22 June 1999

I applied for Aviation Cadet Training on 20 January 1942 and then spent the next several months going out to Bolling Field taking physical exams and a lot of written and oral tests. A regular group of us went together each time so you were always in line with the same people - we really got to know each other pretty well. They finally swore us into the Enlisted Reserve Corps (ERC) in May but we still reported regularly to Bolling Field. There were not enough training facilities for all the cadet applicants so, they just kept us busy with meetings and testing. We were finally called to active duty in October and sent to the AAF Classification Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

I don't know what happened to all of those special and luxury trains but the ones I rode on were all old - one I think was left over from the Civil War. Troop trains always left or arrived (or both) at some unholy hour - never during regular daytime hours.

We left Washington on a fair train and at a reasonable hour but we arrived at the Classification Center in the wee morning hours and in a cold drizzle. After the usual "short arm inspection" we had to march to a warehouse to get our beds and bedding and the set up our barracks. We were up at 0530 for our first formation, P.T., breakfast (SOS, etc), and then clothing issue. Because of shortages and the size of some of our group a few were issued WW I clothing. We had one man who could not get any shoes. He needed size 12 or 14 EEEE so they had to be ordered (2 pair brogans, 2 pair low quarter dress and 1 pair tennis shoes). All he had to wear was the one pair he had on - brown, wing-tipped, perforated toed oxford - - all through training. They kept reordering his shoe issue at each phase of his training - they finally caught up with him about a week before graduation. The entire 5 orders - he had a footlocker full. You may ask why he did not just go off-base to a shoe store and buy a pair of shoes. He could not do that because shoes were among the items that were rationed and we did not get ration books.

Anyone who wet to the AAFCC at Nashville will remember the routine. A comprehensive physical exam, shots, P.T., drill, more tests of all types - and - the "Lumber Pile". The lumber pile was a very large pile (not stacked, just a random pile) of all the lumber left over from building the Center. It looked to me like it would fill several large hangers. Our job was to take the boards from this pile and stack them elsewhere according to type and size. I don't know what happened to the lumber pile but I do not think the war lasted long enough to complete this project

The best thing that happened in Nashville was that I met that one special girl (11 November 1942) who became my wife when I completed Preflight at Maxwell Field. It was a "blind date" but it must have been right because we were just 3 weeks short of 50 years when she died. She was a perfect flyer's wife - she followed me to every "post, camp and station" as the old book says. When she first saw a B-26 she thought that it was the best thing coming down the pike. She was never worried or concerned about me flying it.

After Nashville, I wet to Maxwell Field for Preflight, then to Lakeland, Florida for Primary (PT-17, 60+08 hrs), then to Bush Field at Augusta, Georgia for Basic (BT-13 & BT-15 "Vultee Vibrator", 77+06 Hrs) , then to Turner AAF at Albany Georgia for Twin Engine Advanced (AT-10 & AT-9) 171+25 hrs). I graduated 30 August 1943, Class 43-H (Total 308+39 hrs).

At Turner we started our training in the AT-10. The air training consisted of Day, Night, Cross-Country, Instrument, Formation. About half way through our training some 70 of us were "summoned" to a meeting with the Director of Training where we found that we had "volunteered" to go to A-20s or B-25s or B-26s after graduation and our training would be changed to meet the new requirements. The next day we started flying the AT-9 instead of the AT-10. We flew more hours in the 9s than in the 10s and, although the air work covered the same thing that we had in the 10s it was much more concentrated on precision and they added gunnery to the training. A 30 cal machine gun was installed in the nose and a lighted optical sight was placed in front of the pilot - all in several AT-9s. We then flew the planes to Auxiliary Field # 4 at Eglin Field, Florida for live firing. We stayed there several days and had firing runs each day . It was all air to ground firing - we wanted to try air to air like the cadets from Spence in their AT-6s - but, that was not allowed. The aux field we used was the one Doolittle used to train his B-25 crews on carrier take-offs. The markings were still on the runway. I do not know just how much good the gunnery training was, but we had fun shooting up a lot of sand.

Class 43-H graduated on 30 August 1943 and all 270 of us got our new silver wings and shiny gold bars (some were made Flight Officers and got to wear the "pickle"). We all then left for our duty stations. 146 went to 4-engine Transition School (B-17 & B-24) , 26 of the AT-9 students went to the B-26 Transition School (me included) at Dodge City Kansas, Class 43-2-E], some went to LaJunta, Colorado and the others went to various B-26 or B-25 units.

We arrived in Dodge City on the AT&SF RR from Kansas City. Even in uniform it was hard to get a seat. At some station stop on the way, the local ladies had sandwiches, cookies, pie, etc available for servicemen on the train. I was able to get some food and take it back on the train to share with my bride. We shared some with an older "civilian" couple because they just could not get any food at that station.

When the train pulled up to the station (they called it the "depot") in Dodge, we watched two regular cowboys picking up a footlocker size metal strongbox from the RR Express Office. They wore gun belts with pistols and carried rifles - they put the box in a pickup truck and drove off. I expected to see Wyatt Earp ride up any minute.

