Lockbourne AFB was a SAC base and home to the 91st Start Recon Wing. They had RB-45’s and KB-29 tankers. The Air National Guard squadron had P-51’s and Base Flight that I was assigned to had a B-25 exec transport, a C-47, two T-11 Bombadeer/Navigator trainers and a bunch of T-6’s for the staff pilots to get their four hours a month to qualify for flying pay. As the winter of 1952 approached and one of the T-6’s made a forced belly landing off field. I am not sure what happened but I was only asked a few questions. The airplane was repairable but they put it in the salvage yard anyhow. North American aviation at Port Columbus promptly got it because they had the contract to recondition and upgrade WWII T-6’s into T-6G’s that were the standard Primary trainers used at the 10 Primary pilot training bases scattered across the southern part of the US, and as spotter aircraft for the ongoing Korean war, (UN police action). As time went on RB-47’s and KC-97 Tankers replaced the previous fleet, SAC was moving up in the world, both brand new airplanes. I had applied for Aviation cadets as soon as I could, after joining the
AF, but I think it was at Lockbourne, because I vaguely remember some thing about “first permanent station”, any how waiting to hear something was tough. I had become the crew chief for the T-6 fleet, my job consisted mostly of checking for any damage, draining any accumulated water from the fuel sumps, checking for low tires, low struts that sort stuff and then running up each engine until the oil temp got up into the green. When I had finished the engine runs I called the fuel truck and would top off all the fuel tanks. This happened twice a week all winter.

Meanwhile, Capt Kelly had put me in for a bypass specialist status,
which was a temporary promotion that allowed one to wear the extra rank and get the extra pay for as long as they stayed in that particular job, but a new assignment meant loosing both. Well, it was overtaken by events any how because things started happening on my Cadet application. I got a flight physical, went to Chanute AFB for a bunch of tests got a class assignment and a reporting date and a bunch of instructions.

Four of us Northern Ohioans got together and drove to Lackland AFB for preflight training. En route I spotted a Fleet trainer at a road side airport and asked if any had ever had a ridden in an open cockpit biplane? We stopped, I got checked out, two landings and gave each of my travel companions a quick ride, all wanted to do a snap roll, so we did. When I went in to pay for the plane rental and the instructor he asked how much Fleet time I had because I had done well. I had to tell him the truth, I had flown in a Fleet many,many hours but that was when I was to young to solo, but I had grown to love the Fleet and just had to check out in one. And this was my chance because there are not many around any more. He said you won’t have any trouble in flying school. We stayed at the SMU campus in Dallas overnight one of us had a friend in college there and he made the arrangements, two to a room best of all it was inexpensive. After breakfast at he campus cafeteria we were on our way to Lackland. No, cadets were not allowed to bring cars on to the base no, we could not even bring our bags to the cadet area. We went back to the nearest bus stop that serviced the base and found a place to store the car then we came in like we had arrived by bus. Pre flight was more push ups, pull ups and sit ups along with gig slips, spit shines, parades, marching, hazing, squaring meals, walking off tours, camping out, more marksmanship and winning the best barracks award for the week. They kept the pressure on one way or another. Out of 1300+ that started we ended up with about 900+ graduating. Then it was off to the Primary bases, I got to choose Marianna, Fla. Mom
and Dad had moved there temporarly living in my uncles place at Largo because he had gone back to work in Michigan to replenish his retirement fund. One of my class mates and I caught a space available flight Kelly to Mac Dill, we hitch hiked a ride to Largo and surprised my parents. We had fun for a couple of days and then they drove us up to Marianna. I had a lot of riding and flying time in Piper Cubs so that phase of training was a piece of cake. My crew chief experience with the T-6’s at Lockbourne also made the next phase easy. Only the instrument flying made me really knuckle down and the Morse code was a stumbling block that would just not sink in. Many, many years later I finally managed 20 words per minute and I got a general ham license but that took more than a
month working with a mentor. I still have the Heathkit keyer I used for the test. One of the instructors at Graham got killed one weekend in his Pitts Special doing an air show. The school was looking for a replacement, I called called George Gill, the FBO at Warren where I started flying, He came for an interview and got the job. George ended up being a civil service link instructor at the air base near Savanna until it closed. Yes, he was grateful for my help. I bought a Crosley Hotshot two seater basket case that I found in a yard in Marianna and with the help of Harry Wikle, a local automotive machine shop owner, I rebuilt the engine and got it running. The previous owner had put ordinary brake fluid in it and every seal was ruined so a complete overhaul of the brake system had to be completed even before I could drive it. But all that was fixed pretty quickly, I did that part all in one weekend once I had all the parts. The Crosley Hotshot was the winner of the first Sebring race way back when, it must have been an index of performance race, which was something like ton miles driven divided by the fuel consumed. Yeah, it only had 45 cubic inches and developed about 40 hp and got about 40 MPG, it weighed way less than 1000
lbs in fact when I got back from Christmas leave 1953 my Crosley was sitting on top of the PT instructors pedestal. Some of us volunteered to pump an iron lung while a young girl was
transported by rail to a hospital in Tallahassee, Bob Reimers and Ray Exel reminded me of that incident several years ago and even sent copies of the news paper articles about it. I am glad that some people keep mementos of memorable events. Thanks Guys. I had made a tow bar for the Crosley and Don Skirkey agreed to tow it to Enid, Oklahoma and give us three riders a ride as long as we shared the cost of the gas. What a deal. We got to Vicksburg and Don saw a car he wanted, a Mercury, it did not have a trailer hitch so I was solo the rest of the way to Enid. The Crosley made it just fine but it was not some thing that I was proud to invite a girl to go to a drive-in movie in, oh well it was transportation and it had not cost me much. I was buying a savings bond every month and sending money to my parents every month so there was not much left to try to impress girls, so I told them the truth, that I found them attractive or very attractive but was just too broke to try to impress them with my spending, some understood and we had a good time others simply said get lost. I learned quickly about gold diggers and real potential mates that were willing to share the problems of making a living and saving enough for the future. We had a few days before we had to sign in so Don Shirkey and I went up to Garden City, Kansas to see his parents and his younger brother Robin. Don’s dad had been some kind of envoy to China before WWII and was just full of stories, he could speak several of their dialects, I was just awe struck. Don’s parents were tea totallers and we were not permitted to smoke in the house, so there were frequent drives to have a smoke and a beer. We got back to Vance AFB in plenty of time to get signed in and get our barracks assignments and Basic pilot training started the next day. Looking back, so much had happened in less than a year, WOW. We even made it to Panama City Beach for a few weekends, ah yes fond memories… Bob