Chugalug,
Your: ".... Opa-tisha-woka-locka (quickly shortened to Opa-locka), a Native American name that translates into the high land north of the little river with a camping place...." recalls the Welsh practice of compressing a whole sentence in to a single long placename. The best known of these is the Anglesey village of "Llanfair P.G.", which, I think, runs to 36 (?) letters. The Germans are good at long compound words, too.
What's in a name ? Quite a lot, as it happens. A classic case is that of one of our first contingents arriving in Canada, when they learned that they would be going on to a British Flying Training School for six months in "Miami". Bubbling with enthusiasm for the prospect of sun, sea, and starlets ahead, it was only when someone noticed that their train was heading West - not South! - that the truth dawned. They were bound for Miami all right, but for 3 BFTS at Miami, Oklahoma ! (that mid-west dust-bowl made famous in Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath"). Still, they met the welcome and generous hospitality there that was enjoyed by all our BFTS cadets. Their schools were all in or near towns, whereas many of the US Army Bases used in the "Arnold" Scheme were "right out in the sticks", making social contacts difficult. The fact that we were uprooted every two months, and moved on, didn't help, either.
Some stayed there permanently, in the Grand Army of the Republic cemetery a mile North of their former School:
AC2 Dennis M. Mitchell
AC2 Frederick D. Beverley
AC2 Cecil J. Riddell
AC2 William G.M. Mann
LAC James Boyd
AC2 Kenneth Raisbeck
LAC Walter E. Elliott
LAC William C. Speirs
LAC Ralph K. Price
LAC Donald A. Harfield
LAC Herbert H. Hacksley
LAC Harold A. Burman
LAC Alan Brown
LAC Peter McCallum
LAC Fred Tufft
["Tulsa Tour 2000
Copyright © 2000-2002, Scott D. Murdock"] (whom I trust will pardon this breach of his copyright).
The text states that all were "students", but I think that the first six would probably be "admin" (the BFTS were wholly RAF-administered). And all successful RAF candidates from ITW were promoted LAC at that time.
Your: "....and aircraft used included the Brewster F2A Buffalo fighter, SBD Dauntless dive bomber, TBF Avenger torpedo bomber...."
I would very much have liked to get my hands on a SBD "Dauntless", to see what difference in dive handling resulted from the (almost universal then) trailing edge dive brake idea. I still don't think the (much later) A-31 "Vengeance" system could be bettered, as our brakes were exactly over and under the CoG of the aircraft, causing no change of trim, whereas the Dauntless brakes must "pull" the nose down, exactly as normal flaps do.
Reading the (Wiki) Specifications, I'm rather puzzled. A smaller, lighter and much less powerful aircraft than our A-31 (only 1200hp against our 1600), it is credited with a bomb load of 2250lb against our 1500, and again a range of 1115 miles. At (say) 3mi/US gallon, this would imply 372 US gallons fuel load. We only had 220 - and could only get 400 miles comfortably with that ! The performance stated was much the same as ours. Seems the RAF and RN got a dozen for testing, it would be interesting to see what we thought of it.
Danny