We went straight to the Lora Loch (or Locke) Hotel. All the new assignees stayed there until pay day and they found another place to stay. We had not yet been paid, so we were all pretty near broke and you could charge your meals and all at the hotel. The next day we took the bus out to the Base and our first view was the junk yard of old broken and/or burned B-26s.

Dodge City AAF operated 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. I have had link trainer periods late at night. We had to fly every model of the B-26 then in use from the "straights" thru A, B and c-26/C- 30 models. The emphasis was always on fully controlled precision flying with correct disciplined response to each and every emergency. We always had several engine outs and other emergency on every instructional flight. Our class had no actual in-flight emergencies or single engine landings, bail outs or crashes - but, we sure did practice. I developed a great respect for the Marauder and confidence in the ship. Best of all, my wife considered it a good and safe airplane but, perhaps, her only competition. My instructor was named Hotard and my always flying buddy was Goulding - in fact, Goulding was my co-student in Advanced in both AT-l0s and AT-9s.

About half way through our training at Dodge, the next class reported. It consisted of Jacqueline Cochran's (spelling ?) WASPs. Now that did set off quite a reaction from the "Macho Male" students. In time, however, everyone found them to be good people and equal to any as pilots.

We completed the course and graduated in November 1943. Our new assignments were to be posted that evening in the Officers Club. We were all there, excited and talking it up about going to Macdill or Lake Charles or where ever to crew up and go overseas. Then - the orders arrived and were tacked up on the Bulletin Board. We read the orders and the axe fell and gloom descended all around. Only 39 (43%) of the class were going to OTU/RTU; 5 were kept as instructors and 43 (48%) were going to Tow Target Units. Here we were, trained and ready and we were being sent to tow a rag for student gunners, We really felt left out. As I was to learn, these were USAAF people firing live 50 cal ammo in our direction and we could not shoot back. How degrading. While I had some close calls, fortunately no hits. There were some that came home with US bullet hole in the plane.

I have always wondered how training and duty assignments were made. Who decides just what cadets would go to Single Engine Advanced or which ones would go to Twin Engine Advanced ? The same with all the other assignments - B-17/B-24 versus B-25/B-26 - RTU/OTU versus Tow Targets - etc., etc., etc. I now finally agree with those who said they used a dart board. I just have not yet figured out if the dart thrower was blindfolded or not After Dodge City I went to Pocatello, Boise and Mountain Home, all in Idaho, and later down to Davis Monthan AAF at Tucson. We were always towing for B-24 crews. The target was every large metal mesh flag attached to a heavy metal bar. We ran out the tow cable to various assigned lengths. At Gowen AAF (Boise) we were required to

make a low pass over the field and drop the target between the 3 runways. We did not like that practice because the target was heavy enough to go through an airplane or a building roof ( in the event that we missed) and the cable would swing very low beneath the airplane upon the target released. Nobody paid any attention to us - then, one day the cable sagged too low and cut one of the main powers lines onto the base. Most of the base went dark. The next day we started dropping at an off-base area. Soon after that incident several of us were transferred to Tucson.

In January 1945 some of us at Tucson, and some from other Tow Target units were transferred to the Deming AAF in New Mexico. The bombardier school there had been closed - so, we had just about all of the base to ourselves. Our new unit had an unspecified mission but we lost our B-26s and were trained in B-25s. We did not tow targets but flew all types of training flights - low level and others - including a several day bivouac, in pup tents, out in the "boonies" and operating from a small auxiliary strip. It was never quite clear just what we would be doing with B-25s or where we would finally be stationed in the Pacific area. We knew that we would not take the airplanes with us. We were told that we would ship out of Seattle to Hawaii and then get fully briefed then. Apparently everything changed while we were-on the ship, because when were arrived in Hawaii we had to leave the ship and they trucked us over to a small strip on the North Shore of Oahu called Kahuku. There we got some old worn out B-25s and were generally used as a utility unit, We did not tow any more targets but we did do calibration runs for radar units. We also had some small radio controlled drones used as targets for AA guns. The drones were PQ- 14s, Culver Cadets. We also flew as flight leaders for some fighter units on down to Ie Shima and Iwo Jima. This continued until the end of the war.

Later in my years of service I was stationed in Germany and met a fellow OSI Agent, Paul Wiles, who flew Marauders in Europe. I don't remember his Bomb Group. He and I kept crossing trails and ended up in the same Bomb Wing in SAC flying B-47s. He is retire and living in Bradenton, Florida. I also discovered that our 2nd Bomb Wing (SAC) DCO, Colonel Richard Butler, was also a Marauder Man. That may have helped me get his certification for the Combat Ready B-47 crew. I retired from the Air Force in July 1963.

The B-26s we flew with the Tow Target units were all stripped of any extra gear and first designated AT 23 and later in 1944 as TB- 26. I started out to write a short piece about B-26 train" and flying and what happened to some of us. This has turned out to be a book ! Use what you want - edit as needed- throw it away. No acknowledgement is necessary I had fun writing it and doing so brought back many happy and humorous memories.

James D. Hampton, Jr.