My dad was AAF and soloed a Stearman in 1942; then he had an attack of hay
fever and they washed him out. Curiously, he never told me he'd been in
flight training until long after I'd bought my plane; it came out when I
grilled him about his WWII experience.
I had an uncle who was a B-29 crew chief and went on after the war to
run a metal shop for Pan Am. And a great-great uncle who flew in WWI, but
he was dead long before I knew him and I never learned what unit he was in.

Seth
wrote in message
oups.com...
None, in my case. My father had an uncle by marriage who was a pilot.
He took my
dad up one time (long before I was born) and put the plane through all
sorts of aerobatics.
Scared him to death. It was his first plane ride and also his last. The
uncle died in a crash soon thereafter. I remember that his widow had a
clock made from the prop (what
was left of it). That misadventure didn't prevent my dad from buying me
plane rides on
a few occasions. He was dead by the time I started flying myself.

I grew up off the end of the runway at AKR, which was also a Naval Air
Station in those
days. Among my early memories are the Navy jocks coming over in their
Corsairs every
morning. There was also considerable blimp activity - both the Navy and
Goodyear, who
was the area's biggest employer. I used to visit the airport a lot, but
could never afford
flight training until I had finished school and found a job (in another
state). Thereafter
I wasted no time, and have been at it more or less continuously ever
since.

The only blood relative with an aviation connection was an uncle who
was a tail gunner
in a WWII Navy patrol plane. He never talked about it on the few
occasions that I saw
him. Another uncle by marriage had a plane, but I only got to fly with
him one time.

David Johnson