George Bosy

George Bosy, Meteorology, Army Air Corps

Would you like to start from the beginning?

I graduated from Waller High School in 1949. I volunteered for induction into the Army, and into a special program called Pre-meteorology. I was reasonably good in math and physics and all those kinds of things in school and I got recommendations. I got into the program and I went to the University of Oregon for twelve months. Pre-meteorology, the whole program was made up to eventually go to officer school for another six months to become an officer, but in the middle of that program they decided they had too many meteorologists, so they let us complete the twelve month program, and they assigned us to various different technical groups. I got into the Direction Finding Evaluators group and I went to Selfridge Field right off of Detroit. I was there about three months and then I became a Direction Finding Evaluator.

All this time I was in the Army Air Corps. That is not the same thing as the Air Force, you know that? I always tell people I was in the Air Corps and they’re like “You can’t be in the Air Corps!” I was, but it was a different thing at that time.

After that, which was around September, I was sent overseas and was sent to China, Burma, and India. And I ended up in Barrackpore, India, for further assignment to a Direction Finding station. Apparently they hadn’t set them up yet, so they sent me to the middle of a jungle in India. They had too many people there, so they decided that if I wanted to volunteer, I could go to China. I said yes. So I went over to China and I ended up in Chengdu, China, which is about as far as you can go. There was another station above that… it probably won’t even be on the map!

What year do we think this was? What year were you born?

1924.

Do you remember how old you were?

I was eighteen, right out of high school. I graduated in 1942 from Waller High School, and before I got my diploma and I went to the Army. I went to school, and then to another school, and then I finally ended up in China. I had 22 months in China, Burma, and India. So I was there for quite a long time I had a good time, not that I had a good time, but I was lucky.

Chengdu was initially a base for B29s. Before we took Saipan and the other Japanese islands, they were bombing from there. I arrived just at the time Saipan opened up so the bombers left Chengdu and we were watching for people who were lost and directing them to the airport. I was a radio operator besides using the direction finding equipment, which was a precursor to radar. We would hear from planes that were in trouble and sending a “Mayday” message and would try to get them into some airport.

So when did you finish?

January 17, 1946. I think I entered in January 15, 1943.

How long were you in each place?

It was 22 months total between Barrackpore, right outside of Calcutta, and Chengdu - twelve months in India and 10 months in China.

Do you remember Pearl Harbor Day?

Of course I do. I lived on Marshfield in Chicago. I remember being on the porch. In those days when they had big news, a boy would go by to try to sell newspapers. He said “War.”

You said something about India?

I flew for 24 hours to India, the first time I was on a plane. I flew from Miami, Florida to the northern part of Africa. We stopped in Casablanca, Cairo, Karachi, and New Delhi. It took about a week or rough travel, but very thrilling, before getting to Barrackpore, just outside of Calcutta. There I did teletype and air to ground radio duties.

Did you keep in touch with any of your fellow officers?

When I got back a fellow, who had been in the same program and wound up somewhere in India, found me. There was a reunion at his school, Hamilton College, in New York. My wife and I went and it was very nice.

How did you hear about the pre-meteorology program?

When I was a senior at Waller High School, they posted something from the University of Chicago. If you had the right classes and grades, and three recommendations, you could sign up. So I did, even though I didn’t expect to get in. I was inducted and went to Camp Grant in the middle of the desert in Oregon. They mixed up “pre-met” with “pre-med”. So they sent me to “pre-med” initially. My mother went to our alderman, who went to the Army and was able to get me assigned to the correct school.

Did you stay in China to the end of the war?

Yes. It was 3 or 4 months before I went to Calcutta and got on a boat. It took 30 days. We went through the Suez Canal and through the Mediterranean to Gibraltar. I remember going by Malta on a beautiful Christmas night. And then we got to Marseilles, France.

So what did you study when you came home?

I finished up my college at Illinois Institute of Technology and became a chemical engineer and went to work at Kraft for 37 years.