On Sept. 18, 1947 I was in the Army Air Corps stationed at Mitchell Field, Long Island, NY, a field named in honor of General Billy Mitchell,

now home to a shopping center, a college, and the Cradle of Aviation Museum.

We were still in summer khaki uniforms so in order to change into U. S. Air Force garb we were issued black web belts, blue “piss cutter” hats, and cans of black shoe dye and polish – the new USAF was to wear black boots, the old Army Air Corps wore brown.  Within 24 hours there wasn’t a brown boot on the entire base.

I was the base commander’s sedan driver back then; he was a bird colonel on a base that housed nearly a dozen World War II generals, like Vandenberg and Stratemeyer – I drove for them too.

We were a night fighter squadron flying P-61 Black Widows, about to convert to the F-82 Twin Mustang. Didn’t have them very long before we got our first jets, the T-33s and P-80s.

In those days the Air Force band would give concerts on the parade ground every day at noon.  Military respect was still in full bloom.  Oh, how I miss those days.

Except that I took the colonel’s daughter to her high school prom, I don’t have too many memories from 1947…  I behaved like a gentleman, of course.

Damn, that was a far piece back!

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Some of the people, places and planes mentioned in this article:

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