V1944-02TX.DOC

Pre Technical Cadets, San Antonio TX 1944

Ah Ha.. San Anton became a greeting from arrival till departure.

Quarters Our quarters and facilities were newer and better than those in North Carolina, we understand why they moved us, the new facilities were huge and empty. We were in two story barracks with the toilet facilities on the ground floor at one end. We arrived on a Friday, confined and given the weekend to put things in order. We were wound up, nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Paint-n-Polish The faucets in the latrine had a rough brass finish and the walls, though clean, were shabby looking.– Kendal commented this place isn’t up to K Squadron standards. Busy minds and empty hands found paint and brushes others carborundum stone and emery cloth from the mess hall. We filed and polished all the brass to a mirror finish and repainted the latrine and entrance to the barracks. It became a challenge, like the mountain to be climbed because it was there. I’m sure that was the only polished brass on the entire Base. It had taken all of us all day, remarkably no one complained! Monday morning the Tac officers were taken by surprise, shook their heads in disbelief then gave us a day off – our first in a long time. Everyone scurried to get into town, we had all day till 10:00 pm, Ah Ha, San Anton !

Gunter Hotel The area was surrounded by large military bases so they staggered the days off to relieve over crowding. San Antonio had accommodated large numbers of soldiers for years and was geared for it. The basement of the Gunter Hotel was reserved as a club for cadet, we used it as a rendezvous point.

Drinks, Texas style Texas did not allow sale of mixed drinks. They had a very lucrative system of licensed liquor stores that sold bottles of your choice in a look alike brown paper bag. The bus from the base unloaded in front of a jewelry store that sold packaged liquor in the back. Ninety-five percent of the soldiers unloading from the bus entered the liquor store through a front door and emerged from a back door carrying their brown paper bag. Then proceeded to one of may near by “restaurants” where they sold “setups”, a bottle of soda water and bucket of ice. Setups cost almost as much as the bottle in the bag.

Near Gunter Hotel The Alamo San Antonio River Front

He Played We Sang Six of us spent our days off together. The attractive hostess of the Gunter Hotel Coffee Shop helped show us about and we soon knew the haunts in downtown San Antonio. Cadet Wacker, an excellent piano player, was the focal point of our bunch. Wacker was older, quite intelligent, with a wonderful personality – he could have readily made a living playing piano. He'd play and we'd sing. There were soon an abundance of girls, who knew our day off, waiting to join us.

Our singing ranged from robust military to barber shop harmony to tender ballads. We became known to other cadets, their girl friends and establishment owners. Wacker's playing was like a magnet and our singing contagious. Though we went through a lot of “setups” there was no over indulgence, all enjoyed the happy atmosphere. We enjoyed walking along the San Antonio River, with it’s cafes and shops, it was a garden spot.

Bottle Cap Duty Kendall and I were again assigned to assist the tac officers and excused from further classes, We helped keep training records and did 6:00 am barrack inspections. Periodically the real Tac Officers do barracks inspection to make sure things were top notch.

Mop Thread When a new “Bottle Cap” I followed 4 officers as they put on their stiff military bearing and entered to inspect a barracks. The first officer spotted a mop string snagged on the wooden entrance step, he pointed at it, gave it a quick eyes right glance, then proceeded without breaking stride. Each of the following officers repeated his brisk motion – this was a flagrant infraction, a lack of attention to detail. It reminded me of sheep, if you held out a cane in front of the first it would pause and jump over, those that followed repeated the pause and jump, even after the cane was removed. I chuckled, we had certainly been conditioned to emulate the leader. When I came up I pointed as if someone followed me then stepped back, plucked the thread from the board, bowed as if to say thank you, placed the string in my pocket, regained my military bearing and followed the officers into the barracks. It was serious play acting, screw up and you were out – I had allowed myself a moment of private levity.

How to Swim The athletic facilities were fantastic. The swimming pool was as wide as some pools are long, the entire squadron could line up on one edge and swim to the other side. I had never really learned how to swim, at home I’d Dog Paddle to the diving board. Of us cadets, I was a “slow” swimmer. The instructors defined how we were to swim to the other side, side and back stroke, making it more difficult each time. Kendal was not a good swimmer either. The instructor, and the fellows, enjoyed watching us struggle to across the pool swimming on our backs. I always made it, as if a submarine, coming up just to breath. I had a chance to work at it and improved significantly – in case I might have to.

Review Board I was a member of the Cadet Review Board, a task I didn’t like – holding court on fellow cadets who's status was in jeopardy. It was rewarding to help those who truly had the potential and disheartening to observe a man fail for a lack of innate ability or experience although he was trying. (Appleblate assisted his PT instructor and had zero aircraft maintenance experience.) At 19 I was next to the youngest cadet, Probst was one month younger. There were some 8 of us “assistant tac officers” out of some 2000 cadets, our “board” task was to help those we felt had a chance to “prove themselves” before real Tac Officers decided thumbs up or down. Perhaps the real tac officers wanted us, who lived among them, to provide assurance “the system” didn’t wash out truly qualified people.

Water Fight There was no air conditioning and one warm Saturday we were confined to our area and killing time. Some guy found a second floor Stirrup Pump Fire Extinguisher was low on water and took it down stairs to fill it, On an impulse he took it outside and squirted water through an open window at some of his buddies. That set it off a free for all water fight with Stirrup Pumps, that spread to other barracks. – my gosh but the energy that went into pumping, filling, carrying, sloshing, all while running and laughing. We'd been pent up too long, with officers away we had to play.

Treatment Station Some fellows lingered over too many setups and caught the last bus back, which was fine except some of the girls decided to ride the bus with them and ride it back. Guards at the gate had a procedure for this – they sent all the fellows through for a prophylactic treatment station. The fellows had to strip, shower, use a special lavatory with special soap & disinfectants and repeating this until those in charge were satisfied they had learned a lesson. Those bases had been processing soldiers since WWI, the huge numbers had dwindled and this gave the pro-station guys something to do.

Final Dinner At the end they took the 75% of us remaining out for a big dinner. The officers revealed a desire to treat us as one of them before we parted. Some officers had been with us for four months and this was a time for them to “fraternize” with us, we and they appreciated the opportunity. They had completed their task, while our more difficult challenge lay ahead. My “special bottle cap” status came to and end.

Wisdom Tooth We passed through the dispensary for final shots and a quick physical before boarding the train. When the dentist looked at my teeth he said sit in his other chair. He continued his activity of checking cadets teeth while he intermittently stepped over to me and proceeded to pull one of my wisdom teeth! Less than five minutes elapsed before I was back in line, on my way with a hunk of cotton in the hole in my gum in lieu of the tooth. The root had died and 2/3 of the tooth had turned a dark gray.

Clickety Click I have no distinct memories of the train ride from Texas to Connecticut except watching the flow of the country side past the window, I felt very tired, the price of being up at 5:00 am for barracks inspections – perhaps that was another reason why tac officers selected a few cadets to serve as their assistants. The monotone sound of clickety click, clickety click and the motion of the train caused me to repeatedly fall asleep. The sustained period of being constantly on the ball and responding to tight schedules drained my energy more than I realized. The Cadet battle of survival was far from over.