When I was in flying training on the "Arnold" (US Army Air Corps) Scheme in WWII, we had little frame brooch badges with a set of printed name cards in three colours - red, blue and white. This was necessary for the "Aviation Cadet", as his status was important in determining the way he was treated by his fellows at each stage of the three Schools (Primary, Basic and Advanced), which would take place at three separate locations. Blue denoted the "lowerclass man" and Red the "upperclass" (or was it the other way round?) It worked like this:
Supposing I had been a US Cadet. My Primary Course at Carlstrom Field, Fla. was 8 weeks long, with an intake every 4 weeks. On arrival on "42C" Course, say, I would spend the first 4 weeks as a "lowerclass man", which allowed me to be mercilessly bullied ("hazed"), without any redress, by the "42B" men on the last 4 weeks of their Course there.
My consolation was that, after 4 weeks of ritual humiliations, my tormentors would be posted away for Basic Training, where they would be the underdogs again (behind 42A). I would now be the topdog at Carlstrom, and expected to inflict the same sufferings on 42D as I had received from 42B.
With me so far?
Leaving Carlstrom, I would become in turn the underdog at Gunter Field, Montgomery, Ala., where I would be at the mercy of 42B again for 4 weeks ....and so on and so forth. So the colour of your badge card made a lot of difference! Naturally, we Britsh "cadets" (LACS actually) would have nothing to do with this cruel and senseless system, but the problem remained at the "interface" between the last AAC Course (41F?) and the first RAF Course (42A) which followed.
To say that frictions developed would be an understatement; the story was that at Carlstrom, the first (42A) RAF contingent banded together and set upon their oppressors, there was a riot, we prevailed (perhaps the opposition was unnerved by this unexpected reversal of what they regarded as a Law of Nature), they and all their kit were thrown into the swimming pool, an armed truce followed and "hazing" was suspended TFN.
And I have not a shred of evidence to support this story, but merely tell it as it was told to me. Oh, the white cards? - they marked the "washouts", poor pariahs who were spared further torment in the brief time before they were bundled off the Base.
Bit too long, but the story has to be told.
Danny42C.
Last edited by Danny42C; 2nd Jun 2015 at 23:58.
Reason: Delete PS - wrong Thread !