Page 67 - Appendix A

Bill Norwood (1960 SUPT Student)

Ivan: My first question: I saw that you went to a majority white high school and
majority white college. Do you think that helped you in pilot training? Why or
why not?
Bill: I think it helped in pilot training, because I didn't know any African American
colleges that had flight training at that time.

Ivan: OK. But I mean from a cultural standpoint. I mean like everyone can't say that
they went to majority white high school; majority white community; and then,
you know, they went into majority white flying environment. Some people
came from majority black high school; a majority black, you know, situation.

Bill: Well, what happened is that in my high school and in college; I was active like in

high school. I played football. In college I played football. In college I was on the
Student Council, was a good student. We had about six or seven African-
Americans in a majority white university so we were able to get together as
African-Americans and socialize, and we did socialize with some whites at times.

Ivan: OK. My next question was, you went from Southern Illinois to Selma, Alabama
in 1960. Can you describe how the culture of that time affected or impacted
the training environment?

Bill: Well I went from Southern Illinois to Texas - the primary base which was in
Southeastern Texas, and when I was down there, there was one other African-

American who I happened to know, and he washed out. You know, we have
written exams at least once a month… I mean once a week and if you failed…
Seventy-eight was passing, you were brought up for counseling, or you know to
talk to the people. He made Seventy-six at one time or Seventy-seven. He was
very close to graduation and they bumped him right away.

Ivan: OK. So, your primary… when you say primary that was your initial phase of UPT?

Bill: Yes. We flew the T-34 and then flew the T-28.

Ivan: OK. So when you went to Alabama was that upgrade training for your airframe?

Bill: That was the basic training. We had primary training and basic training - UPT. Ok,
and I flew T-33 at Selma, at Craig Air Force Base, you know six months was at

Moore and six months at Craig Air Force Base.