1 BFTS Terrell Texas.
November 1942 ACRC London,Jan 43 to June 8 itw Newquay, Grading Wolverhampton June 43, Heaton ParkJuly /August then Mauretania Liverpool to New York and on to Moncton. Lectures to prepare us for the "Deep South " etc. October 1943, train to Terrell.
The C.O. at Terrell was an R.A.F. Wing Commander. He was assisted by a Sqn Ldr Admin and a Flt.Lt Adjutant. Also a Flt Lt Assistant Q.F.I, a Flt Lt Navigation Officer and a F/o Gunnery Officer. There were 5 R.A.F. N.C.O's for signals armament accounts and a PTI. Also we had a Cadet Wing Commander assisted by 3 Cadet Sqn Ldrs and 6 Cadet Flt Lts.
There were three courses in October, 16,17 and 18. We replaced 15 . Each course was for 27weeks split up in to Primary for 9 weeks and Advanced for 18 with a weeks leave between primary and advanced.
We flew 70 hours on the PT17, Stearman, and 130 hours on the AT6a Harvard, but we didn't call it that. All "ships" of course.
The Army Air Corps had a Captain commanding, under our C.O., the ir detachment. They had two Captain Medical Officers a First Lieutenant who was responsible for the American Aviation Cadets on our courses.(Tho some of the Aviation Cadets wereCadet Sqn Ldrs and Cadet Flt Lts, no different. There were also7 U.S."blood wagon" men and 6 senior NCO's responsible for the civilian servicing of our aircraft. A Major Long and as Mr Lucky were the directors of the airfield and ran the civilian maintenance. The ground school instructors were, like the flying instructors, civilians with hon.commissions The met man had been a cartoonist with Walt Disney, so his diagrams were works of art.