Page 85 - Appendix A

left and right as a second lieutenant, as an officer. Whereas the flight officers
never got any of this, they were not an officer, so they could not hold an officer’s

position.

Ivan: What happened to all those guys when the Army Air Corps became the Air Force?
What happened to those people?

Bob: Well that was later on in ‘47.

Ivan: Yeah ‘47.

Bob: They, flight officers, they went overseas along with everyone else flying. A lot of

the guys went over there a great many of them as, in fact as flight officers.

Ivan: So if I'm understanding you correctly when we think of the Tuskegee Airmen
especially some of the earlier groups, the classes of ‘42, ’43, I'll say ‘43, are you
telling me that a lot of the people that when we think of the Tuskegee Airmen and
people that are flying the escort missions and doing the things that the Tuskegee
Airmen did, that many of those people were flight officers?

Bob: Yes, yes.

Ivan: Wow I've never heard that before.

Bob: In fact I was reviewing something not too long ago about Freeman Field, the
incident at Freeman Field, about the individuals that were arrested during that
period of time. Looking at the roster of the individuals who were up there at
Freeman going for B-25, I would say probably sixty maybe seventy percent of them
were flight officers.

Ivan: Oh wow.

Bob: So there were quite a few flight officers, and they did have a system set up where
they could graduate, not graduate but be promoted to a second lieutenant after
a period of time. But that of course was dependent upon their efficiency rating
and all that sort of stuff. But I know that there are some guys that went overseas
as flight officers, and they came back as flight officers.