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This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to Robert H Allison.

Running between Des Moines and Ottumwa was the Des Moines River on its way to the Mississippi River. This was a stretch of 90 miles as the crow flies or about 200 miles of "S" turns as a snake crawls. There was one guy in our platoon who had been a roommate of Don Bopp in pre-flight and was of the same conceited nature as Bopp, a "Hot Pilot". One day, on one of his solo flights, he was getting his "Jollies" by skimming just above the water making "S" turns between the trees. What he didn't see was this electric cable stretched between two poles on either side of the river. The cable caught the wheels of his training plane and flipped it on it's back in the river. The guy got out of the plane and swam to shore with his parachute on his back. Was picked up, returned to the field, reported to the flight office, was discharged and was on his way home that afternoon. The administration was somewhat considerate of errors but was completely intolerant of horseplay and foolishness.

In the service you meet very few people you knew in civilian life. This happened to me on only three occasions during my time in the service. The first time was here at Ottumwa. One day a whole bunch of us cadets were getting on one of the cattle cars (buses that ferried people around the station) when I suddenly recognized the sailor who was driving the bus. It was a guy by the name of Clifford Anderson. He and I entered kindergarten at Park Avenue elementary school and were in the same homerooms and classes in every grade and graduated together. I was surprised to find him driving a bus because he was not only a fairly bright guy but was a first string halfback on our high school football team. He was also a good-looking guy and quite the ladies man. Needless to say, I was quite envious of him in high school. On several occasions when I had the time I would jump in the cab with him and ride around the station discussing good old times.

The only time I was ever in the hospital was here at Ottumwa. In pre-flight I had gotten blisters on the back of both my legs where the tops of my boots constantly were rubbing. The blisters turned into nasty sores and after a couple of months I went to sick bay to have them treated. They not only treated the sores but also kept me in bed for three days.

Every time a person arrives at a station or leaves a station he is given a physical and a dental check. When I was checking out of Ottumwa I was told that I had about five minor cavities which the dentist filled. Upon arriving at Pensacola I was checked and told I had several minor cavities and these were also filled. I didn't have guts enough or brains enough to ask what the hell was coming off. My guess is that these dentists were getting in a lot of practice at the expense of a bunch of defenseless cadets. We suspected that our squadron doctor operated at the drop of a complaint just to keep his hand in. There were very few calls for surgery with a bunch of healthy young men.

Continued.....
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