The Story Of One Of The 91st SRS COs.
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| First saw the light of day on November 18th, 1918; just one week after the end of WWI in Rochester, NY. I was the 5th of a family of 11 with 7 boys and 4 girls. We always called my Dad “Pop”. He was the superintendent of the Wonder Bread plant in Rochester and Mom obviously was kept busy with us kids. Graduated from Jefferson Junior-Senior High School in 1936 and a year later from the Rochester Business Institute. My jobs while growing up were delivering newspapers, selling magazines and candy door to door, working in a public library and selling sweaters in a department store during the Christmas season.. My hobbies were woven around scouting and pitching horseshoes (mostly with my Dad). I became an Eagle Scout before I reached my 15th birthday and I won a major sports letter in high school as the city high school horseshoe pitching champion. Jobs were hard to come by in 1937 as the depression continued and I spent the next two and a half years traveling most of the 48 states with a magazine crew selling magazines door to door. A great education in itself. I learned to take “no” for an answer, learned how to persevere and learned much about the people all over these United States. In mid 1939, the handwriting was on the wall that the United States was headed for war. While in Chicago, that fall, I had had my first airplane ride in a Waco with my boss. I left the crew at the end of 1939 and returned to Rochester where I entered night school to brush up on math, physics, and other subjects with the aim of, in lieu of two years of college, taking the written tests, in order to enter the Army Air Corps Flying Cadet program. At the time, the two day tests had a very low passing rate. I went to Syracuse for the tests in November of 1940; was notified that I had passed, in early January 1941. During 1940, I also kept busy as a Boy Scout troop Scoutmaster, a Boy Scout Camp counselor, making a feeble attempt at selling life insurance and as janitor for a local radio station with the job of cleaning up the many cigarette butts of the sales staff and emptying waste baskets. I passed the Air Corps physical and was told that I would be given 30 days notice prior to reporting for primary flight school training. I was on cloud nine! An interesting waiting period! A friend in the clothing business had asked me to accompany him as gofer and model on a 4 week marketing trip to the west coast. At the time, I weighed all of 137 pounds, was 5’11? tall with about 38" shoulders and a 28" waist. I told him that I could go only IF I had not received my notice to report to flying school by a certain date. A date that would allow me to complete the trip before departing for primary training. The date passed without notice to report. So I took the trip. The trip took us by train to Denver, Pocatello, Spokane, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix before returning to Rochester. Guess what? A wire from the Air Corps was waiting for me when we checked into our hotel in Pocatello. I was to report to the Primary Flying School at Lakeland , FL the following day. So much for the 30 day notice! Obviously, it was impossible for me to comply. So I sent a wire explaining my situation and requested to be put in the next class. The Air Corps graciously gave me a reporting date of May 29, 1941 to the Primary Flying School at Sikeston, MO. So, I finished the trip and became a Flying Cadet in the class of 42-A instead of 41-I. |
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End of Chapter 1 — Go To Chapter 2 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 — 7 — 8 — 9 — 10 — 11 Cover Page — Introduction — Table of Contents Or you may go to Home - Contact Us - Cold War Hist. - 91st SRS Hist. - Stardust 40 Mission Story |
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