re: Relatives that served in World War 2

Dad joined the Marines as soon as he turned 18. He went to the first level of flight school in Oklahoma. He was the first one in his class to clear all the "checks". He was bored on day, and buzzed the tower. He was punished by having to spend the day in the tower (which he had wanted to do anyway).

New CO comes in and wants to ship Dad off to a Navy seaman training facility. But, because Dad has been "punished" for buzzing the tower, the CO's CO told him that they could not punish Dad twice. Because of the delay, he went to Pensacola for his next training phase (which was a better place than where his classmates went).

He ended up in the only group getting trained for four engine planes (the Privateer, the Marine version of the B-24). The Marines would disband the group several times, only to reinstate them.

At the last disbanding, Dad was told to get on a ship to go to Guam for a fighter detail. Dad said he was "ecstatic" because he had been a long time to go out in the Pacific. He's on the ship and a group of MP's comes on board and hauls him off, saying that he was wanted for desertion (even though he was on a Navy ship). He said was a really nervous until the Col. came down and said "he isn't here for desertion, we pulled him off the ship because we are staring a four engine squadron and he's going to be one of the pilots."