August 1945
I was sent from Page Field, Fort Myers FL to Alexandria LA and wound up in a Fighter Section on a bomber base. There were six pilots, eight P-40's and 12 crew chiefs. For reasons explained elsewhere, I was named engineering officer as well as pilot. The military gave MOS's to people depending on their expertise. A single engine pilot was a 1055. Overseas I earned the MOS of 2161, Operations Officer. Here I got a 4823, Engineering Officer. I believe having three MOS's was somewhat unusual.
The P-40's were replaced by brand new P-51 D-25's, fresh from the factory at Inglewood. Mine had 7 hours and 25 minutes when I got it! I had the spinners, wingtips and tail tips painted various colors. Mine was red.
Our duty was to attack B-17's to give their gunnery crews targets to practice camera gunnery. What wonderful duty. We were the fair haired boys and could do no wrong. Most of the bomber pilots had wanted to be fighter pilots so when we pulled any shenanigans, they just smiled. We, on occasion, took off in 4 ship formation and when we staged dogfights right over the field at 3000 feet, they just smiled.
In this picture, my airplane is being worked on and someone took my picture. I wound up with very few pictures from my duty.
