By George Everding LCDR USN (ret)
The Navy training planes used the grass area
between the runways so while it was still daylight we would set out the flare
pots to mark the runways. The night flying duty officer would tell us where to
set up, and the first couple of nights, went out on the field with us to
supervise the operation. Eight flare pots were set up in 2 lines (4 to a line)
about 25 yards apart. Each line was about 200 yards long. There were no other
lights on the field so the pilots from the air would see the 75’ by 600’ runway
marked by the lit flares. Pilots would learn to judge the proper glide path by
how far apart the flares appeared to be.
Night flights were about an hour and a half in duration. They would never fly
out of sight of the airport. Fifteen of the thirty planes would fly a step down
echelon formation at about 1500 to 2000 feet altitude with an instructor in the
lead plane and another flying tail end Charlie. The other fifteen would do touch
and go landings. After about 45 minutes the groups would shift so each pilot had
45 minutes of night formation flying and 45 minutes of takeoffs and landings.
One night as we were refueling the aircraft between flights a plane captain said
to me, “George, you had better come look at this.” The gas tank on the Stearman
is the center section of the upper wing. We climbed to the top of the wing and
there in the center of the tank was an oval shaped depression about 4 inches
deep which appeared to have been made by the bottom of an airplane tire. Some
Naval Aviators have said that the only thing that frightened them more than
their first few solo night flights in Stearman N2S airplanes in Primary Flight
Training, was night landings on a carrier. Cadets were taught to “slow fly”
their airplanes, that is, fly at a knot or two above stalling speed, carrying
just enough power to maintain a glide path that will get them to the ground just
past the first flare pots. It was very similar to a carrier approach. On very
dark moonless nights they could not see the ground or how high they were above
it, all they could see was the two rows of flare pots defining the runway. A
proper glide path was established by estimating the distance between the flare
pots on each side of the runway. If they appeared to be too far apart you were
too high, too close you were too low. An instructor flew with the student until
the instructor felt that the student was safe for solo. Except for the final
landing, all others were “touch and go”. As the student was on final approach to
that black hole between the flare pots he was “feeling” for the
ground. As soon as he felt his wheels touch he would immediately advance the
throttle to its full position and take off. Apparently two planes tried to land
in the same spot at the same time and when the student in the upper plane felt
what he thought was the ground he swiftly advanced the throttle and took off.
How fortunate they were. If the upper plane had been just a foot or two
ahead or behind the other plane both students would probably have been killed.
When we told the night flying duty officer about the incident, he queried all
the students on that flight but none of them remembered being that close to
another plane on landing. Or perhaps they didn’t dare admit it for fear of being
“washed out”.
The line crew did no mechanical repairs. We preflighted the planes, refueled and
reoiled the planes, directed them out of and back into their parking spots and
secured them when the day was done. Initially we washed the planes as necessary
but when the student load increased we had Aviation Cadets assigned to us to
take over this chore. Many years later I met several officers in the fleet who
had gone through training in St. Louis. When they complained about having to
wash airplanes there and I told them I had been stationed there they remembered
me as, “That mean guy who made us wash planes over and over again until we got
them clean”.
Whenever we had mechanical problems on the airplane we would push the plane into
the hangar for the Check Crew who would make the repair. Sometimes they would
fix them on the line. John Strohmeyer worked on the Check Crew and was standing
behind Bill Kuhhirte who was working on an engine while the plane was on the
line. The engine was running so he could make the proper adjustment. John
wanted to go to the hangar and walked straight out from where he was standing.
Those of us who worked around the whirling propellers had a healthy respect for
them and would walk next to the wing with a part of our body touching the
leading edge of the lower wing until we reached the end of the wing. Only then
would we walk forward and away from the airplane. As John started walking the
tip of the propeller struck him near the top of his head. Doctor Sam Bassett and
the ambulance crew was able to save his life but he had to wear a metal plate in
his head for the rest of his life.
