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He looked at it and said , “ I ’ m not signing that — period .”
I had no options except to keep working and going to school . But I continued to make it known that I wanted to go in the military . I convinced my parents about a year later , in October 1942 .
A good friend of mine from high school had decided to go take the Army Air Corps exam . I thought I could convince my dad to sign that consent form . The Army had a different policy than the Navy and let applicants take the tests , and if they passed them , then they were given the consent form . Again , my Dad said he wouldn ’ t sign it . I told him I would be drafted anyway and would likely be assigned to the infantry . If I ’ m in the war , I want to fly airplanes . Finally , he relented when I convinced him that I wanted to join the Army Air Corps , not the Navy , so I wouldn ’ t be flying over water . Ironically , I saw more water than most Navy guys did during the war , since they flew missions about three hours in length . The longest mission I flew was seven hours , all over water . We would fly these long missions and when we ’ d get back after these long hauls over water my buddies would say , “ Hey , Jackson , write your dad a letter and tell him about your mission today .”
After I enlisted in December of 1942 , I had to wait until February to be called to active duty . At that time , about
500 of us were sent from Chicago to Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas to go through basic training for six weeks as this was a new program . The former program was to send the recruits to San Antonio for classification and then into preflight for two months before formal flight training . At Sheppard , we
were required to learn how to drill , fire rifles on the range , take 35-mile hikes , sleep in pup tents , and all the other “ exciting ” stuff . When it was time to ship out , our barracks was quarantined for “ scarlet fever ” and we were withheld from the shipment . While in quarantine we were only allowed to march to the mess hall three times a day and stay in the barracks the rest of the time . After one week , our sick guy returned and we found out that he only had a bad cold , but the only bed available was in the fever ward . Typical Army thinking and an unfortunate screw up . About an hour later , the sergeant made us pack up and we were marched about two
AERIAL COMBAT IN THE PACIFIC WAS MARKED BY MANY HIGHS AND LOWS . ABOVE , U . S . NAVY PILOTS ABOARD USS LEXINGTON CELEBRATE A SUCCESSFUL MISSION OVER THE MARSHALL ISLANDS , SHOOTING DOWN 17 OF 20 ENEMY PLANES HEADED FOR TARAWA .
miles around the field , each of us with two barracks bags . When we arrived , we were assigned to different barracks and integrated with about 500 southern boys who just received their uniforms . We learned that we would repeat basic training with them and would only be excused from taking the shots . These rebels did not like us and we did not
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