Old Man in a Baseball Cap
A Memoir of World War II
Chapter One
In December 1941, I finished my cadet training, was commissioned a second lieutenant, and was ordered to Mather Field near Sacramento, California, to meet the crew I was to be assigned to.
We were to take an eighteen-week training course in practice bombing, formation flying, aerial gunnery, and navigation, and do all the stuff that you have to learn to get ready for combat.
We started training flying the very next day, and the first week, we just flew all over the United States, dropping bombs on bombing ranges, practicing formation flying, aerial gunnery, weird navigation exercises; we did very well, so well that, by the end of the first ten days, we were the hottest crew on the base and had the best record in everything.
Shorty Haden, the bombardier, was my roommate at the BOQ, the Bachelor Officers' Quarters, and we got to be really good friends. We were about the same age, and we'd just talk and talk and talk.
When we weren't flying, all the guys would get off the base, go to Sacramento or San Francisco to try to pick up girls or at least g ... read full excerpt from: Old Man in a Baseball Cap ebook
