Merced Army Flying School - Yearbook (Merced, CA)

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Hllllll llN BUYS .. This school hands him an inlensive, praclical course. He gels a course in lhe Navi-lrainer, a machine which simulales all condilions ol air navigalion. He goes lo ground class for eighl hours a day, and for lhree hours al nighl. He is awakened in lhe dead of nighl and rouled oul lo sludy lhe slars. He learns lhe lheory of celeslial. radio, pilolage and dead reckoning navigalion. Then his classroom goes lo lhe sky. He llies in lhe lwo-molored AT-7. The ship carried lhree sludenls, one inslruclor, and a pilol. The sludenls sil al lhree desks one behind lhe olher in lhe belly of lhe ship. U s is problem by inslru- menls. He is nol allowed lo look al lhe ground. lThe ground may nol be visible lo help on combal missions.l The olher lwo sludenls do pilolage or follow lhe course on lhe map by recognizing corre- sponding obiecls on lhe lerrain. sually lhe sludenl in lhe lronl seal work h rv 4,0 Ax: 3- ,Q i JW- .y V' - 1 X' 7. C QW lwxmiwui A BEFORE A FLIGHT cadel ' navigalors al one of lhe fields lraining navigalors crowd lhe ready room wilh maps and charls which will guide each man on a different mission. The new navigalor spends IOO hours in lhe air. The courses he charls lake him over several slales. He direcls lhe ship lhrough day and lhrough nighl on four-hour missions, on eighl-hour missions. He musln'l go lo sleep. He musn'l blink an eye. Zero Zero is lhe navigalor's ullimale obieclive. Zero Zero in navigalion means perleclion. ll means navigaling lhrough hundreds or lhousands of miles of space, cloud rack, wind and wealher and hilling a dime-size obieclive on lhe nose al lhe precise second you predicled you would hil il on lhe nose. One inch oll is nol Zero Zero. One second early or lale is nol Zero Zero. Zero Zero means righl on lhe bullon, righl on lime! ll is nol easy. New navigalors say, lf you gol lhere Zero Zero lhe drillmeler plays 'The Slar Spangled Banner' and hands you a cigar! Bul al lhe end ol lhe course lhey do gel lhere Zero Zero, and lhey gel lheir Wings. Then lo unils for furlher laclical lraining where lhey work for a while as members of a 'Fighling leam before lhey go lo combal or lo a lerry command. T y e lo navigale a quarler- million-dollar Flying forlress and ils seven-man crew from Florida lo a pin-dol airbase, surrounded by enemy-held lerrilory-overseas. The ship is his personal responsibilily. ll he misses, loo bad. Bul he doesn'l miss. The b arm up lo lheir navigalors in direcl proporlion lo lhe dislance lhey have lo fly. Flying in lhis war is almosl all long-dislance ll ' ' yung. The emphasis is on lhe navi- galor. The emphasis is on lhe Lillle Tin Guy! he navigalor's firsl assignmenl ma b esl and mosl independenl old pilols w

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