3. The US Army Air Corps

Stories from my love of airplanes By Fred Burlingame, Jr. I wanted to enlist in the Army Air Corps for Cadets, but my parents wouldn’t sign for me. In November of 1942 the Draft Age dropped to 18 and then I didn’t need their signatures so I went to Buffalo, NY and enlisted. I was sworn in on December 14, 1942 and told to go home to await orders. After what seemed like an interminable delay, I received orders to report to the Old Post Office Building In Harrisburg at 0800 Hours on 28 February 1943. We were sent to Miami Beach, FL (Basic Training Center #9) for Basic Training. On April 1we left for destination unknown, turned out to be Fenn College, Cleveland, OH the 53^rd College Training Detachment. We went to classes and did Physical Training and DRILLED! The last month we went out to Hopkins Airport and received 10 hours dual flight time in the Aeronca Defender.

Then followed the Aviation Cadet Center at San Antonio, TX for Classification and Pre-Flight. After that, Primary training at Bruce Field, Ballinger, TX where I soloed the PT-19on December 10, 1943. We flew from the rear seat and that front cockpit looked as big as a bathtub when the Instructor got out. First time around, without his weight I was high, so Iwent around. Second time around was better, but still not going to be on the ground beforeI passed the stage house, so I went around again. The third time I landed and my Instructor emphatically motioned me to the parking area, walked up to the airplane and bellowed,

“God Almighty, I thought we was going to have to call out the Field Artillery and have them shoot you down”. Upon completion of Primary the Cadets had a little get-together with their Instructors and mine said, “The next time you learn to fly I suggest you wear low quarter shoes. Maybe you won’t be so club footed!”

Next was Basic Training in BT-13’s at Goodfellow Field at San Angelo, TX. There we were introduced to Morse Code and failure to achieve minimum number of words per minute was grounds for Wash Out. We did some more Cross Country, Night Flying and started Instrument Flight Training. We had the Link Trainers for simulators. They would spin just like a real airplane. Embarrassing!

From San Angelo we were sent to Pampa Army Air Field at Pampa, TX where we flew the Cessna Bobcat – AT-17, UC-78. It was an off the shelf airplane and Cessna built many. A hard landing could result in cracks in the wooden center section of the wing and they were hard to change. It had two 245 HP Jacobs radials and seats for five people. The wing was covered with fabric over plywood and the fuselage was welded steel frame covered with fabric. Cruise speed with wooded props was 120 MPH and with steel props (controllable pitch but non-feathering) about 140 MPH. Loss of an engine resulted in about 200 FPM descent. We called the operating engine a glide prolonger.

Ah! June 27,1944 – Graduation Day! Gold Bar & Silver Wings! Rated pilot, Officer and Gentleman by an act of Congress. 20 years old – knew everything about everything except we didn’t know how much we didn’t know. Got 15 days leave and went home after 17 months. Some combat forces guys didn’t ever get home for five or six years so we had it pretty good.

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