Chapter 15 Graduation from Advanced Pilot Training May 42

Finally in late May of ’42 it was time to graduate and get those coveted Silver Wings.

The graduation was held in the base theater at ten in the morning. My folks and my oldest sister came down from Nebraska and my oldest brother, the one that I’d worked for on the ranch, and his wife came. My other brother and his family, that ones that I’d lived with when I was working on the cotton inspection team, had been transferred to a small community in southern Illinois where he was managing a pipeline station. The closest large town to them was Terre Haute, Indiana. Later, that had a big part to play in my life.

Our Graduation was as impressive as any ceremony I’ve ever attended since. The pomp and circumstance started and ended with marching of course. It’s hard to explain the thrill of being in uniform and marching in cadence while singing an inspiring song like the Army Air Corp anthem or the National anthem. It made your chest swell up with pride. I couldn’t carry a tune but luckily I was drowned out by a corps that could, and I felt like million as I sang at full volume and strode into the hall. We took an oath to our country and listened to a couple of speeches which congratulated us on surviving the most demanding training course in the military. The Brigadier General told us that so far over 40% of the cadets who entered flight training had washed out before graduating.

Next came the moment we anticipated, the presentation of the Silver Wings by the Lieutenant Colonel R. C. McBride. At the same time, we were promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, received our gold bars and a big dose of pride and excitement. In addition to the wings and the bars we also got a packet of “calling cards” with our name and rank: Lieutenant Air Corps, which we promptly exchanged with the other guys in our class and gave to our families. There was another benefit that we (and our families) appreciated and that was our new pay scale. We were now going to make $1,800 a year, plus we were entitled to a 50% bonus for flight pay!
It was a tradition when you received your Silver Wings that the first person that had to salute you, had to give you a dollar! That was a lot of money in 1942 when a bottle of cola was 5 cents and the daily newspaper cost 3 cents. Usually it was one of the lower classmen. I was so excited I have no memory of who had to give me my dollar.