See it at:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carlsbad-Army-Airfield/228078510552049

The Gig Sheet is a class book for advanced pilot training at Kelly Field, Texas.  Class 41-F graduated on August 15, 1941 just three months before the United States entered the war.

This book was owned by Lt. Donald O. Lundberg, who is pictured on page 50.  Lt. Lundberg made several notations about his fellow classmates after graduation.  Thirteen were killed.  Four of them were marked “Killed 12-7-41 Hawaii.”

The hometown of each man is given, followed by the bases at which he received his primary and basic flight training, followed by his occupation prior to entering the Army Air Corps.

Did you or a family member serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II? Please contribute your own biography, or that of a loved one, to the Keep ‘em Flying memorial at the AAF Collection. Contact the curator for details.

I encourage you to visit the Gilbert Malrait and Thieme Crew memorial site at www.2ltmalrait-gilbert.net. It gives an account of a B-24 combat air crew, most of whom were killed in action on April 4, 1944. What makes this site unique is the background and personal history of each crew member. There are lots of photographs and documentation.

Did you or a family member serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II? Please contribute your own biography, or that of a loved one, to the Keep ‘em Flying memorial at the AAF Collection. Contact the curator for details.

Airplanes were a small part of the Signal Corps at the close of World War I. In that war, they were used chiefly for aerial reconnaissance in support of ground troops. A total of 600 American airmen were killed and 340 planes lost. US planes dropped only 138 tons of bombs.¹

Army Air Corps Recruitment Poster

A few men, such as Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, recognized the importance that air technology would play in future wars.  He lobbied for the creation of a separate Air Force in order to develop the technology and tactics necessary.  The Army and Navy were reluctant to relinquish control.  To them, air power was of limited use.

This political conflict between military branches continued throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In 1920 the Air Service was formed, but this was little more than a graduate school for Army officers interested in flying. It was renamed the Air Service Tactical School in 1922. In July 1926 the US Army Air Corps was created. It had 1,200 obsolete planes, 900 officers, and 8,500 enlisted men.²

Army Air Corps Enlisted Reserve, Army Air Forces

Many officers continued to press for a separate Air Force. The Army was restructured in 1934 and along with it the General Headquarters Air Force (GHQ Air Force) was organized. This limited organization contained tactical units, but administration, supply, schools, and research and development were still part of the Air Corps. The Army General staff was still in control. It had 1,800 planes, but there was no air combat training.³

Army Air Corps Enlisted Reserve, Army Air Forces

In 1939 as war loomed, Congress authorized a total of 5,500 planes and appropriated $120 million for air base development.⁴  The attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in another reorganization. The Air Corps was combined with the Air Force Combat Command and the new organization was called the Army Air Forces. It was a new organization without wartime experience. Political infighting continued during the war and many mistakes were made. The Air Force did not become a separate military branch until 1947.⁵

Army Air Forces Recruitment Poster

Prior to the war, the Air Force had only 20,000 personnel. By December 1942 that number had grown to 1,600,000 and by December 1943 it was 2,400,000. During this time the Aviation Cadet Recruiting Program was in full swing. The greatest growth in the Army Air Forces occurred between January 1, 1942 and June 30, 1943. In 1943 alone 66,000 pilots, 16,000 navigators, 16,000 bombardiers, 92,000 gunners and 544,000 technicians were trained. With the huge influx of recruits, the recruitment program began to level off and it was eventually suspended in March 1944. With enough aircrews, the Army’s training philosophy switched from an “operational” mode to a “replacement” mode. New recruits were trained principally to replace those killed and those returning from combat tours.⁶ By mid-year 1944 the Allies controlled the skies over Europe.⁷

So during the late 1920s and all during the 1930s, most young men and women knew of the Army Air Corps. As the war began, they wanted to join the Army Air Corps, just as it was renamed the Army Air Forces. During the ensuing rapid development of air bases and training programs, everything was in constant change.  Many cadets probably continued to refer to their branch of service as the Air Corps, even though technically it was the Army Air Forces.

