Nobody knew
what to do with me so they just gave me jobs and I had my share of
washing pots and pans and peeling potatoes.
When this group shipped out, I got an order to see the camp
commander, a colonel. I didn't know what to expect but found out that
I had been listed as AWOL for the prior three months as they couldn't
find me. I was supposed to be at home waiting for them to call me!
This is the way everything went for me in the service. I could have
been home living on that big $21 a month and not doing all the dirty
work. My orders finally came and I went to Nashville, Tenn. by
myself, probably by train to the classification center. At the center
we had three days of intensive tests of all kinds to find out what we
were best qualified for: navigator, bombardier or pilot. Naturally,
everyone was hoping for pilot.
The tests were from morning till night and covered everything from
physicals, eye, hearing and coordination to reaction time. The test
for depth perception was particularly interesting. At the end of a
long tunnel about a foot in diameter and dimly lit were two wooden
pegs. You had to pull them with strings until they were opposite each
other. Another one involved a board in front of you while you sat at
a desk and the board had little red lights with switches below them.
When a light came on, you had to turn the switch off and you had to
move quickly to keep up. Another was a small hole in a board with a
wooden peg that would just go in without touching the sides.
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