North Adams Airport Acknowledged by Aviation Group

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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Alliance for Aviation Across America (AAAA) released proclamations emphasizing the essential role of general aviation. 
 
North Adams Harriman-and-West Airport was included by the AAA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, national grassroots coalition of over 7,000 aviation and non-aviation groups and individuals across the country, including businesses, FBOs, small airports, elected officials, agricultural and charitable organizations, and leading industry and aviation groups.
 
According to a press release, in Massachusetts alone, general aviation airports contribute more than $630 million to the economy each year and support thousands of jobs and are critical to supporting the state's infrastructure, serving as reliever airports and ensuring access to critical services, among other benefits. 
 
"General aviation is more than just a mode of transportation, it is a lifeline for communities and businesses across Massachusetts," said Selena Shilad, Executive Director at the Alliance for Aviation Across America.
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WWII Soldier Coming Home Friday


Bernard Calvi
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A World War II hero will be returning to the Berkshires on Friday night, 82 years after he died as a prisoner of war in the Philippines.
 
Pvt. First Class Bernard Calvi's body will arrive from Hawaii on Friday and will be taken to Paciorek Funeral Home in Adams that evening. 
 
A welcome home standout will take place on Hoosac Street in Adams beginning at 8 p.m. Calvi is set to arrive at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut at approximately 6:40 p.m. and arrive at Paciorek Funeral Home about 8:20. 
 
Calvi had enlisted in the Army Air Forces in September 1940. He and William P. Gilman Jr. of North Adams, good friends and classmates, had been stationed in the Philippines with the 17th Pursuit Squadron five weeks before Imperial Japan launched its attack against United States and Allied installations across the South Pacific. 
 
They disappeared after the fall of Corregidor, an island in Manila Bay to which U.S. forces had retreated, in May 1942. Calvi's parents, Lena and Joseph of Quincy Street, were informed in 1945 that their son had died July 16, 1942, at Cabanatuan Prison Camp after surviving the Bataan Death March. Gilman died a month later.
 
Some 2,800 prisoners died in the camp after suffering from starvation, disease and dysentery. They were buried in makeshift communal graves, which made identifying and recovering remains after the war difficult, according to the Department of Defense's POW/MIA Accounting Agency. 
 
DPAA is tasked with recovering American service members missing in action and had played a key role in the recovery of Pvt. First Class Erwin S. King of Clarksburg from Guadalcanal. King was buried at Southview Cemetery on Sept. 24. 
 
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