During Training

Well, here I am in Utah, about 17 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. We got into Salt Lake City at 2:30 AM and were hauled out to the field in trucks, about 36 of us. By the time we got our bedding and made our bunks it was nearly 5 o'clock. We left Fort Lewis at 5 Friday and went to Portland and then up the Columbia and across Southern Idaho into Utah. We weren't allowed to get off the train until we got into Pocatello, Idaho at 9 last night. We slept in Pullman cars Friday night.

I was lucky enough to get into the Air Corps. We will be here from 10 days to 6 weeks or so to be classified some more. We will have lectures and tests to determine what we will be put in. The fellow in charge of our barracks just told us that when we left here we would be sent to school somewhere so I may get into something good.

This sure is some country. It is quite flat, but there seems to be mountains all around us. It was cloudy this morning. When we got here last night there was about a forty mile wind blowing; the air is full of sand when it blows. It gets in your eyes and mouth. They told us Utah is noted for it's storms. It sure howls around the barracks, just like you hear in shows.

Today we had 5 tests, on radio-dot and dash, mathematics, pattern tests, I think they are to qualify for sheet metal work, common sense tests, and mechanical aptitude tests--it is to see how good you are at figuring out how machinery works. We had the first 2 before noon and the others after. After we were through, they read off the names of about half of the group and they were told to go to their barracks. After they left we were told that they kept us there because we had passed the math test with a fairly high score and were eligible for a test which qualified us for clerical school, in which field there are many branches in the army. I took the test although I am not interested in that work.

We will have interviews about Thursday and will be told what schools we are qualified for. Each man has three choices of what he wants, depending on his classification, qualification, etc.

I just got back from interview and classification. The Interviewer told me I scored among the few highest in the group and was qualified for nearly all the schools, there are over 20, and also for Officers Candidate School. You can't apply for OCS though until after you have been to the technical school to which you are going. I don't know if I will be interested in that or not however.

We have three choices as to the school we want. I put first Radio Operator and Mechanic, second Propeller Mechanic, and third Airplane Mechanic. I am sure however of going to the R.O.M. school. It is a 5 months course and you learn to operate, repair, trouble shoot, etc. in fact everything about radio. I guess you also learn code.

We had to go on K.P. duty today -- at 3 o'clock we got up, and got to the mess hall at 4:45. We worked all day, until about 6:30, and I sure am tired. I think we go on every other day this week and drill all day the other day. It's going to be a little tougher from now on.

Well, I'm on the move again.

We were out on the drill field today at 2 o'clock when a guy came up and called off some names, mine too, and told us we were to leave in 1/2 hour. We didn't know anything about it til then. We had to hurry and pack our barracks bags, change into CD's and turn in our bedding in 1/2 hour. After we packed, we went and had a physical, then chow and then marched up to the train, on a siding by the field. We finally pulled out about 5:30. We have no idea where we are headed for, all we know is our destination number but that doesn't mean anything to us.

When we stopped in Denver our sergeant told us we were coming here (Sioux Falls, S.D.) but wouldn't let us send any messages. Sunday we laid over in Omaha, Neb. for 12 hours.

One of the squadrons back at Kearns had Scarlet fever when we left so they put us in quarantine here for 2 weeks. We can't go anywhere on the post even.

We will go to school here from 16 to 20 weeks, so it will be around April when I graduate. About 25% of the graduates are assigned as flying radiomen, a member of a bomber crew, depending on their physical qualifications, and are sent to gunnery school for 5 weeks after leaving here. I suppose I will start school this week sometime.

We started school Wed. night at 10:20. It's kind of hard to stay awake during class but I think I'll get used to it in time. We get back to the barracks at 7 in the morning and sleep til 2:30, so you can see we don't have much time to sleep.

The first half of the night we spend learning Morse Code. Last night was the first night we really worked on Code and I learned about half of the alphabet. The instructor sits in front of the room and taps out letters and they come over an amplifier system so we can hear them. We don't learn to send til we can recognize all the alphabet. It is very interesting, they teach us not to count the dots and dashes but to recognize the letters by the sound each combination makes.

The second part of the night we have Radio Theory. We study about electricity, wiring, etc. Later on we will work on radios when we have learned symbols, diagrams, etc.