After Pearl Harbor many different types of aircraft on their way to the war
would be ferried through St. Louis. Army Air Corps types would be refueled at
the Air National Guard base and Navy planes at our base. A B-26 Martin Marauder
was refueled at the Guard and crashed on takeoff. Apparently he lost power just
as he left the ground so he pulled his wheels up and “mushed” into the slight
incline at the end of the runway. The plane started on fire. The Navy provided
all the crash, fire and rescue services at the airport so the alarm from the
tower sounded in the crash truck garage which was adjacent to operations on the
east end of our ramp. We did not have enough people to have full time permanent
crash crew at that time so I had assigned one of the new men to be the driver of
the truck. His station was in the cab of the truck and he was directed to start
and warm up the truck frequently. When the alarm sounded he would drive the
truck out onto the ramp and wait. All of the plane captains who worked on the
section of the line in front of the hangar and operations had received crash and
rescue training and would rush to the truck and climb aboard even as the truck
was rolling. As soon as six men were aboard, the senior man
would signal the driver who would then take off for the crash. Sometimes the
driver would just slow down when he would get the signal to proceed to the
crash.
One of the pieces of the equipment on the truck was the “Hot Suit”, a fire
resistant coveralls made of asbestos fiber with a bright silver coating to
reflect the heat away from the wearer. On the day when the B-26 crashed I was
the first one on the truck so I started to don the Hot Suit. We did not have a
two way radio in the truck so the driver had to watch the tower for light
signals telling us when it was safe to cross runways and proceed to the crash.
We also had no way of knowing how many people were in the plane. The plane was
engulfed in flames and the heat was intense close to the plane. On the way out I
had told one of the men to watch for the first National Guard person to come up
and to tell him to find out how many people were on the plane when it left their
hangar. If we knew that everyone had escaped from the plane we would not have to
take any extraordinary effort to get into the plane to rescue someone trapped
inside. I could see that we would soon run out of the water in the truck holding
tank so I instructed the men to start setting up to pump water from a nearby
creek. At first we used foam but soon realized that the foam generator and the
nozzle we had put out such a small amount of foam that it was completely
ineffective so we changed to water. As I moved closer to the plane spraying
water from the fire hose I realized that I would start on fire myself before I
reached the after hatch to get into the plane to bring any one else out. I
dropped back and asked one of the crew to get another hose and squirt water on
me so that I could move up closer. This didn’t do much good so I dropped back
again. Someone said the pilot and copilot had escaped through the front hatch
and broken windshield and there was no one else in the plane. I dropped back
again and we kept pouring water on while we watched the fire burn out..
We returned to the hangar and started to clean up our gear and the truck. When I
took off the hot suit my skin was red from the heat and my clothes was soaked
with perspiration. Dr. Sam Bassett came up and said that he had just learned
that there was, in fact, a third person aboard the plane. This was a great shock
to me. All I could say was, “Oh my God, I should have got him out!!” Doc
Bassett said, “Don’t worry about that until we recover the body. When do you
think the wreckage will be cool enough for us to start recovery of the body?.” I
said, “About midnight.” He said I will meet you here at Operations at midnight.
We will go out there then.”
I picked John Barrale from the duty section to go out with Doctor Bassett and I
to try to find the remains of the other person in the plane. About midnight we
loaded several tools that I thought we would need for this chore. I had gone out
just before dark to survey the situation and noted that the plane had burned
almost completely. The fuselage around the area where I thought the body
would be was completely burned and the debris was a small mound on the ground.
We took several shovels, a pick, a rake and several small garden type tools to
do the delicate digging and searching that would be necessary. We also brought a
heavy cardboard box to carry whatever remains we would find. I asked the Public
Works transportation Department to provide a lighting truck to help in the task.
The truck had a bank of about six large floodlights mounted on the back and a
large generator to provide the power for the lights. We worked from the outside
edge of the fuselage just aft of the cockpit searching a path about 3 feet wide
as we moved across the fuselage or what was left of it. After about three or
four sweeps across we noticed a different odor, something like cooked meat.
