joseph Anthony Amato, that she met my stepfather. They were married in late 1953. My stepfather being a public works inspector for the City of Fresno was required to live within the Fresno City boundaries and we moved into central Fresno living on Peralta Way just one lot east of Fresno St. one ...Expand for more