Flying high above: Black Diamond’s airplane spotters of WWII

By JoAnne Matsumura

The Black Diamond grade school was the site of the Aircraft Warning Service observation station.

They were mothers and fathers, miners and farmers. They were your teachers, your neighbors, and your friends. They were Black Diamond’s volunteer observers and airplane spotters of Post #33 during World War II.

Their observation station, a glass-enclosed structure with very few amenities, was on top of the Black Diamond grade school. Silhouettes of American, Japanese, and German aircraft were printed on card stock and affixed to the walls, remembered Beth Botts Van Buskirk.

All volunteers of Post #33 were under the direction of Paul Billingsley, state director of the Aircraft Warning Service, and the Washington State Defense Council. In command of the post were Captain Bert E. Holtby, Lt. Hewis, Lt. Roberts, and Corp. Bayer.

Armbands were given to volunteers who served more than 100 hours.

From 1942 through October 1, 1943, two or more volunteers manned the station 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—serving 2 to 4-hour shifts. As part of their duties volunteers logged their observations and the sounds of any aircraft detected.

Volunteers had to arrange their shifts around other obligations. Henry Corbin (H.C.) Thompson “worked at night spotting airplanes and would go home to milk his cows and tend his large garden,” said his daughter, Elsie Marchetti.

Esther Malgarini, a widow, would wake her children in the middle of the night and take them with her on the “long, dark, and scary” walk from Morganville to the observation station for her scheduled shift, recalled Don Malgarini, an 8-year-old at the time.

Alice Sloan Davies decided to be a plane spotter, too, but in her own way, remembered son Ior Davies.

With her binoculars in hand, she’d climb on to the roof of the Confectionery—now Black Diamond Pizza & Deli—and search the skies.

Thanks to all 198 volunteers, 12 of whom survive today, for their time and dedication. The U.S. Army gave volunteers who served more than 100 hours an armband while others received a pin-back button (right).