By, Richard Parker Huffman
January 7, 2001

On August 30, 1943 I graduated from the advanced training pilot school near Eagle Pass Texas where we flew the Army AT-6 built by North American and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Air Corp. Having fired one of the highest  score in gunnery training I was sure I would be sent to train as a fighter pilot, however that was not to be as I was transferred to the Instructors School at Randolph Field near San Antonio, Texas to become a basic instructor in the 450hp Vultee BT-13.

On completion of training I was assigned to the basic school near Garden City Kansas (this was where I had my basic training) and was given a short leave so I went home to Clio, Michigan. While on leave I married my sweetheart (Mary Hammond) on Sept 7, 1943. Then proceeded to Garden City. After Checking in and getting my assignment I looked for housing so I could send for Mary. The only thing I could find was a tourist court, we had small stand alone building with a kitchenette. After she came we found a nice little house.

On the base I was assigned to my flight and went through the check ride and assigned my first students we were flying the Army BT 13 which was built by Vultee. Which had a 450 horse power engine. I had from four to six students in each class which was about one month. The  students ranged in rank from cadets to officers, I even had one full colonel. This was strange since I was only a 2nd lieutenant.

I had been at Garden City only six or seven months when in April 1944 the Central Instructors School at Randolph Field Texas needed instructors. I was then transferred to Randolph to train other pilots to be instructors at this time our students were newly graduated pilots from advanced training schools. Some time in 1945 we started getting combat returnees (men who had flown enough combat to return to non combat assignments). These were pilots of all ranks, however mostly to the rank of captain. To some who had been flying multiengine aircraft it was quite a change to go back to the trainers.

In Sept.1944 the basic training aircraft was changed from the 450hp BT-13 to the more powerful 600hp AT-6. I instructed in the AT-6 until Sept.1945 at which time the Army started getting away from the civilian Primary Training schools and replacing the civilian instructors with Army pilot instructors, at this time a primary instructors school was started. The instructors were picked from the Basic and Advanced areas. After passing the flight check and a few hours solo practice I was assigned students.

Randolph Field had training schools for Basic, Advanced and B-25 pilot instructor training also the school of Aviation Medicine was there. This school was to train doctors in the field of aviation medicine. As a part of this training and since the primary school was in operation the doctor trainees were given flight time so they could be better prepared to communicate with the pilots. I was one of the first instructors to be assigned doctor students. It seemed as I taught them to fly they tried to give me a crash course in medicine.

 After the war ended the need for instructors also ended and I was transfered to the air transport command and flew AT-6s from various bases around the country to be placed in storage in Lubbock Texas, also flew the C-47 for a while. In June of 1946 I was sent to the Azores.
Some of the aircraft I flew at various times were:

Fairchild PT-19
Vultee BT-13
BT-15
AT-6
B-25
C-47
AT-7
AT-11
PT-13
L-1c
UC-78
C-54