I need help with a WW2 photograph please

[muditer]

I need help with this photo. I have found that Art Lacey was a WW2 US pilot but I don't think he took the photo. There must be another Art Lacey and I can't find anything.

Anzacs entertained by their American cousins at Manito Park Spokane WN Oct 8 1944
Taken by Art Lacey Photography

thanks all

[oldworldlady]

All I can think of is there was an Art Lacey senior (photographer) and an Art Lacey junior (pilot) and he took all his mates back to Mum and Dad's for tea.

OR he was a photographer before the war and this was his business run by someone else whilst he was in the airforce.

[siddieswans]

This comes from

http://www.vspeeds.com/new_page_1.htm

"ART LACEY GOT THE IDEA TO GET A SURPLUS AIRCRAFT TO ADVERTISE HIS STATION. ART WAS NOT AN EX MILITARY PILOT, HE HAD BEEN IN THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS , BUT HE WAS A PRIVATE PILOT. HE WENT TO ALTUS , OKLAHOMA IN 1947 AND BOUGHT A  SURPLUS B-17 FOR $13750!  HE INFORMED THEM HE WAS GOING TO PUT IT OVER HIS SERVICE STATION IN OREGON . THEY QUESTIONED HIS SANITY BUT APPARANTLEY NOT HIS ABILITY TO FLY IT"

I would think that Art Lacey Photography has nothing to do with this man - it would not be an uncommon name. (Art common American shortening of Arthur.)

Try googling Manito Park Country Club - could they just have been having a social round of golf? Was there a Air Force base nearby where members of the RAAF could have been in training?

[muditer]

I thought I would try the Anzac angle. Why were there our soldiers? in the US at that time of the war? The Anzac pact was signed in February 1944. How did they get there?

I don't think I should have bought this photo LOL

[not_an_eloi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Air_Force_Base

"From 1942 until 1946, the base served as a repair depot for damaged aircraft returning from the Pacific Theater. In the summer of 1946, the base was transferred to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) and assigned to the 15th Air Force (15 AF). Beginning in the summer of 1947, the 92nd and 98th Bomb Groups arrived. Both of the units flew the most advanced bomber of the day, the B-29 Superfortress. In January 1948, the base received the second of its three official names: Spokane Air Force Base."

perhaps they were stationed at this air force base.

[siddieswans]

I thought I would try the Anzac angle. Why were there our soldiers? in the US at that time of the war? The Anzac pact was signed in February 1944. How did they get there?

I don't think I should have bought this photo LOL

Just my guess that "Anzac" is being used as a generic term, instead of something like "Aussie" - nothing really to do with the Anzac pact.