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of the WW II P-51 Mustang in Story and Pictures Chapter 2 |
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| By the time he had joined the military, Carr already knew how to fly. He had been flying as a private pilot since 1939, soloing in a $25 Piper Cub his father had bought from a disgusted pilot who had left it lodged securely in the top of a tree. His instructor had been an Auburn, NY, native by the name of Johnny Bruns. “In 1942, after I enlisted,” as Bruce Carr remembers it, “we went to meet our instructors. I was the last cadet left in the assignment room and was nervous. Then the door opened and out stepped the man who was to be my military flight instructor. It was Johnny Bruns! We took a Stearman to an outlying field, doing aerobatics all the way; then he got out and soloed me. That was my first flight in the military.”
“The guy I had in advanced training in the AT-6 had just graduated himself and didn't know a bit more than I did," Carr can't help but smile, as he remembers — which meant neither one of us knew anything. Zilch! After three or four hours in the AT-6, they took me and a few others aside, told us we were going to fly P-40s and we left for Tifton, Georgia.” “We got to Tifton, and a lieutenant just back from North Africa kneeled on the P-40's wing, showed me where all the levers were, made sure I knew how everything worked, then said 'If you can get it started .. go fly it' .. just like that! I was 19 years old and thought I knew everything. I didn't know enough to be scared. They didn't tell us what to do. They just said 'Go fly,' so I buzzed every cow in that part of the state. Nineteen years old .. and with 1100 horsepower, what did they expect? Then we went overseas.” |
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Go to — Cover Page — Editor's Introduction — Table of Contents Chapter — 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 Or, you may Home - Contact Us - Cold War Hist. - 91st SRS Hist. - Stardust 40 Mission Story |
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