We had a few Anomalies that came with our organization. One pilot came to us from a Basic Flying school.  His only experience was in single engine aircraft.  He had a total of around fifteen hundred hours.  His C-47 aircraft check out was given with about six other pilots on board.  Each pilot shot three touch-and-go landings and then left the seat for the next man. His turn to fly was in the middle of the sequence, so with the exception of three touch-and-go landings and the short roll down the runway, he had no experience in ground handling a twin engine aircraft.  Upon landing he was assigned a copilot and dispatched on his first training mission.  He did all right on his pre-flight and so climbed into the cockpit and looked around at the panel and switch locations.  He then motioned for the Crew Chief to come up and asked if he would coach him in the engine start.  The Crew Chief obliged and returned outside to give taxi signals.  Bowman was a small airfield, with the Civilian Airlines on one side and the Army Flight Operations on the other side.   We had fifty C-47 aircraft parked in the grass alongside a very narrow aircraft ramp.  The aircraft were positioned in three rows, facing the ramp, with about three feet between wing tips when parked.  We had about the same wing tip clearance between tail and nose of the parked aircraft to taxi between when we taxied out to fly.  The pilot called for the Crew Chief again and asked if he would taxi the aircraft, to the end of the runway.  The Crew Chief reached up and closed the mixture controls to the idle-cut-off position and said, "that’s it Lieutenant I don’t mind helping you start the engines, but I’m not qualified to give flight instructions." The Ops Officer set up a special class to teach ground handling to the pilot.  He later became our Operations Officer near the middle of the campaign in Burma.

     I knew I was destined to be a copilot, so I shopped around for a good, knowledgeable, first pilot.  I wanted to learn every thing I could about the C-47.   One of our fully qualified C-47 pilots, Don Mitchell, had come from the North East Air Command.  The NEAC serviced and provided air transportation between the United States and a string of air bases up the eastern coast of Canada and Greenland.  This was one of the routes flown by Ferry Command to England.  I suspected that he was considered an eight ball by the Squadron Wheels but he had quite a bit of C-47 time and a lot of experience in instrument flight, cold weather operations and long range navigation.   I wanted to learn from the experience of my pilot so I asked for him. I realized that any ill feelings toward him would probably transfer to me but when you are faced with combat that is a minor thing compared to being really prepared to do your best with your aircraft.  The drill for me was daily and included a heavy dose of instrument approaches and emergency procedures.  I don’t think I was permitted to make a full panel instrument approach in all of my time at Bowman.  Don would cage at least one gyro or cut an engine somewhere during the approach, (Sometimes both).  I practiced short field take offs and landings and single-engine landings and engine-out after takeoff until I could do them in my sleep.  I can remember being used to a climb speed of one hundred ten miles per hour from my AT-10 days and trying to get used to the one hundred twenty miles per hour climb speed of the C-47.  I was told to climb at one twenty twice.  When I slipped back to one ten the third time I was barely above the treetops and Michael cut an engine.  I went through the engine out procedure and then tried to establish a climb for altitude above the trees.  It was some time before I felt comfortable with my altitude, and Michael let me unfeather the dead engine.  The air was still a little cool at that time but at the completion of the exercise I was thoroughly wet with perspiration.  I had no problem maintaining one twenty after that exercise.  I think all of my lessons were of that nature.   If I couldn’t maintain a certain attitude or position, I would find out, by experience, what the hazard would be for not complying.  Lessons like these are hard to put aside or forget.  Their application to training builds in a sixth sense that the aircraft is approaching dangerous limits.  The pilot will feel that sensation without looking or surveying the situation.  It also generates a corrective response without conscious thinking. I thank my mentor many times over for the harsh realism he put me through.  His training saved my goose on many occasions over my life as a pilot.   When we finally arrived in combat, the experience was a lot less stressful than at Bowman.  We were held over in training for about one additional month. I don’t know the reason.