Dubecker Graduation, San Antonio (TX) Express, June 9, 1931 (Source: Woodling)

Lieutenant A.L. Dubecker landed at Tucson Tuesday, July 28,1931. He carried a single passenger, a private Swan. Based at Riverside, CA March Field, they were eastbound from Riverside and cited Tucson as their final destination. They flew the Douglas BT-2B Dubecker identified as 31-34. According to Joe Baugher's site, his airplane was eventually converted to a BT-2BI and crashed three miles north of Wright Field, Dayton, OH on March 15, 1936.

He had been planning for a military career. The Oakland Tribune of May 14, 1930 announced his graduation from the University of California along with 20 others with a degree in military science. According to Mr. Woodling, cited, right sidebar, "He was on the boxing team at Cal and was in ROTC. Interestingly, he lived in a men's house club in Berkeley named 'Bachelordon,' where one of his housemates was Eugene Gerow."

He must have entered the military immediately upon graduation. The San Antonio (TX) Express of June 9, 1931, left, announced his graduation from Pursuit School at Kelly Field with his class of 98 flyng cadets.

According to the Register, Dubecker and Swan appeared to be flying with a flight of six other BTs, probably on a cross-country training exercise to Douglas, AZ. Interestingly, fellow graduates and Register pilots Robert Stanley Angle, Frank Norwood, and Leslie Raybold were among the flight of BTs that came through Tucson the same day with Dubecker.

Dubecker Accident, Salt Lake Tribune, August 8, 1931 (Source: Woodling)

Register pilot Joe Brier is also among the list of graduates, as is a German officer, Gerd von Massow (1896-1967), who would, in a few short years, apply his training , in-turn, to train German aviators to fight against U.S. forces in Europe. von Massow has a modest Web presence.

I don't have a lot of information about pilot Dubecker, because he died in an airplane crash on August 7, 1931, just ten days after he landed at Tucson. The Salt Lake Tribune of Saturday, August 8, 1931 reported the accident, right.

A.L. Dubecker, Headstone, August 7, 1931 (Source: Findagrave)

A similarly brief article appeared in The New York Times of August 8th. He is buried in his home town of Cottonwood, CA at the Cottonwood Cemetery. Headstone at right.

Dubecker just didn't have time to build a track record of his aviation accomplishments in the manner of many of his fellow Register signers.

Below, courtesy of a site visitor, is a salutation from a book entitled, "Elementary Machine Shop Practice," by J.L. Palmateer. You can dowload a copy of the book at the link (PDF 15Mb). The salutation is on page 3 of the PDF.

This book was donated to the University of California Library system by Dubecker's parents. With copyright dates of 1918 and 1920, it could have been one of Dubecker's University of California student texts.

"Elementary Machine Shop Practice," by J.L. Palmateer (Source: Site Visitor)

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 02/16/13 REVISED: 05/02/14