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Your copy of the "Davis-Monthan Airfield Register" with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. Or use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author. ISBN 978-0-9843074-0-1.

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There is no biographical file for pilot Baque in the archives of the National Air & Space Museum (NASM), Washington, DC.

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Davies, R.E.G. Airlines of Latin America Since 1919. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1984.

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EDDIE BAQUE

Eddie Baque landed at Tucson twice. His first visit was on Thursday, April 11, 1929. He carried a single passenger, Willard Thomas. They were eastbound from Pomona, CA to Moline, IL in Monocoupe NC6572. A possible reason for their stop at Tucson might be the trip cited in this article, dated Monday, April 29, 1929, from the Salt Lake City (UT) Salt Lake Tribune.

Four Tourists Travel in Plane

Air tourists will soon be the order
of the day, and the coming of summer
will find the air dotted with the
lanes of restless travelers who now
take to the highways in automobiles as
soon as the weather permits. That
is the belief expressed by four young
birdmen who arrived in Salt Lake
Sunday after a 20-day air jaunt
through 15 different states.
The modern young tourists are E.
Willard Thomas, John M. Burnley,
Auggie [sic] Clancy, and Eddie Baquet [sic], all of Pomona, Calif. They stayed at
the Newhouse hotel Sunday night
and intend to take off early Monday
morning for Los Angeles on the last        leg of the their trip, which they are
making in two cabin monocoupes.

The Tribune article is further corroborated by the Register. Augie Clancy landed at Tucson just ahead of Baque on the 11th and signed the Register five lines above him. Clancy carried Burnley as his passenger in Monocoupe NC6742.

Baque's second visit was over 2.5 years later on Monday November 16, 1931. He was eastbound from Pomona again, carrying three passengers in Fairchild NC4074. One of his passengers was identified as John M. Burnley; the others were unidentified. They remained overnight in Tucson, heading for El Paso, TX the next morning at 9:00 AM. He or one of the passengers wrote inscrutably in the Remarks column, "Rien de tous."

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[Update of 01/24/10: one site visitor states: "While I agree that it appears that he wrote 'Rien de tous' my guess is he might actually have intended 'Rien du tous' - fairly easy to see a quickly written 'u' turn out as an 'e', his otherwise decent penmanship notwithstanding.  'Rien du tous' would translate to a much more logical 'nothing at all' - idiomatically if not quite literally.  And it's possible as well that 'rien de tous' could translate that way depending on Eddie's origins; Creole French vs Canadian French vs any number of European dialects can vary quite a bit.  In any case, I bet he was just saying in effect - "nothing at all.'"

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The motivation for building his page in the absence of much biographical information, is the improbable photograph below. In this single photograph we have a very unusual occurrence. The image captures five Register entities: four people who signed the Register, and one airplane, Monocoupe NC6572, flown to Tucson by Baque and Thomas. This image is shared with us by a friend of dmairfield.org John Underwood.

Register Pilots Eddie Baque & Augie Clancy; Passengers John Burnley & Willard Thomas; Airplane Monocoupe NC6572; Date & Location Unknown (Source: Underwood)
Register Pilots Eddie Bacque & Augie Clancy; Passengers John Burnley & Willard Thomas; Airplane Monocoupe NC6572; Date & Location Unknown (Source: Underwood)

Baque's name is misspelled on the photo, so we can believe he did not write the annotation. If I compare the handwriting on the photograph with Eddie Baque's signatures in the Register, it is clear that Baque did not annotate the photo, but perhaps it was Burnley. Notice the knee-high boots on three of the men and compare them to the boots on your Webmaster.

