MCD02-1943-1954
Being awarded the American
Legion School Award in grade school, I felt duty bound to enter service. I applied for flying cadets and found I was
color blind – so I volunteered for the draft without telling my father who was
head of draft board. After Basic in St
Petersburg FL I attended airplane mechanic school KC MO (quartered above). School closed and finished at Lincoln NB.
Held over as potential engineering cadet instructor of fighter maintenance.
Began Eng Cadets in NC and graduated as 2nd
Lt Eng Officer from Yale University
Served as Adjutant for Yale Parades -- above right age 20.
. Assigned to
B-26 Dodge City KS then UC-78 maintenance Pecos TX
Volunteered for overseas and sent to B-29s Guam – I’d never seen a B-29 before.
North field Guam, Became Eng Off of 28th
Sqd of 15 B-29’s 200 mechanics.
A fantastic privilege and experience.
B-29 engine 2200 HP packaging failure mode: Burned off exhaust valves
1945 Tube test set used on Guam by B-29 Electronics
technicians
Part of B-29 survival kit still unopened
Change indeed:
room mate Bob Nelson far left and cousin Vincent center and far right did not
return
Bob a B-29
navigator was shot down, held as POW, then beheaded after the first A-Bomb
Vincent, a Navy
pilot, married to our classmate Doreen Paddock, was shot down the last day of
the war
Neighbor Mary Hamilton, Model-T push had
grown up Changed from Mechanical to
Civil Engineering KS Hi Way
Married in Presbyterian church where Mary’s
played piano Reception at Masonic
Temple
First home Leoti KS first family, kitty Spook
Change from Civil Engineer to Process Engineer GM KC
KS when Korean War broke out
Jr. to
Sr. Engr. to supervisor Process Engineering GM KC KS defining tooling for F-84F
& purchased 1951 Oldsmobile
F-84Fbeing refueled, the mass production
tooling from KC KS was transferred to NATO who produced F-84F’s
Change: transferred to GM Southgate CA as
Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Process Engineer