It all started in WASHINGTON DC on December 7, 1942 as I raised my right hand and became a member of the United States Army Air Corps. With others we were off by bus to we knew not where until we arrived at Camp lee, Virginia. around midnight. We were up at 5 AM for a day of filling out papers, medical exams, film viewing and a lot of shouting by the drill instructors.
Up again the next day we were issued a thing called a barracks bag where we were to place all our belongings, sans coat hangers as we prepared to board another bus to the train station to board a troop train to our BASIC TRAINING station. We heard not a thing about our destination until scuttlebutt (a new word to me )indicated we were heading south. That is all we knew until we passed through Richmond, Virginia then saw signs we were passing through North Carolina. Still traveling south we started to see Palm trees that probably meant we were in or about to be in Florida. Going through the whole State we arrived in Miami. Leaving the train we were transported by Army Truck to Miami Beach. Hardly what we expected.
We were assigned to our "Accommodations", a small hotel on Washington Avenue. The Army had leased practically all the hotels in Miami Beach. We shared a room, four men to a room with one bath. Certainly superior to some places we could have gone. Our drill field was the old Lincoln Park golf course on the northern part of the beach. We marched to that location, about a mile from our hotel three times a week and trained on the beach the other three days. My roommate and I spent Christmas Day on the beach.
But all good things come to an end as we learned that after 20 days of Basic Training we received orders to ship out. We were headed to our first AIR BASE FOR DUTY ASSIGNMENT.