From the Pilot Factory, 1942

Air Power History, Summer, 2006 by R. Ray Ortensie

From the Pilot Factory, 1942. By William P. Mitchell. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. x, 195. $32.95 ISBN: 1-58544-387-5

"I just can't keep my mind off flying." These were the sentiments of an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps' pilot-training program in early March 1942 at Garner Field, Uvalde, Texas. From the Pilot Factory, 1942 is the story of William P. Mitchell--told through his letters home--from his pilot training through his participation in World War II.

After bowling with a friend near his home of Kirkwood, Missouri, Mitchell returned home to discover his father "glued to the radio" listening to coverage of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Keeping his job at the Johns-Manville factory in St. Louis making asbestos shingles, Mitchell waited--as his father had predicted--for the Air Corps to lower the entrance requirements for pilot training. Prior to 1939 the Army Air Corps graduated roughly 1,200 pilots per year, but by 1942 the goal increased to 50,000 per year. At its peak this rate would increase to more than 74,000 annually. To help meet this high demand, a number of initiatives were taken. By 1942, more than fifty civilian contract flying schools were in operation. Along with expanding Army Air Corps aviation training, entrance requirements were relaxed by lowering the minimum age to 18 and eliminating the college requirements. On his train trip to the Pre-Flight Center at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, Mitchell began to ask the question that is still asked today: "Did I really want to fly?" He reflected that it was really not his dream but his dad's. He could recall as a youth witnessing stunt pilot Art Killips' fatal crash at an Oklahoma City air show, but the hazardous occupation did not curtail his will to fly. Through the letters he wrote home, one can sense that he really did want to fly and enjoyed it. Flight training would be a rigorous feat and, even before heading to primary, Mitchell expressed his dismay of being totally out of touch with current events. Reflecting on how demanding pilot training was going to be, Mitchell learned two weeks after the fact of Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo and the infamous Bataan Death March.

After Pre-Flight, Mitchell was sent to Garner Fieldfor primary flight school. His class, 42-J, was the second class to train at the new air field with Hanger Six, a civilian contractor, training in the Fairchild PT-19S Cornell. Nine weeks later, Mitchell was back in San Antonio for basic flight school at Randolph Field. Flying the North American BT-9 (an aircraft that contributed to a high fatality rate in training), Mitchell remarked that it was the "oldest [and] klunkiest trainer" but was reassured by instructors that if you could fly the BT-9 then you could fly anything.

Once finished with basic, Mitchell found himself assigned to Brooks Field for advanced flight school. With this assignment to Brooks, Mitchell and others believed they had gotten their wish to fly fighters because they would be training in the North American AT-6 Texan. After seventy-five hours in this "good-looking [and] sweet-flying" aircraft, the next step was to a fighter aircraft. But the needs of the Air Corps dictated Mitchell's next assignment. Between December 1942 and February 1943, while assigned to Del Valle Army Air Force Base in Austin, Texas, he learned to fly the Douglas C--47 Gooney Bird. He was not sure how he announced "his humiliation" to his cousins who were flying the Martin B--26 Marauder and other combat types, but he did receive some solace: most of his classmates were assigned to the Gooney Bird also.

Mitchell would eventually end up with the 434th Troop Carrier Group based out of Alliance Air Base, Nebraska, where they trained with the 326th Glider Infantry and 507th Parachute Infantry. The Group began its move to the European Theater in September 1943 and arrived at their new home at Fulbreck, England, in October. The 434th would participate in Operation's Market Garden and Varsity, dropping paratroopers and towing gliders. But it was the mission of hauling supplies and evacuating wounded where Mitchell saw his training in the pilot factory pay off--short-field and strange-field landings and takeoffs, dead-reckoning navigation, night formation, and weight-and-balance management.

Through the letters sent home to his parents, Mitchell transports the reader into the cockpit where he gains an insightful view of the pilot factory. Mitchell considers himself fortunate to have flown the C-47. It allowed him to view the "most crucial military contests" in the European Theater, having an up-front view of the war while delivering supplies and evacuating wounded and, later, liberated POWs. From the Pilot Factory is an excellent read that touches on a time when military aviation was in full gear meeting the wartime needs through the lens of its product.

R. Ray Ortensie, US. Air Force Historian, 479th FTG, Moody AFB, Ga.