CHAPTER 10 MAY 1944 -- JULY 1944 NAS NORFOLK, VA--PHOTO RECONN SCHOOL, HARRISBURG, PA.; NAS NORTH ISLAND, SAN DIEGO, CA.

At the naval air station in Norfolk, Va. the seven of us met again. We were to be at this station for only a week during which time we did no flying. We were there for reassignment to another station. Upon receiving these orders we found that the group was being broken up. Bates, Glista and I received orders to report to Harrisburg, Pa. for photo reconnaissance school. Bloski and the others were to report to the naval air station at Martha's Vineyards, Ma. where they would join a squadron. Theirs was a full fledged squadron, flying F6F's and would be attached to a Essex class carrier. We did not know at the time that the three of us after photo school would be flying FM-2's and would be in a composite squadron aboard escort carriers. I later wondered if I would have rather been with the other four guys and the fast fleet and enjoyed their notoriety or I'm I satisfied with the way things turned out. The answer: I think I would have rather have been with the fast fleet. But we did our part and quite effectively and I'm still here and I am rather pleased with our contribution to the war effort.

F4F Wildcat landing aboard USS Petrof Bay

Harrisburg was not a naval air station but just a school established at the Cumberland, Pa. airport. There was a small detachment of student officers there. Some fighter pilots, some torpedo plane pilots and some dive bomber pilots. The planes we were to fly were F6F's, TBF's and SB2C's. All were equipped with cameras mounted in the fuselage of the planes. We were to learn how to take photographs of the terrain around Harrisburg which would prepare us for serving our future squadrons as the "photo reconnaissance" pilots. It would be our duty to make high and low flying passes over enemy territory taking pictures for use by the Navy intelligence department. This course lasted for only one month which didn't give much time for visiting the local area. Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York were not too far away. I never made any of them. Didn't even make the Hershey candy factory a short way from Harrisburg although I did make it to Harrisburg a few times.

F6F Hellcat - Photo recon school, Harrisburg PA

Glista's home was in Massachusetts. On his first day off he took off for his home and returned with his car, a 1936 Ford touring sedan. From then on he and Bates could always be found in Harrisburg when not attending class or flying. One day while the rest of our class were doing our required athletics on an open field, who should go by in the Ford with it's top down but Bates and Glista. The officer in charge saw them, they got their butts reamed out but no further discipline happened. Bates and Glista continued their errant ways. Flying the F6F in photo school was quite a treat after the F4F. The F6F being the newest Grumman fighter was considerably

larger with a 2000 HP engine ( 800 HP more than the F4F) and faster. Besides it had hydraulically operated retractable landing gear. One photographing trip I engaged in was to the Civil war battleground at Gettysburg, Pa. I could see the monuments but not being familiar with the topography I was not able to understand what I was seeing. I regret not keeping the aerial photographs that I took that day.

  After a very enjoyable month at Harrisburg, the three of us were ordered to NAS North Island in San Diego. This time instead of a train I was treated to a flight on United Airlines. I booked passage on a DC-3 with a stop over in Des Moines. The flight to Des Moines had two stops, one in Indianapolis, Ind. and one in Chicago. When the plane was about to leave Indianapolis about ten of us were asked to leave the plane to make room for about ten Army pilots. These guys were ferry pilots with a number "One" priority-- they could bump anybody with a lesser priority, I was one of them. I made the rest of the trip to Chicago and to Des Moines by train. I was home again with the same intent-- to be with my family. No WACs.

FM 2 catapult take-off

While at NAS North Island in San Diego waiting assignment to a squadron, we were again assigned to photo reconnaissance school. This consisted mostly of just horsing around, flying a F6F and taking strip photographs from the Mexican boarder to Laguna Beach. On one such trip I was to make a run at 30,000 feet. It took an hour to reach this altitude. I admit that I wasn't pushing the plane but at the high altitudes I was using full throttle.

When I would reach one end of the run I would make a 180 degree turn and the plane would mush and I would lose 2000 feet. On the run to the other end I would gain 3000 feet. I eventually made it. I was surprised to find that the outside air temperature was 40 degrees below zero and this was the middle of July. Inside the cockpit the temperature was perfectly comfortable even without the cockpit heater. I attributed it to the engine heat on the other side of the fire wall.

It was here at North Island that I was to run into the second of the three guys that I had grown up with. This was Don Preston who was a member of our teenage "gang". Actually, not a gang as we know of them today but a bunch of teenage kids who gathered in Drake Park for playing football, baseball and other sports. We met on the street at the air station and immediately recognized each other even though neither us knew the other was anywhere near. As it turned out he was an enlisted man and quartered in another part of the station. Our paths did not cross again. A few days later I was gone.