What happened to an Arnold Washout
I have hesitated about introducing my father’s experiences into this thread as he was an “Arnold Washout” and ended up qualifying as a Navigator/Observer/Bomb Aimer etc having been returned to Canada. I only recently thought to ask for his Service Record although I have had his Navigator’s and Air Gunner’s Flying Log Book for a long time. Unfortunately, he was killed in a hit and run accident, during the Firemen’s Strike, of 1977 (but that is another story) and, like so many others, I never thought to get his story first hand when I was able.
At the start of the war he was a Geography teacher in New Mills in the Peak District but he joined the Service on 5 October 1940 as 1072966 AC2 COOK Edward (LAC 16/3/41 and Sgt 30/3/42). The first few entries in his RoS are:
Unit Fro: (blank) unit to: No 3 RC Padgate date:5/10/40
Unit From: No 3 RC Padgate unit to: Reserve date: 6/10/40
Unit From: Reserve unit to: No 9 RW Stratford on Avon date: 21/12/40
All these are typed but it then lapses into handwritten entries:
6 ITW - 4/1/41(a course photograph showing this was at Aberystwyth)
Arnold 1 - 20/5/40(presumably this should be 20/5/41)
PTC - 30/5/41(although again the year is not really legible)
Spartan SofA - (no date but then there are 3 entries lower with an inserting arrow)
Albany - 8/6/41
Maxwell Fld - 6/8/41
3 BFTS Miami - 28/8/41
PTC - 1/10/41
31PDC Trenton - 7/10/41 and 25/10/41 (2 dates in the same square)
33 ANS - 23/11/41 (Hamilton)
31 B&GS - 16/3/42(Picton)
Discharged - 26/4/42 (Appointed Emerg Comm Plt/Off GD Bch RAFVR 27/4/42)
The entry above saying “Arnold 1”is my interpretation – perhaps, Danny 42C, you could confirm what that might mean. Also Danny, if you are able, what course number would that have been from the dates I have shown?
The discussions there have been here about wash out rates have set me thinking about why he should not have made it. In 1941 he would have been 28 years old which seems a little old, even during a wartime emergency, for pilot training. Could age have been a factor which would have weighed heavily with the USAAC not yet at war?
I also have several small photographs of his time in Albany both on and off base. Although he was obviously not there very long he made an enduring friendship with a family by name of Carter. I know very little about them but they did come to the UK on the, at that time, Grand American Tour of Europe as Mr Carter retired in either 1958 or 9 and came to stay with my father’s parents in Sussex. This seemed to reflect the frequently reported tales of American hospitality across the training schemes.
From his logbook I can construct a very much more detailed view of what followed once he started at 33 ANS but it is still only the bare bones. I will try to put it into a readable form over the next few weeks to provide some background on those who washed out from the Arnold Scheme.