Doctor Bassett said we were getting close and searched more
slowly. We soon saw what we were looking for. Only the torso remained, the arms
and legs had burned off in the intense heat of the fire. Doc Bassett and I dug
around the body until we could slide two quarter inch thick wooden boards about
4 inches wide underneath the body. John Barrale was standing by watching the
procedure. As we lifted the boards to place the body in the box we had brought
with us the stomach burst open and a terrible stench arose from the corpse. That
did it for John. He went over to the side and was sick. As we drove back to the
base and sick bay I asked Doctor Bassett to try to determine if he had died in
the crash or in the fire because I still wanted to know if I could have saved
him. The next day Doctor Bassett called and said not to worry, his head
was crushed in the crash and he was dead before the fire. I never knew if he
said that just to make me feel better or if it was the truth but I really didn’t
want to know.
There wasn’t enough room on our parking ramp for all of our airplanes so quite a
number of them were parked on the west side of the airport on the ramp in front
of several hangars and the civilian terminal. Bus service between Navy
Operations and the other side of the field was started to carry students,
instructors and mechanics back and forth. Our mechanics preferred to work over
there because civilians were able to get very close to our planes. Local females
found out about this and quite often many pretty girls would be seen standing
close to the fence and our boys were able to show off. We had to close off large
areas to the public to keep our boys from walking into props and to make sure
the work was done.
The first control tower was located on top of the civilian terminal building on
the west side of the airport. Later when the airport expanded to the east a
control tower was built on top of the Navy hangar. About the time that the Navy
was evicted from Lambert Field by the city and the National Guard a larger,
higher control tower was built near the front gate of the Naval Base with a
large building at the base of the tower for the Federal Aviation Administration
local offices. Until the late 1950’s planes without two way radios were allowed
to operate from Lambert Field. The tower controlled traffic for these planes by
means of an Aldis Lamp. It had a sight on the top for aiming red, green or
yellow light signals at a specific airplane and pilot.
Even before we moved to the new base additional construction was started on the
south side of Natural Bridge Road. A large steam power plant was constructed
which provided steam for the entire base. About a dozen large 2 story, 4-dorm
barracks were constructed for the cadets, enlisted men and Waves who started to
arrive by the hundreds. A Bachelor Officers Quarters, a recreation hall. an
Olympic size swimming pool, a large gymnasium, a mess hall, a sick bay
including some hospital facilities, a training building and many smaller
buildings were added. All over the country construction was going on using the
same design so wherever we went we seemed to be not far from home. In southern
climes from about Memphis south, most of the buildings did not have any
insulation or plaster walls. From the inside you would see the inside of the
siding and the wall studs. The barracks contained open dorms with rows of double
bunks and
lines of metal lockers. The showers were large rooms with concrete floors with a
sewer in the center of the floor and shower heads sticking out of the walls at
intervals. Toilet facilities were also in an open room with a row of commodes
along one wall and a row of urinals attached to the opposite wall. Not much
privacy there!! We had to move out of the first barracks we lived in because it
was remodeled to accommodate the women sailors, the Waves. We had some
serious discussions trying to determine just exactly what changes had to be
made. Naturally we were very interested in the head and shower facilities. After
reconstruction was well on the way several sailors went into the barracks after
the construction workers had left for the night but they never told us what they
found.
The draft and the volunteering for military service caused by the attack on
Pearl harbor resulted in more and more sailors arriving for duty at NAS Lambert
Field. By March of 1942 there were about 160 Enlisted men (including CPO’s) at
the base. Although most of the people we received right out of boot camp or mech
school were almost useless to us when they first arrived, they soon learned from
the rest of us and gained the experience necessary to help us “keep them
flying”. Later we did gain some senior and experienced men. Retired personnel
were called back to active duty and some others came from the fleet because
family or health problems required that they be in our area. Marine Corps Master
Sergeant Wilkins reported aboard and was placed in charge of the line. The
west ramp was completed and finally all of our airplanes were parked and
operated from the new base. I was glad to turn over my job to MSGT Wilkins
because I was receiving 2nd Class Petty Officer pay for doing a job that had a
considerable amount of responsibility.
