Posted 12 years ago
packrat-pl…
(310 items)
Here is another item from last weeks estate sale. This is a pictorial review soft cover booklet of the Army Air Forces Basic Flying School at Goodfellow Field, San Angelo, Texas.
Here is some background info:
“On 11 June 1941, the base was officially renamed Goodfellow Field.
The next four years witnessed the graduation of more than 10,000 trained pilots and the decoration of scores of these for outstanding heroism in action against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Still, the Axis collapse did not dissolve the Goodfellow mission. That was the lesson learned from that earlier day, from the peace that would not last. Goodfellow continued to train pilots into the post war era, primarily for large multiengine piston and turboprop aircraft, first on the AT-6 Texas, the T-28 Trojan and then, beginning in 1954, on the twin-engine TB-25 and B-25 Mitychell. On 3 September 1958, with nearly 20,000 aviators to its credit, Goodfellow graduated its last class of pilots, as the Air Force and Air Training Command transitioned to the new Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) construct with T-37 and T-38 Talon aircraft that required minimum 8,000 foot (2,400 m) Rinway lengths, far longer than Goodfellow's 5,500 foot (1,700 m) primary runways.”
Lots of interesting info here.
enjoy
Thank you very much fitter475, mustangtony , musikchoo , mrmajestic1 & miKKoChristmas11.
very cool packrat! Say, an employee burned a copy of a movie knowing dad was in the 8th A.F. in 44 as a bombadeer on a B-17. I asked to watch it first, and was i pleasantly surprised. Called "Fortress" , checked the "authenticity" with dad, seems they wher'nt to far off. His memory is'nt very good anymore, & there was one discrepancy(between what he had told me in the past & now). He (had) told me that they used to sit on there parachutes over "88 country" to prevent MAJOR hot metal up the "chute", claiming that a chute would'nt do them any good anyway, no-one (usually) made it out anyway. NOW he tells me the opposite! It's forgiven, 90 now, 17 then, im not going to "pecil whip" him . I remember when i was 17, my biggest concern was who i could get to ride with me on the weekends.
P.S.: This post is what we had talked about the other day, bringing back memory's , only i can remember dad NEVER talked about his time at war, for a long time, then (i was 10-11) he started to open up. Just trivial stuff at first, but i can still remember "hanging on every word" as the story's got more graphic. So thank you again packrat, warm feelings are priceless.
mikielikesigns2,
I know, my father was a D-Day survivor, but he would not talk about it much either. I am very glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for sharing the story.
Thank you very much for the love mikielikesigns2, PhilDavidAlexanderMorris, AmberRose, walksoftly & AR8Jason