October 22 1942, this 18 year old from Brooklyn, NY enlisted in the US Army Air Corps.

I wanted to be a gunner on a B-17. Six days later I was sent to Atlantic City where all the hotels had been taken over by the Air Corps. There, I received my uniforms, clothing, indoctrination, immunizations and learned how to march on the boardwalks.

Because of my eye sight, I was denied my request to be a gunner but my aptitude test showed that I had taken typing in high school and the USAC needed clerks more than anything else.

So, 20 days after I enlisted, I arrived at Ft Logan, Colorado clerical school, never having had any basis training.

Mornings we marched and afternoons we went to clerical school. Fast forward 4 months.

After my squadron moved from base to base we ended up at Dyersburg AAB.

One day, our 1st Sgt. decided we were going to the rifle range. I had to tell my Regular Army, 20 year Master Sergeant, that I had never fired a rifle, not even a BB gun.

I told him that I never had basic training, so he took me aside and told me how to fire this big old heavy 3006 rifle. So when I took the prone position and started firing the red flags started waving. I was shooting bulls eyes but on the wrong target.

That was the first and last time that I fired a rifle during the war.