Kelly Field

Cause they were like, um, I think I guess like the town was forming, um, or it had already formed, but there was just lots of area.

And so they wanted to live like in town because he was working in San Antonio at Kelly air force base later.

So to be a little closer.

Um, but They went there, and his family, him and his wife, or my grandmother, brought up all the kids there later on.

My dad asked me, mija, you're going to be 15.

We're not going to be able to have a quince for you because we work at Kelly Air Force Base and don't have a lot of money.

Yeah, but he set you up for life, correct? Pero, we're going to have a garage party.

That's right.

He had a reputation for being handy with his hands, good with heights, fearless in the way that some men just are, the way that makes other men nervous.

He enlisted in the Army Signal Corps and reported to Kelly Field in San Antonio to learn to fly.

He took to it.

Of course he did.

Hiya, Major Mallory.

Say, when we were at Kelly Field, didn't I teach you how to get over a fence?

Well, that's one way to stop quick.

I just cut her too fine.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

chapter six receiving a pilot's wings in september nineteen twenty four we were transferred to kelly the time we had looked forward to for half a year had arrived we were through the period of just learning how to fly and were entering a new experience that of learning how to make use of our flying ability in actual service we would no longer be floating around the airdrome in machines whose only purpose was to stand up under the hard knocks of inexperienced pilots but we were going to fly planes which had an actual military value in warfare we were old cadets and felt the importance of our experience we were no longer treated as rookies but as potential officers before leaving brooks we had conformed with cadet traditions and allowed groups of the new class to gather around us while we gravely spoke of examinations check pilots benzine boards and washouts we thoroughly enjoyed the awe inspired by our seventy-five hours of flying experience at kelly our difficulties set in with renewed vigor the de havilands did not maneuver like the training jennys and we were required to fly as we had never flown before if a cadet was not able to handle his ship in a manoeuvre which was at least equal to the standard he was usually heading towards home within a week we were allowed a few days to become accustomed to flying the new type of plane then an instructor would go up with us to see if our progress had been satisfactory if so we were sent to the next stage if not we went up with a check pilot from landings we went to the eight stage where were assigned two landmarks such as a tree and a haystack several hundred feet apart and required to do figure eights around them then came the spot landing stage when we throttled our engine at about a thousand feet and were required to land in a large white circle without using our motor on this stage we were graded on our take-off climb approach landing roll distance from the mark and method of handling the ship in fact at kelly we were constantly under observation and our only method of relaxation while flying was when the sky was cloudy and we could get above the clouds on one occasion we were flying with a low ceiling and the visibility was not very good in fact it was an ideal day to do the things we were not supposed to i was hedge-hopping along over the country when i saw another d h playing around on my right i flew over and after chasing each other around for a while we proceeded to do chandels vertical banks wing overs and everything else we could think of all within a few feet of the ground as the clouds themselves were only about three hundred feet high at last i decided to go up close to the other plane for a little low formation flying but as i approached i saw that there were two men in the ship and that i had been breaking every rule ever established about low flying with an instructor watching me from another ship i left that locality with wide open motor and for several days expected to be called on the carpet before the commanding officer on a war-shot offence that instructor must have been a good sport however because i never heard from him and never was able to find out who he was on another occasion near the end of my course i came very near being washed out for something i knew nothing about i had been practising landings in an s e five on one corner of kelly field when my time had expired i landed on the pursuit stage taxied up to the line and turned the ship over to the mechanics that afternoon i was called from class and ordered to report to the operations officer whereupon he informed me that my flying days were over and that as i knew why there was no use in explaining further i was then ordered to report back to my studies it came out of a clear sky i knew of a number of offences i had committed but none of them at that time i had actually no idea of what the operations officer was talking about when school was over i returned to the operations hut and requested an account of the alleged offence it appeared that the propeller on my s c five was cracked and the spreader board broken on the landing gear the crew chief had reported this together with a statement that there were corn stalks hanging on the landing gear and as there was no corn growing on kelly field that was a sure sign that i had landed away from the airdrome without reporting the fact a wash out a fence we drove to the pursued stage and found conditions exactly as stated except that the cornstalks turned out to be weeds and it was decided that the damage had been caused by a stake left standing in the corner of kelly field where i had been landing although i had not felt the ship strike anything the cadet who flew the plane earlier in the morning was using the same part of the field and said that he felt it strike a bump on one of his take-offs but did not believe any damage had been done Who was flying the ship made little difference, however, because as long as he had not landed away from the airdrome without authority, the slight damage was of no consequence.

I had come very close to the benzene board, for an offence of which I knew nothing, but it was probably only the open-mindedness and sense of fair play of the operations officer that kept me from being washed out as a result.

one day during the beginning of our term at kelly some one decided that the cadets should stand reveille how it came about or who caused the decision was never known by the detachment but there was a strong rumor circulated to the effect that our beloved cadet sergeant had not forgotten the episode of the polecats it was an unheard-of thing for the cadets of kelly to stand formations we graduated from that when we left brooks and the thought of continuing it in our advanced status was we concluded degenerating to the morale of the detachment consequently when our first sergeant himself delighted us with verbal visions of being tumbled out of bed at first call if we were not up at the blast of his whistle we decided that if it were in the combined power of the detachment the first call should not sound the next morning we could not disobey an order army training vanished as even the remotest thought of that but we might prevent that order from being given the cadet captain and first sergeant were assigned to a private room together the rest of us were given cots in the barracks while suffolk was in progress that night the hands on the sergeant's alarm clock were so manipulated that the alarm would sound exactly one hour after the time set at two o'clock the next morning a padlock was placed on the hasp outside of his door and when first call blew a few hours later the cadet detachment slept soundly on from spot landings we passed to hurdles hurdles require the ship to be brought down without assistance from the engine and after just passing over a line stretched about eight feet above the ground to be landed as close as possible to the hurdle this gave us excellent practice for landing over a fence in a small field One of the traditions at Kelly was that anyone knocking down the hurdle must treat the rest to a case of refreshments.

Their only mission in life is to build up the finest air corps in the world.

and their greatest desire is to be given the opportunity to do so without restriction if an officer is lost in duty he would be the last one to wish for resulting restrictions on his comrades A week of our pursuit training was spent on a gunnery expedition at Galveston.

We flew there from Kelly Field in MB-3A machines and fired on tow targets exclusively.

Our field was close to the Gulf, and when the day's operations had been completed, we were free to go about as we chose.