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trained Air Force units were rushed to the South pacific in an effort to halt the Japanese in their crusade to take control of the South-west pacific and embark on a campaign against Australia. This left only a few units with trained personnel in this country on which to build our Air Force, and build we did! All over America Air Force training facilities sprang up, the majority of these new bases were in our southern tie^of states, from California to the South Atlantic coast.. There were training bases for every facet of the Air Force needs for trained personnel including Pilots, navigators, bombardiers, mechanicals, radio operators, armorers, ordinance, parachute riggers, transportation personnel, and many other minor, but necessary job training facilities. All this training was essential for the Air Force required highly trained technicians to keep our planes flying.
Our aircraft plants were soon producing planes at an unprecedented rate and our training school was supplying the personnel to fly and maintain them. This story begins March 10, 1942, when I graduated from the Air Force Mechanics School at Keesler Field, Mississippi and was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group at Barksdale Field, Louisiana and continues throughout the forty-nine months of my active service in the United States Army Air Force.
This book tells how the Air Force combat units were formed, how the personnel were trained, and how our lives were affected by war. There are stories about our barracks life and our past time activities, our love affairs and our drunken capers, there are bizarre and tragic
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