Yesterday was my day off. We got out of quarantine and also got a 24 hour pass so I went into Sioux Falls last night and again today. It is a nice little town.

I am still getting along alright in school. I am taking 10 words per minute in code now. I went to 8 words Thursday and to 10 the next night. I was on 8 only 4 hours. There were only 3 of us in the whole class who went on 10. They keep raising 2 at a time for a while now.

I went on 12 words a minute in code last night. I am several hours under the maximum time allowed for a 100 grade. You are allowed 50 hours to get to 10 words in and I am on 12 in 45 hours and I nearly passed the test to 14 last night 10 minutes after I got on 12. When you get to 16 you start practicing sending. So far it's been all receiving.

Some of the guys said that if you get quite fast in code in a short time (about 25 words) you get shipped out of here ahead of time, I don't know if that's so or not but I hope it is and maybe if I can learn it fast I can get out of here and get a furlough.

I went into town last night and went to a show and came home at 11 o'clock. We all got off last night, no one had to go to school, and the buses were so crowded that hundreds of us had to walk to town, about 2 miles.

There is a rumor that the course here is being shortened to 14 weeks. I hope it's true then I'll be out of here in 10 more weeks after this one. I passed the 12 word test wed. night and will go on 14 tonight. It will be quite easy from now on because by the time you get past 12 you know the letters automatically.

I went on 18 words last night. We had a check tonight but I couldn't pass it. However I hope and expect to be on 20 this week. It is getting very fast now. Last night we finished wiring up our receivers. The one I and another guy made wouldn't play and we didn't have time to check it but we will tonight. It's really not hard to do. All you have to do is follow plans, just like making model airplanes, etc.

We sure are having a cold spell right now. It started last Sat. with a blizzard and has been zero to 20 or more below ever since, with a wind most of the time. There are a lot of cases of frozen ears and a few noses.

I sure surprised myself, I went onto 25 wpm Sunday night. 25 is quite hard and I don't expect to get off of it very soon. We started ARD Sunday night and have 5 weeks of it after this week and then only 10 days after that and I'll be done. In about another week we'll begin working on some good sets, operating etc. and the time will go faster than it has been which is fast.

I was called over for aerial gunner exam this forenoon at 10:00 and just got back. I guess I passed everything. They turn you down right there when they find something wrong. The exam took about 1 1/2 hours. They gave us the color blind test, balance, coordination, blood pressure, etc. I really didn't think I'd pass the exam though. If I'd have thought I could, I'd have gotten some letters of recommendation and applied for flying cadet because there is very little difference in the physicals.

Our grades for the end of 210 hours came out this week, my grade was 88. I have fallen off a few points since the last ones. The reason is the code. You have to have credit for 30 or 35 wpm for a grade of 100 and there is only occasionally a genius who can reach that. There are quite a few of us on 25 which gives you a grade of only 80 at graduation time. But if you have a higher theory grade it will give a higher average. My grade of 88 was 86th from the top in a class of 840 or so.

We had our last tests last night and will graduate a week from Wed. I think I'll ship out within 3 or 4 days after graduation. We have to march clear down town for graduation which will be about 2 miles.

These last ten days are all spent in the towers and mobile unit and airplane fuselages. We use blinker lights and practice net procedure, etc. The first night I spent 3 hours in a room where they have six mockups of B-17 radio compartments; they are made like a big barrel about 8 feet long and mounted in a frame by a big coil spring at each corner. When you're in them the least movement makes them bob around like you're in rough air.

I am all through, hooray!

Me and the other guy in my barracks who graduated were nearly late for graduations. We weren't told when to be ready to march to town and when we got over to the theatre at 8:30, we found out that they had left at 8:00 so we hurried back to the orderly room and got our passes and took the bus to town and got there just in time.

I will ship out on Monday morning. I have to move down to the shipping barracks today.

I finally got here (Kingman, Arizona) at 3 A.M. I didn't get much sleep on the train last night but I am too excited to sleep now. We had a nice trip out here because the weather was so nice, in fact in New Mexico and Arizona it is very warm, shirtsleeve weather night and day.