Citations

1. Geoffrey Perret, Winged Victory: The Army Air Forces in World War II. New York: Random House, 1993, pp. 5 and 7.
2. Ibid., pp. 7, 13, and 24.
3. Ibid., p. 29.
4. Ibid., p. 34.
5. Edward Jablonski, Flying Fortress: The Illustrated Biography of the B-17s and the Men Who Flew Them. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1965.
6. Army Air Forces, The Official Guide to the Army Air Forces, May 1944, pp. 8-122.
7. Kenneth Winchester (ed.), WWII: Time-Life Books History of the Second World War. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1989, p. 340.

Clyde O. Primrose, Jr.

Clyde O. Primrose, Jr.
(1923-1944)

Clyde Odis Primrose, Jr. was a young lad of 19 when he entered the United States Army in 1942. He had grown up on a farm near Hemphill, Texas, the oldest of what would eventually be eleven children his mother and father would rear. The family had no electricity or running water, but they had each other and a wonderful work ethic. From the first time he saw an airplane in the sky as a young child, he wanted to fly. As did thousands of others, Odis answered his nation’s call and joined the Army, with only a dream that he could somehow make it through cadet training, mechanics training, flight school, and advanced training and become a pilot. By sheer hard work and determination, he competed with college educated men, and did indeed become a flight cadet, earn his wings, and eventually see service as a co-pilot on a B-24 heavy bomber.

A Biography of
Lt. Primrose

By 1944, Flight Officer, and then later, 2nd Lt. Clyde Odis Primrose, Jr. was an experienced pilot, having flown many missions out of Italy. On July 15, 1944, Lt. Primrose was flying co-pilot in the lead aircraft of the 450th Bomb Group, 47th Wing, 15th Air Force. The oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania were to be bombed again this day from 21,000 feet. The flak was heavy, and while on its bombing run, Lt. Primrose’s B-24H was hit near the bomb bay and exploded. The plane’s pilot, Lt. Col. William Snaith was somehow blown clear, and managed to pull his parachute rip cord. Col. Snaith was the only survivor of the event. Lt. Primrose and the rest of the crew were lost.

Submitted by Lt. Primrose’s brother, William E. Primrose, May 23, 2009

Did you or a family member serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II? Please contribute your own biography, or that of a loved one, to the Keep ‘em Flying memorial at the AAF Collection. Contact the curator for details.

James Carl Nelson

James Carl Nelson
(1925-1965)

My father was originally from Conneaut, Ohio. He wrote his mother letters during his training in the AAF which she kept and passed down to me. He joined the Army Air Forces in November, 1943 and attended basic training at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He was tested for aptitude during the basic and selected for aviation cadet training. He did this at Akron University starting in January 1944. This was the Third College Training Detachment.

After completing courses there he was transferred to the pre-flight instruction at the East Central College in Ada, Oklahoma, in April 1944, as part of the 2579th AAF BU, class 44-C-1. He then started learning how to fly in the trainers. He was selected to be a navigator rather than a pilot, and then assigned to Group 1, Squadron 86, class 45-C at the S.A.A.C.C – San Antonio, Texas in August 1944. He seemed to prefer the navigator role more than the pilot since it suited his technical nature.

Once he completed the basic navigation school he then did advanced Navigator training at San Marcos Army Air Field, San Marcos, Texas. Class 45-6N-8. Once he had completed the navigator training, flying extended training missions into Louisiana, Oklahoma, and even as far as North Carolina, he waited for reassignment either overseas or to an instructor post. He was issued a lot of complex equipment that he had to keep with him, including a $450 sextant that he learned to use in navigation.

He eventually was assigned to C-46′s in the Troop Carrier Squadron at Pope Field, North Carolina as an instructor in May 1945 until after the end of the war. After being discharged in October, 1945 he entered Purdue University and became a civil engineer. He died of kidney failure at 40 in 1965 leaving a wife and 2 daughters. I miss him.

Submitted by his daughter, Carol Nelson Dufinetz, May 25, 2009

Did you or a family member serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II? Please contribute your own biography, or that of a loved one, to the Keep ‘em Flying memorial at the AAF Collection. Contact the curator for details.

Eugene A. "Scotty" LaScotte

Eugene A. “Scotty” LaScotte
(1921-2001)

On June 22, 1942, Eugene and his two brothers each enlisted with high hopes of becoming pilots. On December 31, 1942 Eugene was called up and he entered into active service. He gave it his best shot in preflight school but unfortunately, “washed” out.

He was then transferred to a gunnery school where he completed his training on the .50 caliber machine gun. Not being a very tall person–only five feet eight inches–he was found to be best suited for the nose-gunner position in a B-24.

The new crew that he joined was formed in Fairmont, Nebraska on September 20, 1943. Eugene was now a member of the 15th Air Force, 485th Bomb Group / 828th Bomb Squadron.

On March 11, 1944 this recently formed crew went overseas and was eventually stationed at an airfield near Venosa, Italy. From there they would fly their numerous missions to places such as the marshaling yards at Knin, Yugoslavia (Croatia); Vienna Neustadt, Austria; and the dreaded Ploesti oil fields of Romania.

It was on his 24th mission, just after bombing the Titan oil refineries outside of Bucharest, Romania on June 28, 1944, that Staff Sergeant LaScotte and crew came under heavy attack by several enemy fighters. With their bomber now crippled and falling out of formation, the pilot and co-pilot had all they could do to keep it level. Being even more aggressively attacked as they flew alone, they knew they would never make it back to base.

Over the skies of Bulgaria, the signal to jump was given. All exited the craft but the pilot, who stayed behind and fought the controls to maintain a level flight for the safe departure of the others. The pilot bravely sacrificed his life that day so that the other nine could be spared.

Falling from the sky at an altitude of not much more than 500 feet, the crew suffered many broken bones on landing. Eugene, too, had broken the bones in one foot and had sprained the ankle of his other.

POW Camp at Shumen

Within four hours of his jump, Eugene was captured by the Bulgarian army and sent to a POW camp at Shumen, Bulgaria. Over the next 10 days, the remaining eight members of his crew were also captured and were once again reunited at this camp. The camp, located on a bluff just outside of Shumen, was already overcrowded when they arrived and no medical care was available. This poorly run camp was rat and vermin infested. Clothing was what you had with you when you landed and they had no access to Red Cross supplies. POWs slept back to back on top of straw on the floor.

The 329 POWs that were held at this camp had a total daily dietary intake of less than 600 calories. Each POW was also given a total allotment of one quart of water per person per day, to be used for both hygiene and drinking. Dysentery ran rampant throughout the camp. Miraculously all POWs survived.

The Russians liberated the camp at Shumen on September 8, 1944. After being released, Eugene finished his service stateside and was Honorably Discharged on November 14, 1945.

Military service to his country: 2 years, 10 months, 14 days.

Submitted by his son, Mark LaScotte, March 10, 2007

Did you or a family member serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II? Please contribute your own biography, or that of a loved one, to the Keep ‘em Flying memorial at the AAF Collection. Contact the curator for details.

John E. "Jack" Voisin

John E. “Jack” Voisin
(1925-1994)

Jack Voisin had wanted to fly since he was a youngster in Michigan. He entered the Army Air Forces in August 1943 shortly after turning eighteen. He underwent basic training at Basic Training Center #4 in Miami Beach, Florida. He was then assigned to the 39th College Training Detachment at Clinton, South Carolina for five months.

Starting in April 1944 he underwent preflight training which lasted six months at Santa Ana, California. He was assigned to be a navigator. He earned his flexible gunnery wings at Kingman, Arizona (November 1944) and his navigator wings at San Marcos, Texas, where he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant (April 1945).

Jack was next assigned to the “bombigator” program, to become a combination bombardier and navigator. He earned his wings as a bombardier at Carlsbad, New Mexico (June 1945). As the war ended, he was stationed at Yuma, Arizona for training in radar bombardment. He was most likely being trained for assignment to a B-29 aircrew for the planned invasion of Japan.

Jack was discharged in November 1945 and served ten years as a navigator in the Officer’s Reserve Corps out of Selfridge Field near Detroit, Michigan.

Submitted by his son, Mike Voisin, November 9, 2006

Did you or a family member serve in the Army Air Forces during World War II? Please contribute your own biography, or that of a loved one, to the Keep ‘em Flying memorial at the AAF Collection. Contact the curator for details.

As an alternative, another good reader program is Foxit. It is smaller and faster than Adobe Reader.

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