Many civilian aircraft were purchased by the Army or Navy and used in the
training program or in the air transport programs. NAS St. Louis received a
Beechcraft Stagger wing Biplane (Navy Designation - GB-1) which the Navy had
purchased from a west coast owner. It was a four place airplane (but it could
seat five if the three people in the back were not huge) with an R-985 Pratt &
Whitney engine and the cabin was upholstered inside like a car. The stagger
wing, so called because the upper wing was positioned aft of the lower wing, the
opposite of other biplanes, was first built by Walter Beech in 1932. It was
faster than Army and Navy pursuit planes of the time and was the most stylish
and beautiful private plane built. It had a hand rubbed finish as glossy as
modern autos have today. It cruised at about 200 miles per hour and had the most
comfortable ride in it’s time. Most early civilian D17’s (Beech Model) had
smaller 250 Horsepower engines. We were fortunate to get the larger 450 HP
engine. 750 GB-2’s with the P&W R-985 engines were built for the Navy during WW2
GB-1 Navy Serial #09772 arrived at NAS St. Louis about July of 1942. I don’t
remember why I was picked to be the plane captain on that aircraft. Perhaps it
was because it was the “Captain’s Airplane” and no one else wanted to have the
responsibility for that “Sacred Cow”. I had been plane captain on the previous
“Captain’s Airplane” the SNJ. Or it may have been because about the time it
arrived the more senior chiefs and MSGT Wilkens took over the line and I was out
of a job. I like to think that Chief Joe Arkes and Herb Wieseman the most
experienced engine and aircraft chiefs on the base, believed that I had the
training and experience to see that it got the proper conversion to Navy
specifications and regular maintenance.
There were quite a few modifications that had to be made. Naval aircraft of this
kind have dual controls. The plane must be able to be flown from either of the
front seats. This aircraft had what was called a “Swing Over” control column.
There was only one control wheel but it could be swung over to the other side.
This did not meet Navy Specifications so the whole column had to be removed and
a standard Navy “T” column installed. Navy brakes operate by pushing forward on
the top of the rudder pedal. This plane’s brakes operated by pushing in on the
bottom of the rudder pedal. That had to be changed. Some radio and navigation
equipment changes had to be made. Apparently our skipper, Capt. Averill didn’t
mind flying it in it’s civilian condition. My logbook shows
that Capt. Averill with me as a passenger flew it to Glenview on July 1st and
returned on July 2nd, 1942. I took notes on it’s operational performance such
as, air speed at certain engine operating conditions and other instrument
reading at various settings. I wanted to have something to compare to when I had
completed all the changes and had the plane in operating condition again. The
next GB entry in my logbook is August 11th, 1942, a test flight with Lcdr. Bob
Corley, so it took a little over a month to get all the modifications done. I
lived on the base and had been used to working about 12 hours a day on the line
because of the shortage of men so I continued to work those hours on the GB.
Neither Capt. Averill nor Cdr. Corley had ever flown a GB before but to pilots
of our era planes were not that different. You read and studied the pilots
handbook for the airplane, spent an hour or so in the cockpit familiarizing
yourself with the gauges and controls, and you were ready to go. Now it scares
me when I think about going up in an airplane, that I had complete
responsibility for, at such an early time in my career as a mechanic, with a
pilot who had
never flown that kind of aircraft before. But the Aeromechanics course at Hadley
Vocational School was very comprehensive, I had three years experience working
on operating aircraft behind me and I had the normal ego of a 21 year old
sailor.
I had all the manual labor help I needed, but the experienced mechanics and shop
chiefs (except for Joe Arkes) avoided me, I guess because they did not want to
be responsible if something went wrong. I know that many of them expected many
things to go wrong when they saw the magnitude of the work that had to be
performed. One of the pilots flew me in a Stearman N2S trainer to the Beech
plant in Wichita. There I was able to get some advice but none of the workers
there had ever heard of anyone making the changes we wanted to make. They did
help me select all the parts we thought I would need and had them shipped to St.
