Friday, April 9, 2010

B-24 Training at the Smyrna Air Force Base - Nashville, TN

(Continuation of Captain Estes's War Memoirs)

"It was sometime in 1944 that I was sent -- no, I
went to Smyrna Air Force Base, and there they
had B-24s, and there they taught me to fly the
B-24 there. I remember going up to Smyrna on
the train. It just happened in the Sunday paper
that they had the picture of a B-24 instrument
panel, and I looked at that instrument panel and
I almost wanted to jump off the train and walk
back home, because that was the most complicated
looking thing that I ever feasted my eyes on; and
I wondered how in the world I would ever get to
the place that I would know where all of these
instruments were and what they were for.
Well, they taught me what they were and what
they were used for, and I learned how to fly
a B-24."

(To be continued.)

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