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This was just as it sounds, it was pre flying training. We
had ground school classes one half day and the by now common PT the other
half day.
Our ground school classes now were about flying so included Meterology,
Aircraft recognition, Map reading, Morse code and a small amount of Aerodynamics
or "why does an airplane fly".
There were 28,000 men here between the ages of 18 and 28 years old. I happened
to be all of 20 years old at the time. The PT was also complemented by
drill instruction and also some of us were allowed to play basketball in
addition to the PT. I was six feet four inches tall so was one of the tallest
around since I was at the maximum height limit for a pilot. I don't really
know how I made the first string basketball team in our group for the other
four were former All Americans.
We also had the navigator and bombardier trainees here so we all were being
prepared for our particular specialty. Not too many were "washed out"
here for we had all been somewhat prepared for the ground school part.
This started our nine weeks stay at the different training levels. We were
to get all that was required of us in the nine week time. Again only a
very few washed out due to lack of various capabilities.
We finally got off quarantine as we had not been allowed "off post"
ever since we had left our respective colleges. They turned us loose on
San Antonio after the first four weeks and we all went to town. They had
an Aviation Cadet Club set up in the Gunther Hotel which allowed only the
Aviation Cadets and a bunch of girls "hosteses" in the club.
The girls were not allowed to date the cadets away from the club so it
really was watched. We could buy a bottle of liquor, bring it there and
drink. They also had a place to help sober up the ones that had too much
to drink so it again was well chaperoned. They definately knew what they
were doing for we were a pretty wild bunch at that time.
The food was pretty bad at that time and we had a lot of goat to eat. It
was much later that it came out that the Base Commander and the main Supply
Officer were guilty of taking the money for food, then buying much cheaper
stuff on the sly and putting the extra money in their own personal accounts.
They both received time in the Military prison at Leavenworth Kansas for
their stupidity.
We completed our training and then were split up into smaller groups for Primary Flight schools. We checked the bulletin boards to see where we all were assigned and I found that Lee Helm and Harvey Hamilton were both assigned to the Primary Flight school at Cuero Texas along with me. The three of us had become friends now for we had been through both Classification and Pre Flight together and I was glad to see that they were assigned to the same place that I was.
This time we boarded buses and made the trip from San Antonio to Cuero in relatively short time.
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