Louis.
First I removed the engine and set it on an engine stand in the engine shop. Joe
Arkes was a great help for me. He was always available for help and I knew he
was watching over me and making sure I was doing everything right. Although he
knew most of the clearances by heart he would not give me a specific answer but
would show me where to find it in the book. Like Cdr. Geppert at Hadley he
taught me to always refer to the book and not trust my memory. This was a
complete major overhaul so the engine was dismantled completely down to it’s
smallest part. Parts for the P&W R-985 were readily available so when in doubt a
part was replaced. I did not install the overhauled engine until after the other
work was completed to provide access and to make the repaint job easier. I do
remember the great thrill the first time I started the engine.and it roared into
life. A small crowd had gathered but it was Joe Arkes I wanted to celebrate
with.
The modifications to the plane itself were not as complicated as I thought they
would be. Most planes of that era used push-pull rods for moving the control
surfaces. The GB, however, used cables. We had to make new cables for aileron
controls. Proper tension on the control cables is very important primarily
because of the large range of temperatures the aircraft operated in. The
steel cables expanded or contracted with the change in temperature. We had the
proper tool, a tensiometer, but could find no specifications. I researched our
technical library, talked to several civilian on the other side of the field but
found little help. Fortunately I had measured the tension on the old cables
before I removed them so that was the tension we used and hoped that the old
cables had been at the correct tension. It worked out OK but I checked the
cables frequently. Because the war was going on we had to paint the plane in
Navy camouflage colors, blue like the ocean on the top and light gray on the
bottom. It broke our heart to have to cover that glossy hand rubbed finish with
flat paint. When we flew the airplane we found that the paint had caused us to
lose almost 10 knots of air speed.
Although many of the officers had looked forward to flying the GB, they had very
little opportunity to fly it after Capt. Averill left in September of 1942. The
new skipper, W.C. Greene was different. He considered the GB to be his private
airplane.and seemed to resent anyone else flying it. We had heard that he was a
used car salesman on the east coast and was called to active duty after Pearl
Harbor. None of the officers liked him and most of the junior officers actually
feared him. Their fear was well founded as I was to discover when I was to leave
the base for flight training. Whenever I had to take the plane out of service
for maintenance, I reported the fact to Lt. Dodge, the Operations Officer. After
Capt. Greene reported aboard he told me he did not want to be the one to tell
the skipper. So whenever it was necessary I would call the captain and ask him
if he had any plans for flying the plane, tell him of the problem and how long I
needed to do the job. Most of the time I had little difficulty with him. I
usually scheduled regular maintenance for the time when we
knew he would be away from the base. I had many problems with the brake system.
It was hydraulically operated and was very different from the mechanical systems
we were used to. Getting parts was very difficult. When we finally did get the
parts in I called the captain and asked him if I could down the plane for
maintenance while I overhauled both brakes. He proceeded to berate me over the
phone, saying in a very derisive tone, “What’s your rate?” He knew very
well what my rate was and when I told him he said, “You have that plane ready to
go in a half hour or I will have your rate.” I believe he really meant it. I
said, “Captain, I can have it ready to go in that time and the brakes will hold
while we taxi out but I cannot guarantee them to work after we land.” His
response was, “Ridiculous!” or words to that effect in much stronger language.
He arrived at operations exactly a half hour later ready to fly. He always
insisted that I fly with him so I climbed into the plane with him. After he
started the engine he tested the brakes and said, “These brakes are fine, don’t
tell me they wont be when we come back down.” I knew that the brakes were more
apt to leak when the wheels were up. Several officers had been standing in
operations while I talked to the captain on the phone and heard my side of the
conversation and some of the shouting on his side. When we landed there was a
large crowd of officers on the balcony above operations waiting for us to land
and taxi in. They were not disappointed for during our rollout after landing
the right brake failed completely and we ground looped. The captain had not said
a word all during the flight and didn’t say anything as we sat there off the
runway but it was obvious that he was furious. I expected him to chew me out
placing the blame on me but he just sat there. I asked him if it would be OK for
me to “walk the wing” so we could get back to the line. He just nodded his head
so I got out of the plane and walked alongside of the wing guiding the plane. As
we passed operations all the officers on the balcony watched but not one of them
even smiled or showed their enjoyment of the captain’s foul up.
