Evening star., 1942-09-07
NaW's Flying Cadets
Take II With Grin
And Ask for More
Mere Broken Bones Foil
To Dull Their Desire
To Earn Wings
BY JOE GROTEGUT,

during Today career as a cadet
in one of the Nays four new pre-
flight schools.
With the others, they showed
they can take with grin the
toughest physical training program
imaginable.
Most of the cadets are like scrap
iron when thrown into the blast
furnace but they will come out as
men of steel. Only three have been
discharged for physical or mental
failures.
Charlie horses" black eyes,
bloody noses, sore feet and even a
few broken bones fail to make these
cadets dislike the place. Grinning
losers of man-to-man wrestling
bouts limp about telling you how
tough that particular phase of the
training is and how anxious they
are to get back in action.
None Make Complaints.
Two of my roommates had en-
gagged in various high school and
college athletics before coming here:
the third had not. But all three
were still carrying on when I left
and they weren't complaining.
Cottrell was the oldest of the
trio. He was %, a year above
the average of all the cadets SO far
enrolled within the age limits of
Is through 26.
Pat, the son of a rancher, halls
from Trail City, S. OAK, and was
a former Golden Gloves boxing
champion of South Dakota. He
gave some of the other cadets
trouble in boxing, but had trouble
himself with aches and pains.
Pat volunteered as cadet be-
cause he wants excitement and
figures the best way to get it is
in fighter plane in which he can
shoot down Japs right and left"
He threatens to write the President
If they stick him in a bomber, but
I'm sure he would be happy drop
ping bombs on Tolsio or Berlin.
One Is Son of U. S. Worker.
Thorne, 20-year-old son of a
Government employed pipeftter,
graduated from high school with
out athletic inclinations but when
1t comes to planes he's technically
inclined.
Climbing about big flying boats
As an apprentice metalsmith at the
Norfolk (Va) Naval Air Station
aroused his interest in planes and
gave him a strong preference also
about the kind he would like to fly
Put him at the controls OF a
Phys (Which I learned in class
means patrol bomber by Consoli-
dated, fifth modification, amphib-
lam. and he would be content to
patrol the Atlantic Coast till the
U-boats go home or down.
"Dickie Bird" Gills. the youngest
of my roommates, is 10 and doesn't
care what he flies so long as it's
plane. I just want my wings"
Most Are Regular Guys"
The son of power company Of
fetal, Dick is from Bluefield, W.
Va, where he worked on power
lines this summer. On the SWIM
ming and tennis teams at Bluefield
College and an expert tumbler, he
reported in above-average shape,
but got tired like the rest of us
and developed more blisterS on his
feet than most.
His reason for volunteering is
simple: why stay home with all
this going on?"
The cadets, generally speaking,
are not super-patriotS, insisting on
the toughest job, but simply regular
guys who see job to be done and
prefer to do it with planes.
The war Is a rare topic of con-
versation among them, but a plane
flying overhead attracts as much
attention as q pretty girl walking
across the campus.
Destined to be officers themselves,
they seem to accept discipline read
lily and quickly assume the re-
sponsibilities of cadet Offices Cadet
leaders Of the various platoons and
battalions are selected each week
and there are various assignments
for watch and Office duty.
Officers Are Veterans.
My first assignment was as mate
Of the deck, an all-day job of in
specting rooms to see that no cadet
or any of his belongings gets out of
place. The Second-for two hours
beginning at midnight-was on Sc
curity watch, precaution against
sabotage
The officers who direct the activ-
tiles of the cadets are largely ath-
letes although veteran Navy men are
on hand
The two assigned to my platoon
were Ensigns D. D. Tully of Com
merce, Tex, and M E. Kimberly of
Hamilton, Mont, both star athletes
and former coaches who were sent
to Annapolis for special training
preparatory to assignment to pre-
flight school,
Tully, handsome former profess
sional gridder, starred in football
track and basket ball at East Texa,
State Teachers College while the
husky Kimberly attended Montana
State College and the University oil
Idaho, engaging in football anc
wrestling.
Regrets His Departure.
AS sympathetic as my fellow ca.
diets regarding my departure from
the school and as equally unaware
that was only pretending to be one
of them, it was Kimberly who tolc
me as I packed that he believed
would have made the grade.
Now that I have taken off th'
disguise, I hope they will stop feel
ing sorry for me and assuming tina
! had been discharged because some
one decided I was not physically fl
to stand the grind.
Although my football playing day
were longer ago than the average
cadets, feel very little worse nov
than did the first few days of ever,
football season. But right or wrong
Kimberly's opinion sent me out O
the school feeling pretty tough.
Perhaps I got dose of the Su
periority complex the cadets ar
supposed to develop before they oper
A.