Part II

Part II

When We last left Wayne & Norma, they had just gotten married at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, TX before Wayne started officer training school.
The Church on the Base at San Antonio that My grandparents, Wayne & Norma, were married in is pictured above. The week after their wedding my Grandad, Wayne, started officer training. He said it was pretty rigid and you had to do everything by the book, salute every officer, make your bed, etc. After nine weeks of ground training he finally got to fly in the afternoons for flight school.
After officer training he was sent to Garden City, Kansas for Basic Flight training. He learned about weather, and navigation. On their air field they had planes coming in from both sides of the run way, one side landed and one side took off. Wayne got in the wrong lane while landing during one of his first training flights and his instructor got on to him and gave him a really hard time about it from then on.
After logging in 7 or 8 hours of flight training he got to fly his first solo flight. When his flight instructor finally told him he was ready for his first solo fight he said, "Well Wayne, You're probably going to kill yourself, but go ahead and take off." This was pretty funny because Granddad was actually a really good pilotAfter nine weeks he went to Altus, Oklahoma for Advanced Training and after graduating from Advanced Training he got his 2nd Lt. Bars and Pilot Wings.
He stayed in Altus for a month, with Norma and Ronnie, as a Advanced Training Instructor and was then sent to Sioux City Iowa to join a crew as Co-Pilot for a B-17 bomber squad, to prepare to go overseas.
Above is his flight crew. The same crew he flew with throughout all of his bombing missions over Germany.
In a letter to home after a short visit home before going overseas Wayne Wrote...

Sioux City Iowa July 16th 1944

Dearest Mother & All
Well we are back home and all settled down again. We got out last night and hunted for another apartment we found one for $10 a week that wasn't bad at all. It may be a little hot but I think we can put up with a little heat for that much difference in the rent.
We can make our car payment almost with the difference in rent.
Well I went to the hospital and let the doc's examine me. They sill didn't put me back on flying but they surely will pretty soon.
I think we will send for Ronnie's little bed now that we have a car to haul it around.
Old Ronnie stood the trip just fine. We managed to cross most of the hot country at night, but still the 2nd day was plenty hot.
Those tires on our Ford sure stood up good. We didn't have a flat all the way and those roads, in places, were plenty rough.
I was sure sleepy when we got here and so was Norma, we hadn't slept but a hour now and then since we started. We have sure caught up on our sleep since we have been here though.
Today (Sunday) I slept until noon.
It sure seems kindly lonesome just us three again after being with you all.
Well, I better close for now.
Our new address will be 1022 Virginia S. Sioux city.
With all our Love,
Wayne Norma & Ronnie
P.S. Dad, we got home on less than a 100 gals of gas. I had almost 40 gals left out of the 130 allowed me.

Well that's all for today. Come back for Part III, Wayne finally goes overseas to fight WWII and Leaves Norma & Ronnie.