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YOUNG HEROES

  RICHARD Richard had always dreamed of being a pilot. He finished the required 2 years of college to be a cadet. He was doing well, until he actually had to go airborne. He immediately got airsick. The Navy worked with him and after a few weeks, he was able to learn to fly. The first planes were essentially civilian planes that were almost impossible to stall out, to make it safer to learn. After the basics, they learned to fly on instruments. The student pilot was hooded, so he couldn’t see anything outside the cockpit. The instructor was behind with full vision and the ability to override the student. A couple of instructors weren’t paying attention as the wing of another plane struck Richard and his instructor’s cockpit. That plane made it down, but Richard’s lay in pieces. They finally found 3 arms to verify that both men were killed. GLENN The first military plane they learned to fly was the T-28. They are highly maneuverable, but they take a bit to get up to speed. We al
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First Years Civilian

  UNITED Late 60’s Denver We lived in an apartment building with other pilot trainees. There was racial unrest in our country as well as Canada. There were several Canadians recently hired as well as Americans. The comment of one of the Canadians was they would trade us their French for our blacks. Florham Park I stayed with my aunt in Rye, New York, when we first moved to look for a place to rent. My aunt was recently remarried had a black maid left over from her husband’s first wife. She often reminded my aunt that the first wife “didn’t do it that way.” She was the cook and did light housework. She fluffed pillows and did minor vacuuming. She did NOT do heavy work. There was a black man that came once a week to do that. He cleaned the house including polishing the brass doorknobs. What neither had time to do was sweep the stairs into the basement. My aunt did that. While we were out in the yard, she introduced me to her neighbor. After we went back inside, she confided t
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Continutation of the race relations memories - Navy

PENSACOLA The First Duty station was Pensacola, Florida. That was southern Alabama culture. There was only one black recruit in the pilot training. The recruits had to do a survival exercise and they were ordered not to touch snakes. Florida has every variety living in the 48 states. He thought he knew which were poisonous and picked one up. He was removed from the program. There were black and white drinking fountains and separate facilities in general. Banks were open on Lincoln’s Birthday and closed on Jefferson Davis’s. This was when Lincoln and Washington had their own birthday holidays. I listened to one of the wives who had been a student at Ole Miss when it was desegregated. She said the student could have cared less. The only time there was trouble was when the reporters paid student to throw rocks. Not saying there weren’t any riots, just her experience. Another friend from Tidewater Virginia. She said at one time she wanted to hug a black person, but just couldn’t.
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