• Aust, Rose. Personal Interview. 16 Apr. 2006.

• Rose worked in her father’s drugstore during the war because the men that worked their prior to the war were drafted.
• World War II was a different kind of war than the one taking place today. The war embodied the whole world at the time.
• Thousands of women volunteered for the Red Cross trying to take part in the war effort.
• It seemed like most everything war rationed: shoes, tired, gasoline…

•  Brokaw, Tom. The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections. New York: Random, 1999.
• Struggles, risks, the long separations, the relief of survival forged uncommonly strong families.
• Thousands of “quickie” marriages because men had to go off to fight.
• At home, many women worked for the Red Cross volunteering to wrap bandages and make packages for infirmaries over seas.

Women and people in the home front became aware of soldiers that died and were missing in action before the men fighting did.

• Brokaw, Tom. The Greatest Generation. New York: Random, 1998.
• “They came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America- men and women whose everyday lives of duty, honor, achievement, and courage gave us the world we have today.”
• Women began working in factories, taking over the men’s jobs while they were over seas fighting.
• Women everywhere felt that had to give something back and take their part in the war effort.
• Women thought that their jobs were menial, but in all reality, they helped America keep moving economically.

4. Carhart, George. Personal Interview. 17 April 2006.

• If you enlisted at 18, you could chose your branch of the military
• If you were drafted, you had no choice about what branch you served in.
• Many soldiers were trained and ready to fight, didn’t get a chance because the war ended.
• They kept getting moved around domestically to keep them busy.
• Loading bombs on planes for the bombardiers to train.
• Repairing radios (training for radio mechanics)
• With each move the soldiers had to pass different tests.

5. Craven, W.F., Ed. “The Army Air Forces in Word War II.” Hyper War Foundation. 20 April 2006 <http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/I/AAF-I-4.html>.

• America was preparing 3 years before Pearl Harbor for a war they didn’t originally want to get into. S-top
• “Asserting that "increased range, increased speed, increased capacity of airplanes abroad have changed our requirement for defensive action," President Roosevelt strongly urged that $300,000,000 be appropriated for the purchase of aircraft for the Army.” S-1/16
• Goal was to have several combat groups ready: trained, organized, and equipped. S-1/16
• Airplane production, training schedules and provisions for new air installations were also refined. S-1/16
• Mid-1940, Air Corps was given permission to train unlimited amounts of pilots; many men took advantage of this. S-1/8
• Went from about 300 pilots a year to 50,000 pilots a year from 1939 to three years later. S-1/8

• Physical tests, mental tests (SAT), and Air Force specialty tests (ex. Depth-perception)
• Three main jobs in Air Force to train for: Pilots, Bombardiers, Mechanics

6. “Early History.” America’s Air Force. 20 April 2006
<http://www.af.mil/history/decade.asp?dec=Early_Years>.
7. Giampaoli, Cristina. “Women and World War II.” 2003. University of San Diego.
            20 Apr. 2006. < http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~cg3/outline.html >

• During the war, women left their families for 8-12 hours a day to work in factories.
• The development of wartime economy had given women more freedom than they had ever had before.
• Women were subjected to long hours, little benefits, low-cost and low-quality child care facilities, not to mention almost unprecedented physical demands, it was possible, and that for many women losing their job was a blessing.
• Items that women needed to ration were silk, nylon, rayon, cotton, and wool. All of these materials were in high demand because they made parachutes, aircraft and military clothing, tents, and even gunpowder bags.

8. Pixlar, Dennis R. “The United States Army Air Forces in World War II.” 4 July
1997. AAF. 20 April 2006 <http://personal.trxinc.com/dpixler/>.
9. Waln, Nora. “Letters from the Manchurian Border” and “The War that Is Not                      War.” The Atlantic Monthly. May and June 1942.

• Men were not eager to leave their families; they knew it was going to be a tough war to fight.
• At first, women were not sure of how they could help the war effort because it began very quickly.
• Almost immediately after men were drafted, women began searching for jobs but men that were still in America protested women working in factories and driving cabs and busses.

10. “World War II History.” USAF Museum. 20 April 2006
<http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/wwii.htm>.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• “When the U.S. entered the war in Dec. 1941, the AAF continued with the type of pilot training program it had originally established in 1939 -- primary flying schools operated by civilian companies under contract and basic and advanced flying schools operated by the AAF.”
• Pilots started with 60 hours (9 weeks) of flight training in primary flight school
• Basic Flight Training – 70 hours in 9 weeks; made military pilots out of those who just knew the fundamentals
• “In addition to operating an airplane of greater weight, horsepower, and speed such as the BT-9 or BT-13, the cadet was taught how to fly at night, by instruments, in formation, and on cross-country from one point to another.”
• Advanced Flying School – trained men on the planes they were to flying in combat (AT-6, AT-9)
• “Loss rate of approximately 40 percent due to accidents, academic or physical problems, and other causes.”
• After graduating flight school, some men put in squadrons ready to go overseas, other placed in replacement squadrons

 

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