I had wondered why the skipper flew often but usually only for a few minutes, sometimes just once around the field. Lt. Dodge explained that whenever he would call the captain to ask permission for someone to fly the plane the captain would say no because he wanted to fly. Then he would come down to fly the airplane for a short time. Finally most of the officers gave up.
"Capt. K.P. Kaufman
inspects the chiefs" at St. Louis NAS.
I had applied for flight training in the Naval Aviation Pilot (NAP) program
while in Pensacola and continued to apply after I returned to NAS St. Louis.
Federal Law up until 1947 required that 20% of all military pilots be enlisted
men. To get into the Naval Aviation Cadet Program you had to have at least two
years of college. Thanks in part to my old champion, Cdr. John Geppert, my
mentor from Hadley Vocational School days, I was now about to realize my dream,
an opportunity to become an NAP. I had been inquiring every few weeks at the
Personnel Office about the status of my application for flight training. Finally
in early 1943 they told me to report to the Naval Aviation Cadet Selection Board
at their office in downtown St. Louis. When I arrived I discovered that the
Officer-in-Charge was Cdr. Geppert and that all the papers connected with my
application had been transferred to his office. The rules had changed. The Navy
was now accepting applicants for NAVCAD training with only a high school
diploma. The board however was very selective because all of them had degrees
and some felt that you could not make it through without a degree. We had
to pass a very strenuous physical, pass the Flight Aptitude Test with a higher
score and have aviation experience with excellent evaluations from our senior
officers.
Although I had five years of high school, two at the seminary and three at
Hadley, several of the officers on the board claimed that a Hadley Vocational
School Diploma was not the equivalent of a regular high school diploma. They
were about to reject my application when Cdr. Geppert said that if I could get a
statement from a university stating that they would accept me based on my
transcript and grades the Navy could not reject me. So they agreed to accept me
if I could get that statement. I think those against me felt that no university
would give me the necessary statement.
I went to St. Louis University on Grand Ave. and asked for the Dean of Men. When
I told him what I needed he did not even look at my papers but said, “ Anyone
crazy enough to want to fly off of those aircraft carriers in wartime ought to
have his chance to try. We need more like you.” He signed the papers, I
presented them to the Board and was accepted for the program.
My orders read for me to be detached from NAS St. Louis on May 1, 1943. The
promotion list had come out and my name was on the list to be promoted to
Aviation Machinist Mate 1st Class effective May 1, 1943. When I received my
orders I noted that they did not reflect this promotion so I contacted the
Personnel Officer to find out why. He said that the Commanding Officer refused
to sign the necessary papers. Apparently he had strongly recommended to the CO
that he sign the papers but the CO seemed to have his own reasons for not doing
so. I was furious. I went to his office and asked to see him. When I walked in
he said, “ Did you come to say goodbye?”. I said, “No sir, I want to know why
you wont approve the promotion that I worked so hard for.” He said, “I don’t owe
you anything”, and then talked about his embarrassment when the brakes did not
hold and seemed to blame me for that and other problems. I left his office still
furious. But I knew him well enough and should have known that my visit would be
a waste of time.
Sixteen months later I received my wings as a Naval Aviator and a commission as
Ensign in the US Naval Reserve. I as ordered to duty at Nas Pensacola as a
Flight Instructor. About three months later I was assigned to Barin Field where
I taught Aircraft Carrier Tactics, Navigation, Gunnery and Dive Bombing. After
the WW2 war was over I was offered inactive duty so I resigned my commission and
enlisted in the Regular Navy at the enlisted rating I had when I entered Flight
Training. I was recommissioned in May of 1962. I retired from the Navy on May
1st, 1971 .
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