New Mexico is an interesting state. We saw a great many Mexican villages made up entirely of adobe mud houses and they all have an adobe oven outside. It is shaped like half an egg and is about 4 ft. in diameter and high. Albuquerque is a very pretty town. There are a lot of Indians there selling trinkets, etc.

This is a seven weeks course and I think we start in Monday. We start in with B.B. guns.

We went up in the pressure chamber today to 38,000 ft. It didn't bother me or most of us (20) except 1 fellow who just started fading out for some reason. We came down to 25,000 real quick and they took him out. About an hour later another guy got the "chokes" which affects the lungs, something like the bends in the joints. It gives pains in the chest and a burning sensation. We had to descend and let him out.

Then after 3 hours we went down to 20,000 and took off our masks and went back up to 25,000 without oxygen masks. Just when we started getting dizzy we put them on again.

We are shooting skeets (clay pigeons) this week with 12 gauge shotguns. We all have black and blue shoulders, 25 rounds a day. The first day I only hit 11 out of 25 but yesterday I had the idea better and hit 21 out of 25. They were tougher shots than the first day. Only 1 or 2 guys in the squadron beat me, which makes me feel good.

So far this week in ground to ground I have fired 1400 shots. 450 on the 50 cal. hand held, and 200 on 30 cal. hand held and the rest on the upper turret and lower ball turret. It sure is a lot of fun too. The first day on hand held I only got 12 hits in 200 but the next day I showed them how with one of the highest hand held scores on the range for a long time. I got 70 hits in 150 shots.

We start flying this afternoon. One day we fly in the morning and the next day in the afternoon. In the morning the air is very smooth and in the afternoon it is quite rough. Today I fly in an AT-18 (Lockheed Hudson). Tomorrow I will probably go up on an AT-6 which is a small 2 place ship, and will get some thrills--peel-offs, etc. During the next two weeks I will get around 12 to 15 hours flying time and we get flying pay for that time. We have to fire 2400 rounds air to air.

We have had a very exciting day; just like little kids at x-mas time. We drew our flying equipment this morning which is what all the excitement is over--$750 worth. I am practically a walking gold mine. We got a B-4 cross country bag, a canvas parachute and flying clothes kit bag, a parachute, a winter flying suit which is a beauty. It is made of leather and is real thick wool-lined--coat and pants, a kind of gabardine summer flying coveralls, winter wool lined helmet, summer helmet, winter flying gloves, real expensive pair of sun glasses and good case, oxygen mask, and one of those aviators life preservers for being forced down in the water with. They are called Mae Wests.

Well, today I am a sergeant. It's been a long time but I finally got there. I just hope I don't get busted very soon. We had our graduation this morning. It wasn't much of a ceremony, just a short speech and handing out our diplomas and the Dick Tracy badge--a pair of silver wings. All members of a plane crew get to wear them; you don't have to be a commissioned officer to get them. We were told yesterday where we are going: to the 18th replacement wing at Salt Lake City.

We finally got here (Gowen Field, Idaho) at 12:00 noon. We will be here for the first phase, I don't know how long that will be, 4 or 6 weeks. Then we move to another field for the second phase, back east probably. I don't know yet what each phase includes; there are 3 of them. We will fly in B-24's. Our camp is only a couple of miles from Boise, which is a fair sized town, and we can get a pass now and then.

We have a famous person in our squadron, Jimmy Stewart, the movie actor. He is operations officer.

We started flying Wed. and they sure keep us radio men busy. That was the last day of June and in order to get flying pay for a month you have to get in at least 4 hours flying time so I was lucky enough to go up twice that afternoon, which will make me $39 more. I was up that night til midnight then I had to go up again at 4 in the morning so I didn't get much sleep. We usually get in 2 to 3 1/2 hours to a mission.

There is a scarcity of radio men and that is why we have to fly so much.

I found out today that I am shipping out tomorrow morning. I drew some more equipment today, steel helmet, first aid kit, goggles, summer flying hat and a dandy knit wool pullover sweater, I guess I have about everything now that I am supposed to have. I met the crew today that I am assigned to, the pilot, 2 engineers, 2 armorers, and the other radio operator.

They don't keep us quite as busy here as they did at Gowan Field. We only fly one 6 hour mission a day and have to go to school 4 hours a day. We sure have a good pilot. At Boise we went up with pilots who were just learning to fly big ships and they set them down quite hard usually, but our pilot lands a B-24 as lightly as a small plane. You can hardly feel it hit.

