Autre pays autre moeurs...
Smudge,
Your picture shows Cliffnemo at 6 BFTS, Ponca City, Oklahoma, with his 'buddy', Hardie Albrecht, an Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet on the Course.
Some background information may be of interest:
1. The BFTS had to take 20% Air Corps Cadets (clearly to compare the results of the RAF training with that of the US Army Air Corps schools) in each intake, which is why Hardie was there. I never could get to know what their conclusions were. On our part, when we got back to UK, no difference was ever noticed between the two at OTU stage or later.
2. BFTS students were kitted out with US summer uniforms (and kept their RAF caps and white "flashes"). Later (post Pearl Harbor) they seem to have got RAF blues as well. In the "Arnold" Schools we had to leave our blues behind for storage in Canada while we were in the States, travelled down and back in our grey "civvie" suits, and were issued with "flight suits" (nothing more than mechanic's overalls) which we wore at all times (and in which we paraded for our Wings).
3. Hardie is wearing an officer's cap. He is an Aviation Cadet, not an 'enlisted man'. If he is unsuccessful, or doesn't like it, he can walk out. US NCOs would address him as "Mister" (what the RAF Ncos called him, I don't know). On successful completion of the Course, he would (I presume) be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. (Cliff says he ended up ferrying B-17s all over the world). But while he was training with the RAF, I suppose he was lumped-in with our LACs.
4. In an "Arnold" schools we were luckier in some respects. They treated us as they would have treated their own Aviation Cadets (although we remained LACs). Our accommodations were far superior to anything we'd had in the RAF; we had silver service and waiters in the Mess Hall; US NCOs called us "Mister"; and they couldn't get their heads round the idea of a Sergeant- Pilot at all.
Strange world,
Danny.