Flight Instruction: Then and Now

When I went to flight school in WW II every instructor we had was a combat
veteran who returned after a full combat tour of duty was completed to
instruct. My Bomb instructor was a bombardier with the "Bloody 100th" Bomb
Group. He flew 25 missions, most of them England to Berlin with no fighter
cover and suffered terrible losses. As an instructor he taught us more than
the basic job of bombing. He made us aware of what it was like in combat and as
a result we were well prepared for the missions we flew.

In a recent post it was pointed out that Rumsfeld instructed even though he
had flown no missions. That is no reflection on him, but it raises the
question as to whether the idea of using combat veterans as intructors was
abondoned and combat inexperienced instructors were used as a matter of course.
Or to put it another way. was Rumsfeld the exception or the rule. Anyone know?




Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer