Emergency Landing Strip
Mar 12, 2023 00:11:18 #
Well, if you were in grade school, say the first through sixth grade, during World War II, you played war at every recess and lunch break. At least, we did. If the weather was too cold, raining, or such, we would monopolize the chalkboards to draw complicated battle scenes. That is if you were a boy, I don’t remember what the girls did, possibly play with dolls!
For those of you younger boys, we had just left the age of canvas and twin-wing fighters of World War I! Now each had his own preferences, I especially liked drawing P-51 fighters and B-17 bombers. But our chalk dioramas weren’t limited to those, those boys who were more interested in boats would provide each scene with aircraft carriers, submarines, and such.
Now it so happened one year that the entire school’s shingle roof had to be replaced, and the old shingles were left for a long while as a pile of old shingles on the side of the playground. It made an excellent area for fox holes and our grenades were small juice cans.
You may sense that I am building up toward a crescendo of the most exciting thing we witnessed, or ever hoped to see. Further west of the school grounds, but well within the close observation of us boys was the U. S. Army’s emergency landing strip. They were only flying Piper Cubs as support for their Artillery, and this landing strip was on the far western side of their action.
We would all give any aircraft flying low our rapt attention, just in case it had to land at this emergency strip. On two different occasions, there were crash landings on this strip. The first one was when the pilot, who was either lost , or had mechanical problems came in too hot, and ran through the barbed wire fence and then into a cotton field and ground looped there!
The second crash landing we were witnessed to was the pilot of the Piper Cub came in off to one side. His right-wing struck a telephone pole causing it to sank in about a foot! All these were really exciting for us. We rushed over each time and had a firsthand look at the damage and hear what the pilot had to say about his landing.
Now, in 1940s this was exciting stuff for schoolboys. It only whetted the appetite of this kid. I had always wanted to fly in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
I had a World War I leather aviators cap with goggles which I wore to school every day. I wore that cap until I wore it out, and had that not happened I probably would still be wearing it!
Without a doubt was the outcome of my growing up, joining the U.S. Air Force R.O.T.C. and in my junior year of college be told I would not be given a contract for flight training because of a scar on the lens of my left eye. I had been commissioned but not given a contract for flight training. It was a bitter disappointment because flying in the Air Force was all I ever wanted to do!
When I was on active duty, I requested to be reexamined for flight. The Flight Surgeon tested my eyesight with every different test he knew. Finally, on a Friday he said, “Lieutenant, on average you have 20/20 vision. But they don’t need pilots, they don’t even need officers!” So, later my commanding officer offered me 6 months active duty, then 7 ½ reserves, and I took it. I often had lunch with a full house of other classmates and graduates who had declined flying contracts when the U.S. Air Force had raised the minimum number of years for flying contracts from 3 to 5 years! Almost to the man they were relegated to supply officers!
It was just a matter of timing, because two or three years later, with Viet Nam heating up, they did need pilots once again. I had one classmate to sign up and flew for about 10 years before being washed out due to either eyesight, or hearing. Just Sayin…RJS
For those of you younger boys, we had just left the age of canvas and twin-wing fighters of World War I! Now each had his own preferences, I especially liked drawing P-51 fighters and B-17 bombers. But our chalk dioramas weren’t limited to those, those boys who were more interested in boats would provide each scene with aircraft carriers, submarines, and such.
Now it so happened one year that the entire school’s shingle roof had to be replaced, and the old shingles were left for a long while as a pile of old shingles on the side of the playground. It made an excellent area for fox holes and our grenades were small juice cans.
You may sense that I am building up toward a crescendo of the most exciting thing we witnessed, or ever hoped to see. Further west of the school grounds, but well within the close observation of us boys was the U. S. Army’s emergency landing strip. They were only flying Piper Cubs as support for their Artillery, and this landing strip was on the far western side of their action.
We would all give any aircraft flying low our rapt attention, just in case it had to land at this emergency strip. On two different occasions, there were crash landings on this strip. The first one was when the pilot, who was either lost , or had mechanical problems came in too hot, and ran through the barbed wire fence and then into a cotton field and ground looped there!
The second crash landing we were witnessed to was the pilot of the Piper Cub came in off to one side. His right-wing struck a telephone pole causing it to sank in about a foot! All these were really exciting for us. We rushed over each time and had a firsthand look at the damage and hear what the pilot had to say about his landing.
Now, in 1940s this was exciting stuff for schoolboys. It only whetted the appetite of this kid. I had always wanted to fly in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
I had a World War I leather aviators cap with goggles which I wore to school every day. I wore that cap until I wore it out, and had that not happened I probably would still be wearing it!
Without a doubt was the outcome of my growing up, joining the U.S. Air Force R.O.T.C. and in my junior year of college be told I would not be given a contract for flight training because of a scar on the lens of my left eye. I had been commissioned but not given a contract for flight training. It was a bitter disappointment because flying in the Air Force was all I ever wanted to do!
When I was on active duty, I requested to be reexamined for flight. The Flight Surgeon tested my eyesight with every different test he knew. Finally, on a Friday he said, “Lieutenant, on average you have 20/20 vision. But they don’t need pilots, they don’t even need officers!” So, later my commanding officer offered me 6 months active duty, then 7 ½ reserves, and I took it. I often had lunch with a full house of other classmates and graduates who had declined flying contracts when the U.S. Air Force had raised the minimum number of years for flying contracts from 3 to 5 years! Almost to the man they were relegated to supply officers!
It was just a matter of timing, because two or three years later, with Viet Nam heating up, they did need pilots once again. I had one classmate to sign up and flew for about 10 years before being washed out due to either eyesight, or hearing. Just Sayin…RJS
Mar 12, 2023 01:26:33 #
Mar 12, 2023 01:33:10 #
Robert J Samples wrote:
Well, if you were in grade school, say the first t... (show quote)
Good story there RJS
Thank for your service Brother 🙏🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅
Mar 12, 2023 06:00:03 #
Mar 13, 2023 16:26:44 #
Ted A
Loc: Eastern Washington
It was just a matter of timing, because two or three years later, with Viet Nam heating up, they did need pilots once again. I had one classmate to sign up and flew for about 10 years before being washed out due to either eyesight, or hearing. Just Sayin…RJS[/quote]
Are you sure it was Viet Nam or maybe Korea.
Are you sure it was Viet Nam or maybe Korea.
Mar 13, 2023 19:57:35 #
In 1957, when I was graduating and being commissioned, it was Viet Nam because Korea was behind us. Just Sayin...RJS
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