Trafford Publishing: Private to Pilot WW2

Here is the full reference card for this book...

If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Private to Pilot WW2

by Thomas G. Dye

76 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-2092; ISBN 1-4120-1715-7; US$13.00, C$14.94, EUR10.50, £7.50

A teenager at the time of Pearl Habour recounts his service experiences from infantry to first pilot of a B-25 when the war ended. From Southern California to Tokyo an uneasy step.

Read more!

about the book about the author sample excerpts or Table of Contents catalogue info

About the Book

A boy in his teens when Pearl Harbor was attacked entered service as soon as circumstances permitted. Assigned to the 88^th Infantry Division on leaving Southern California, Oklahoma was anything but pleasant. He survived the freezing nights in the field, the morning tick inspections, and the attitude of his peers on qualifying for transfer to the Air Corps.
Enduring the stress and hazing of Cadet Training he completed RTU as a First Pilot of a B-52, Mitchell Medium Bomber, (the aircraft Col. James Dolittle used in the first attack on the Japanese Homeland). That boy (ME) with assembled crew, was assigned a new B-52 and flew across the Pacific for duty with the 345^th Bomb Group, 501^st Squadron of the 5^th Air Force. I was on a combat flight when the word of the "A Bomb" drops and the pending surrender was radioed and I was present when the planes of the 345^th arrived at Ie Shima (off Okinawa) escorting the "Betty" Bombers from Japan with the surrender envoys. The devastation of Nagasaki was observed from the air at low level and the destruction of Hiroshima from the ground. Peace was finally obtained but at a great price.

About the Author

The author at home in Whitmore, Ca with his war time bride.
Born on a farm, he has spent most of his life in the city. Completing college after the war on the GI bill with a degree in electronics, he went to work for Gilfillan Bros. Moving on to Douglas Aircraft (later McDonald Douglas and now Boeing), the projects included the Delta Launch Vehicle, Skylab, MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory) for the Air Force, and early Space Station configurations.
The last stop before retirement was at Rockwell Space Division (North American Aviation now also Boeing). He was hired to develop the Fire and Toxic Hazard Control Program in the Safety Dept. As now a California Registered Professional Engineer, he worked ten years on development of the Space Shuttle retiring coincidental with the tenth successsful flight.

Excerpts

We join the 345^th Bomb Group at Clark Field in the Philippines, this was our combat organization. We were now part of the 501^st Bomb Squadron of the Fifth Air Force. My introduction was not auspicious. The 345^th Bomb Group needed pilots for the push against the Japanese homeland. Having joined them as a first pilot with a trained crew, they immediately scheduled me for indoctrination. I went out with a check pilot and reinforced my "rather do it myself philosophy". I started to taxi out at 1000rpm on the engines and he had me cut back to 800rpm. Bad news, these engines did not run well under 1000rpm. But he said it was to conserve fuel. On take-off one engine was slightly fouled (expected) and I had to lead with that throttle to compensate until it cleared. We were well airborne when the tower called to tell us one engine was smoking - not unexpected, but clearing. The reaction from the check pilot was something else. You would have thought he was a neophyte. He immediately took control, to return to the field and had me get out of my seat, go right behind it (to check out the engine), looking out the same window from which I already could see the engine quite clearly. By now the engine had cleared and was running normal.
He had lectured me on using all of the runway, to land in the shortest distance possible. But he over did it. There was a drainage ditch at the end of the runway,which we would have cleared, except he eased off on the yoke too soon and we hit the ditch. On impact we lost the right wheel. To keep the strut from digging in I tried to compensate with throttle, but his hand was frozen on the throttles. All I could do was pick up the wing with the aileron to keep the strut off the runway as long as possible as we lost speed. When the strut finally dug in we swung to the right between Clark Fields' two runways and came to a halt on the left wing. The wing stayed level with the ground and the fuselage broke fore and aft off the wing section. I crawled out of the top of the fuselage across the ground, with the check pilot, where the glass canopy had been. The engineer exited where the fuselage broke in front of the wing and the radioman exited where the fuselage broke behind the wing.
When I cleared the wreckage, I checked for the other crew members. The check pilot had just got out and raved about losing an airplane, his only concern. His attitude was shocking to say the least. He was much more concerned about his career than the crew members. The engineer was with us while the radioman was on the dead run on the oppostie side of the runway we had just left (He never flew again). When the crew was accounted for we left the area as the .50 calibre ammunition in the nose was cooking off in the ensuing fire.
I lost my cap and sun glasses and had a couple of cuts on my forehead, but survived okay. My enlisted crew members came to see me afterward and informed me the engineer on the flight (?) repeated to them the same scenario (thus confirming my acocunt of the accident).

Catalogue Information