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Dear John.
I too was a Cadet in class 43E at SAACC. My class held their 50th anniversary in San Antonio and a bench placed in the air base now marks our membership.
Seeing the pix of you walking in San Antonio brought back memories of the Gunter Hotel. I have revisited SAAAC twice to attend graduation of two grandsons from USAF basic. I was in the class of 44-K and graduated from 2 engine pilot school in Altus OK in 1945.
Hi John;
Again, here I am playing "Aviation Days" for the umteenth time. I'll never get enough of it. I know the story almost by heart. But just hearing the music melts away the years and if I close my eyes I am back there with you going through your training. Not that I ever got into the cadet program. As much as I wanted it, I know deep down that it was never to be.From the neck down I know without a doubt that I could have done it, but from the neck up.
 Cessna 150 in 1963. It was at a large airport with 11,000 or 12,000-foot runway  --easily 747-capable. Good definition of "small and insignificant": the feeling you get, using that runway in a Cessna 150!
Thanks for your excellent site.John Dent (November 2005)
I can't say why I never did it before, but last night I thought I'd see what the internet had on the WW II aviation cadet program. Suddenly, there was a picture of little Eddie Amor. I couldn't believe that, so I looked at the names underneath, and there he was -- and there I was, second from right, back row.
 I'd never seen that picture before, because, a few days after it was taken, I was bumped up into the next class due to graduate and moved into their barracks. ....
The move got me into pilot training sooner, so that I was able to graduate with 44G. I flew Pt-19s at Uvalde TX in Primary, bt-13s and At-17s at Waco and Temple in Basic, and B-25s at Brooks in Advanced. Then B-26s at Dodge City and Barksdale, and for the last six months of the war, A-26s at Lake Charles. Most of the comments I've heard or read about these planes just go to prove that there are some things that just can't be put into words, but I guess I'll say a few anyway, just for fun.
The B-26 was an enigma. Everybody saw it differently. To me it was a disappointment. It was a truly beautiful airplane, I was attracted by its reputation for being dangerous and needing special skills, and it was the one I had asked for, but with all that, it should have been exciting, but it wasn't. Having said too much about the B-26, the only thing I'll say about the A-26 is this: It was the best. I could list a bunch of adjectives, but what's the use?
Finally, thanks for mentioning the Porterfield. Everytime I start to reminisce about it, there's always some know-it-all who'll look me straight in the eye and say, "There was never any such airplane."
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I'm sure there will be many to disagree totally with this, but what I thought was needed was not special skill, but constant, meticulous attention to detail, if one were to avoid the many equipment failures, especially in the electrical system, that were the things that could really do you in. A stuck switch anywhere, or failure to parallel the generators after a minor power change, for example, were just two of the things that could leave you with runaway propellors and no instruments. I enjoyed the prestige of being able to say I was a B-26 pilot, and it did teach me a disciplined way of flying that I still value, but, even though it never threatened me, personally, with any harm, I was very willing to turn my back on it, and go to the A-26.
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