This was the beginning of our real training to become either Pilots, Navigators or Bombardiers!
They gave us three choices to begin with and I chose, Pilot, Pilot, Pilot! In other words if I could not be a pilot, I did not want to be anything else!
The duties at this location were rather light other than being classified as Pilot, Navigator or Bombardier. We were really busy at the beginning getting all the various tests done. It seemed like they had all kinds of tests for all things. Physical, mental and Psychyomotor. The last one, psychyomotor, was very interesting and at times fun. One of them simulated flying an airplane in that they had a stick and rudder pedals. There were two rows of lights both vertical and horizontal. A light would flash on in both of the rows simulatneously. You had to move the rudder pedals to put out the light in the horizontal row and the stick to put out the light in the vertical row. A machine kept track of how many lights you put out in a given time period.
They also ran all sorts of physical and other written tests. One I remember distinctly was that you were on a bombing mission and were scheduled to bomb a specific factory in enemy held territory and the factory was next to civilian homes. If the target got covered by cloud cover you should, A-drop the bombs anyway, B- go around and make a rerun, C-bring the bombs back, D-find a target in enemy territory that was clear and bomb it.
After we were qualified all that we really had to do was show up at roll call and other formations. Most of the "other" formations were work formations. Many of the guys were handily at other locations when these were called.
I was a Cadet Lieutenant and distinctly remember answering at a roll call when asked, "All present and accounted for Sir!" The officer asking me to reply asked, "What do you mean, all present and accounted for when obviously half are missing?" I replied, "I know where they are Sir!" He grinned, saluted and let it go at that!
When the time was up and the PreFlight center across the road had cleared out we proudly marched across the road wearing our new symbols as Aviation Cadets.

This Page is hosted by Get your own Free Home Page