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At the beginning of World War II, many young American men enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. My uncle Floyd N. "Hink" Henderson was one of them. He was the oldest of three sons and a daughter. His father, also Floyd served in WWI with the 80th Infantry division. My grandfather had been wounded twice and was gassed during the Battle of the Argone, he was none too happy to see his oldest son go off to war, the horrors of the Great War were still no doubt, fresh in his mind, but this was a different war and Hink wanted to play his part. It was his dream to become a fighter pilot and so after passing his physical and other tests, he began his pilot training along with his good friend Ronnie Heasley. All was going well during their training, then one day Ronnie Heasley was killed in a mid-air collision with another cadet. Heasley's death hit my uncle pretty hard and the realism that this was serious business set in. Heasley's death along with some other mishaps during the training of my uncle's class caused the Army Air Corps, that was in serious need of aerial combat gunners at the time, to wash out my uncle's entire class and retrain them as gunners. This would mean additional weeks of training, keeping my uncle stateside during some of the blackest days of WWII for the aircrews flying missions deep into the heart of Hitler's Third Reich. When my uncle finished gunnery training, he was assigned to a B-17 crew as a waist gunner for additional training and they were sent to England where they became replacement crew in the 457th Bomb group of the 8th Air Force at Glatton, England. My uncle flew on the last 22 missions of the war in Europe on a plane called the "Wild Hare" [link] . Although he was initially disappointed to have washed out of fighter pilot training, the additional training stateside as a aerial combat gunner may have saved his life. Although their missions were dangerous and many planes and crews were still being lost, by the time my uncle reached the ETO ( European Theater of Operations ), the Air Force had developed a superb long range fighter escort, the North American P-51 Mustang. The P-51 had no rival up until the advent of German jet fighters, but by that time it was too late. American and British aircraft ruled the skies over Europe and Allied troops on the ground were invading Germany from the West as Russian troops were invading from the east. The end was near.
My illustration shows my uncle and a flight instructor in a Stinson L-5 "Sentinel". The L-5 was a popular observation aircraft and was often referred to as the flying Jeep.

Adobe Illustrator 8.0, Apple Macintosh G3 iMac, OS 9.2.

Description
At the beginning of World War II, many young American men enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. My uncle Floyd N. "Hink" Henderson was one of them. He was the oldest of three sons and a daughter. His father, also Floyd served in WWI with the 80th Infantry division. My grandfather had been wounded twice and was gassed during the Battle of the Argone, he was none too happy to see his oldest son go off to war, the horrors of the Great War were still no doubt, fresh in his mind, but this was a different war and Hink wanted to play his part. It was his dream to become a fighter pilot and so after passing his physical and other tests, he began his pilot training along with his good friend Ronnie Heasley. All was going well during their training, then one day Ronnie Heasley was killed in a mid-air collision with another cadet. Heasley's death hit my uncle pretty hard and the realism that this was serious business set in. Heasley's death along with some other mishaps during the training of my uncle's class caused the Army Air Corps, that was in serious need of aerial combat gunners at the time, to wash out my uncle's entire class and retrain them as gunners. This would mean additional weeks of training, keeping my uncle stateside during some of the blackest days of WWII for the aircrews flying missions deep into the heart of Hitler's Third Reich. When my uncle finished gunnery training, he was assigned to a B-17 crew as a waist gunner for additional training and they were sent to England where they became replacement crew in the 457th Bomb group of the 8th Air Force at Glatton, England. My uncle flew on the last 22 missions of the war in Europe on a plane called the "Wild Hare" [link] . Although he was initially disappointed to have washed out of fighter pilot training, the additional training stateside as a aerial combat gunner may have saved his life. Although their missions were dangerous and many planes and crews were still being lost, by the time my uncle reached the ETO ( European Theater of Operations ), the Air Force had developed a superb long range fighter escort, the North American P-51 Mustang. The P-51 had no rival up until the advent of German jet fighters, but by that time it was too late. American and British aircraft ruled the skies over Europe and Allied troops on the ground were invading Germany from the West as Russian troops were invading from the east. The end was near.
My illustration shows my uncle and a flight instructor in a Stinson L-5 "Sentinel". The L-5 was a popular observation aircraft and was often referred to as the flying Jeep.

Adobe Illustrator 8.0, Apple Macintosh G3 iMac, OS 9.2.