The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-01-18
WITH THE AEF:
Night Flying Laboratory
BY ROMNEY WHEELER
Substituting for Kenneth
niXnYal

l.. D1X0n)
AN EIGHTH AIR FORCE BON
Der BASE, Jan. 12.-(Delayed-
-(P)-To look at Capt. Victor
Mozersky, flight surgeon, vol
would never think his interest wa!
bowling duckpins in pitch-darl
room, or rolling white medicine
balls across a darkened floor.
1t sounds a bit screwy, as MOI
ersky is the first to admit-bu
it produces night-flying Ameri
can aerial gunners, pilots ane
bombardiers who can see like cats
They are members of the Eighth
Air Force newsboy squadron
the only American unit flying noe
turnal missions exclusively. 1t wa:
originally organized to carry On {
leaflet war against Germany ane
German-occupied areas.
Mozersky, a peacetime surgeon
whose home is at San Antonio
Tex, set up the training for nigh
flying when the squadron first be
gan leaflet missions 18 months ago
American Air Force officers be
lieve it is superior even to the Raj
system on which it was based.
Our job" said Mozersky, ii.
to send 'em out so well trained
that eventually we send 'en
home"
With the aid of three enlisted
assistants-Staff Sgt. Jesse H
Bonn, of Beeville, Tex; Staff Sgt
Lloyd w. Ude, Dearborn, Mich.
and Corp. Clifford G. Emerson
Blue Mounds, Wis.-Mozersky pro
cesses in two-week courses every
officer and enlisted man assigned
to the squadron.
Pilots, navigators, bombarders
and gunners, trained to fly day.
light missions in close formation
must be re-trained to fly alone al
night and to find targets for pin
point bombing without the aic
OF specialized pathfinders anc
flares used by the Raj.
Night filters must never look di
rectly at an object, but above, be-
low or to the side.
The reason for this" explains
Mozersky, lis that the area di
rectly back of the eye can't see
at night, and light vibrations must
be picked up by eye areas which
receive them on an angle"
The hardest task is teaching
gunners to look one way and shoot
another, and to judge distance in
darkness. A complicated system
OF lights reproduces conditions
ranging from full moonlight to
hazy starlight.
Trained night flying crews be-
come able to distinguish objects
and judge distances in light con-
dltlons which would be total dark
ness to an ordinary person.
Duckpin bowling at 20 yards,
With white flare cases as pins, :"
is one of the exercises DEVELOPED
by Mozersky. Another is to sit the
men in a circle around soft white
pail suspended from the ceiling.
They must try to catch the swing
ing pendulum.
Aerial photographs of actual tar
gets are shown under light con.
dltlons duplicating what the night
crews will encounter.
The crews practice gunnery
against silhouettes of enemy night
fighters on a machine which gives
the score of possible hits under
various degrees of darkness.
They learn to keep the enemv
in an illuminated ringsight while
looking away from the target" said
Mozersky. They learn how to
scan the sky continually for at.
lacking night fighters, and Judge
distance under deceptive condi.
tons.
THE laboratory creates prob
lem likely to be met in actual op-
eration-and teaches them how to
meet it without having to learn
under the conditions of actual COM
Bat The result is when they fly
missions they are ready to shoot
and bomb for keeps"
The records Of the squadron
proves its success. Only one plane
was lost to enemy action since
July. 1913.