Dallas Morning News, April 6, 1942 (Source: Woodling)
Dallas Morning News, April 6, 1942 (Source: Woodling)

As stated, I have the barest biographical information for Eddie Baque. I ask you to contact me if you have any (right sidebar). Apparently, during the 1930s, Baque was in the company of a few Register pilots who sought their fortunes in air transport down in Mexico, Central and South America. In an advertisement in the April 6, 1942 issue of the Dallas (TX) Morning News, above, right, he gave his address as c/o Lineas Aereas Mexicanas, S.A. (LAMSA, which became a subsidiary of United Air Lines). The Hotel Paso Del Norte still exists and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Baque was married in 1941 as cited in the November 4, 1941 issue of the El Paso Herald-Post, below. In thiss article Baque is identified as the chief pilot for LAMSA. Bertha Baque was a professional photographer.

El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, November 4, 1941 (Source: Woodling)
El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, November 4, 1941 (Source: Woodling)

As such, his was a hardscrabble life as implied in the paragraph below from R.E.G. Davies' book cited in the left sidebar.

“[Register pilot] Gordon Barry resigned from LAMSA on 28 October, 1943, having rejuvenated a network once thought to be a lost cause, but which now appeared as a key issue in a route battle between leading US airlines. But it had been a fearful struggle. Some idea of the difficulties overcome by Mexican independent airlines, without the solid backing of a corporation like Pan American behind them, can be gleaned from a United Air Lines report. Because of the impossibility of obtaining spare parts, improvisation was a way of life with LAMSA. Most of the undercarriage fittings were made from old car frames. Piston rings were taken from tractor engines. Wheels were made by melting down old cylinder heads. Ignition cables were continuously spliced and patched instead of being renewed. Precision components such as valve guides and tappet bushings were home-made, while master-rod bearings were fashioned from salvaged propeller blades. It was a triumph of man over metal, and United's intervention must have come just in time to save LAMSA from an ignominious demise.”

EDWARD BAQUE GETS
PILOT'S COMMISSION

Edward Raymon Baque, 45, is now wearing the bars of a second lieutenant, having recently been commissioned as a Service Pilot in the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command, according to Col.
Ralph E. Spake, commanding officer of the California Group. Lieut. Baque was associated with the aviation business before joining the Ferrying Division of the Air Transport Command. He formerly lived at 317 North Copia street.

He was born Edward Raymond Baque in California on September 18, 1898. He served in the U.S. Army during WWII as a 1st lieutenant. His entry into the military is documented in the article at left from the El Paso (TX) Herald-Post for Wednesday, September 30, 1942.

A few months later he was involved in an aircraft accident on January 25, 1943. I have no information about that crash, except that he obviously survived it. His affiliation with the Air Transport Command placed him also in the company of some other fascinating and accomplished Register pilots, including William Tunner, Lee Willey, Benton Baldwin and William Old.

The significance of his address in the article at left is found in the next article from the June 20, 1942 issue of the El Paso Herald-Post. As of 1942 Baque owned and operated the bar-cafe known as the Little Brown Jug at that location. The text suggests Baque learned to fly in 1928, which would make him a relatively new pilot when we found him at Tucson the first time in 1929.

El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, June 20, 1942 (Source: Woodling)
El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, June 20, 1942 (Source: Woodling)

 

Pomona (CA) Progress-Bulletin, May 22, 1970 (Source: Woodling)
Pomona (CA) Progress-Bulletin, May 22, 1970 (Source: Woodling)

 

 

Baque passed away at Chino, CA after a long illness, May 20, 1970. His grave marker is at the link. His obituary appeared n the Pomona, CA Progress Bulletin of Thursday May 21, 1970. His funeral mass annoncement appeared in the same paper the next day, right. He is buried at Pomona, CA. He was survived by two sons, three daughters and 12 grandchildren. Two of his children were Edward R. born August 20, 1942, died April 25, 1969, and Emilie born October 7, 1945. His last decade was an uncomfortable one, given that his wife and son died, and he had suffered a "long illness."

His obituary states that he had been a cattle rancher for over 30 years. He was a busy man, what with ranching, his flying, military duty and cafe business.

 

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 01/22/10 REVISED: 01/24/10, 04/29/12

 
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I'm looking for photographs of Eddie Baque and his airplanes to include on this page. If you have one or more you'd like to share, please use this FORM to contact me.
 
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