Historical Documents from World War II
Midland Army Air Field
Class 43-11, Midland Army Air Field, Midland, Texas
Authors:
- none listed
Published:
- circa 1943
Categories:
- Bombardment
- Class Books
- Training
Class/Unit Number:
- 43-11: Class 43-11
Special Features:
- Hometowns - Includes cadets' hometowns
Locations:
- Midland Army Air Field; Midland, Texas, USA
Contributors:
- Ben Guttery
- Marty Upchurch
Repositories:
- Private Collection
This is one of 2 items in the Midland series.
Direct Link (Item 000526):
- https://aafcollection.info/items/list.php?item=000526
Citation:
- Army Air Forces Collection, "Midland Army Air Field: Class 43-11, Midland Army Air Field, Midland, Texas" (item 000526), AAF Collection, https://AAFCollection.info/items/list.php?item=000526 (accessed 28 April 2024).
Added: November 24, 2013
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Class book for bombardier class 43-11 at the Midland Army Air Field, Midland, Texas.
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Comments
[2] John R Edwards (01-Mar-2021 02:58 AM)
Thank you for scanning this book. My uncle, William B. Edwards was in this class 43-11 as a Cadet (Page 39). I was looking for information about him, including training, so this was very helpful. I didn't see dates of the class, does anyone know when it started and ended?
William, or "Son" as everyone called him was killed in action in his B-24D on the first pathfinder mission from Nadzab, New Guinea to bomb Yap Island. He was in the 5th AAF, 43rd Bombardment Group, 64th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy). His ship was seen burning on the ocean on 13 June 1944, 8 days before his 28th birthday. His plane had nose art called "Uncle Sam" and was 42-72811. At the time they crashed the pilot, 1Lt Duvall had 250 combat hours. I presume that Son had the same as I think the crews stayed together. In March he wrote my father that he already had 156 combat hours and was half way to his quota of 300. He also wrote, "In our last mission finally got moved into the lead position after all those missions flying wing. That really makes more work for me as I'm responsible for the bombs of the 3 ships in the element. To celebrate our promotion we went out and got ourselves a 6000 ton Jap freighter transport. Believe it or not I was pretty well pleased with myself. That's not bad for on old man, what?"
I had heard that Son was in pilot training before bombardier school and I have a picture of him with a Fairchild-19 trainer. But I don't know where that would have been. My father said that Son had been flathatting and a farmer got his numbers and reported him, so I guess that got him knocked out of pilot school. That would make sense because Son entered the Army in April 1942. I don't know how long he went to boot camp or to OCS if those were not combined into other training.
His last letter to my dad also mentioned that he planned to get married to "Yvonne" who I think he met in Texas.
Again, thank you for preserving this great information.
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Army Air Forces Collection Item 000526 is licensed by Mike Voisin under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. |
[1] Philippe Vanderdonckt (25-Nov-2013 01:09 AM)
Hello, after several years of patience finally class-book 43-11 ;-) I did and do research on 2ndLT Francis L. Beck who is in this book. In 2012 got a scan of page 34 with his photo. More info here http://users.skynet.be/2ltmalrait_gilbert/beckstoryE.htm
If someone has more personal photos of Class 43-11 with maybe photos of 2ndLT Francis Beck please contact me.
Thanks in advance
PS: Also look for Yearbook 1943 Selman Field Navigator school of Monroe, LA. Am look for photo of class 43-5 flight 67 with 2LT Gilbert A. Malrait.