Yesterday we went on a high altitude bombing mission which was quite an experience. We went up to 23,500 and were only there about 1 1/2 hrs because we took off late, but that was long enough. We didn't know ahead of time what kind of mission it was so didn't have heavy clothes. All I took was my heavy coat and summer suit and it was around 18 degrees below zero.

We got here (Sioux City, Iowa) at 3:30 AM this morning. This trip was another dirty one just about as bad as the last one. We had a sleeper car but it wasn't air conditioned and it was so hot we had to have the windows open and there was a cloud of soot all the time.

An officer in our squadron just told us we are assigned to this squadron permanently. Up to now we have just been attached but we won't move any more unless the whole outfit moves.

Our squadron had a picnic yesterday at the park. We went out there about 10 and got home at 6:30. They had food and several kegs of beer and we played ball and football all day. That is the first time I've seen anything like that since I've been in the army. All the officers and everyone went.

Our crew had to fly last night at midnight so when I got home from the picnic I got a couple hours sleep. We went up in a brand new plane that Jimmy Stewart brought in yesterday. They say he is going to be in our bomb group here.

I just found out that I made Staff Sergeant the 1st of Sept. I think all radio operators and engineers made it. It makes me very happy because I have been sweating it out for a month. Our squadron is going to move up to Watertown, S.D. in a few days for third phase training. It is a small field a little over 100 miles up from here, and there will only be about 300 men there.

We are on a bombing mission now. We are only up 10,000 feet but it is sure cold up here. I have 2 sets of clothes on and my sheepskins and am just comfortable.

We flew down over St. Louis a few nights ago, and it is the most beautiful sight I've seen from the air, day or night. It is so big and had so many lights and nicely arranged thoroughfares winding around.

I got Tokyo yesterday when we were flying around. They have a news broadcast in English. Their version of things is sure different than ours.

I am sure glad we are flying overseas, I don't trust those boats with all the submarines around. It will only take us a few hours to get across, and then I won't get seasick either.

We had a class this morning in what is known as ditching, which is abandoning a ship after a forced landing at sea. It is very interesting and there is a lot to it. We have to take certain positions and brace ourselves for the shock of hitting the water and then get out of the ship very quick and in a certain order.

Our ship is finally through with it's 100 hour inspection and is in good shape. We really gave it a going over. It is a real new one. It only has a little over 100 hours on it. I don't know yet what we are going to name our ship. Our pilot said he was going to name it after his future wife though.

Our Captain told us the other day that a general somebody, I forget his name, said that our bomb group is among the 3 best trained and efficient, etc. to ever go through the second Air Force. So we ought to feel proud.

Our bombing group is composed of four squadrons. A colonel is the commanding officer of the entire group and each squadron has their own commanding officer. Ours is a captain.

Well we finally left Watertown yesterday and had quite a trip. We were supposed to leave in the morning but there was bad weather here and along the way so we didn't leave til 2 P.M. We ran into quite a snow storm on the way but got through it after a few minutes.

Tomorrow is my anniversary; a year ago I got up one rainy morning and went out to Fort Lewis. Monday we get new clothes and equipment, also a new chute, a chest pack this time. They are much handier in a crowded plane.

Tomorrow we get route briefing when they will tell us our route we will take. I am quite sure we will go to England but I haven't heard for sure yet. I hope so because you only have to put in 25 missions there and it's 50 in the Pacific area.

We had a lecture day before yesterday by a radio Operator who bailed out of a B-17 over France and escaped into Spain. He told us all his experiences on the way and it was very interesting.

We got our flying pay today so I guess we will go to town tonight. We won't have many more chances to have fun in this country.

We got our new chutes day before yesterday and they are something. The back rest zips all around the side and inside is a million things; 2 boxes of concentrated foods, fishing line and several flies plus several hooks, a bottle of ointment to keep insects off, a compass, a kit of medicine and antidotes for various things, a machete with a ten inch blade and folding handle, an oil stone, a waterproof match case with matches that can't be blown out. It is called a jungle pack. When we leave here we get a 45 automatic and shoulder holster.