This is one from our audio archives. In December 1980 Forrest Bradshaw, of Sudbury, visited the Maynard Historical Society and spoke about ballooning. Mr. Bradshaw served in the United States Army’s Balloon Corps in the latter half of World War I and a fair portion of his talk relays his experiences in training for and operation of “lighter than air” craft that watched over the American coastline (only a handful of balloon companies were deployed overseas).
This is a long program (just under 1 hour) including questions and answers. The Q&A section may not be as clear as his talk so you may need to turn up the volume here and there.