THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 
Howard L. Bevis, President 
COLUMBUS lO 
Headquarters 
Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps 
era 
30 August 1950 
1 
Dr. Alexander Wetmore 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution 
Washington 25, D. G. 
Dear Dr. Wetmore: 
Thank you for your good letter of August 28 and as you can well 
imagine Mrs. Potter is looking forward with much anticipation to the 
bed which Perrygo has refinished and completed for her. I have an 
idea just how ^uch actual labor and back work this job involved and 
you can be certain that we are most grateful. 
Your plans for the next trip to Panama sound most interesting 
and I see no reason why you cannot take a look at the Serrania de Maje 
region by helicopter and undoubtedly locate a suitaole area for let down. 
Also, I«m sure that a look at the Caribbean coast area westward to the 
Costa Rican border should be quite feasible. 
Unfortunately, I am not in the position at the present time to 
advise you as to just what the Caribbean Air Command may have in the 
way of aircraft and boats but 1 am certain that a letter to General 
Beam a few weeks prior to your anticipated arrival in Panama, uelling 
him your plans will get you the information that you need regarding 
the Air Force transportation on hand. In the meantime, I will drop 
a note to Major Ralph Martin. I will tell him what you are thinking 
about in the way of this year's expedition, and also give him the in¬ 
formation on your jeep and suggest that he advise you as to une assist¬ 
ance you can ejq>ect. It is quite possible that the Air Force crash 
boats may not now be available, in which case it may be necessary to 
go to the local Navy or Army installations who will have suitaole sur¬ 
face craft available. 
Your comments on the acceptance of the Bell X-l experimental plane 
by you for the National Air Museum were most interesting. I had read 
in some recent publication that this plane was to be turned over to the 
National Air Museum but I did not know that it had been accomplished. 
