The Beginning

February 1943, I was in my Senior Class ready to Graduate in June and a notice came to the School in Binghamton New York ( My Home Town ). Any one in the Senior Class that was 18 years old and volunteered for the Draft could leave their Senior Class , and would not be required too take their Regents Exams. Right away I went to my Induction Center and applied for the Navy Air Corps to go to Flight School.

While at the Induction Center I was accepted to go ahead and get my physical with the Navy. I was checked out and all was okay, then came a further test, a Color Blind Test. They asked me to read the letters on the test. I couldn’t see the letters and they said you can not join the Navy. I was told if I joined the Army I could apply for Army Air Corp when I arrived at my Army Unit. That I was assigned to. The Navy guy said the Army wants pilots that are color blind because they can see better thru camouflage .

I was shipped out to Austin Texas to the 97th division to take my Basic training. After my arriving at Camp Swift Texas I joined the new unit. I was told that some time in the near future an Army Air Corps individual would come and take my application for a transfer. About a Month or 2 later I was called to the 1st Sergeant office to meet a rep. From the Army Air Corps. The very 1st thing he said I have a test for you to take. He pulled out this chart with colors in a line and he said give me the numbers you see. I said proudly I can’t see them as I am color blind. He told me I failed the Test. I said that I was told I could go in to the Army Air Corps to be a Pilot if I was color blind and the Sergeant said to me that because I’m color blind I can’t be accepted to fly. That is why I in the Ground crew, therefore for I stayed with the 97th division thru Basic training and stayed with them thru Louisiana Maneuvers.

(AFTER BASIC TRAINING)

We were sent to Louisiana to train for war and it was called "Maneuvers". We had are rifles with Blanks for Bullets. While on maneuvers in Louisiana, we were trained to get off the road when the piper cub planes flew over to drop paper bags of flour to simulating us getting strafed.

I learned to go for the ditch then change my mind quickly to go to the other side of the road. That way I might get some flour splashed on me and an umpire would blow his whistle then tell me that I was to lay there and the Medics would take over. (Shortening my time in training!) After the troops left, the Medics would put me on a stretcher and carry me to a waiting Army ambulance to transfer me to a field hospital. Then I would be sent to a ward tent and have a cooked meal provided. After arriving at the tent hospital the Doctors would determine my wounds. After about 3 days I was sent back to my unit and I would begin the process all over again.

A medic at the unit happened to be from home town and lived in my local neighborhood of Binghamton N.Y. Therefore I was to able to see him quite often while on the 6 month Louisiana maneuvers. After Maneuvers around January 1944 my L Company of 97 Division was sent to Fort Leanord Wood Mo.