Paul, I hope you don't mind if I insert another fine man into this thread.
My MIL remarried after her divorce. Great guy, very successful, at least a decade older than her. He was a great dude.
I posted about his death a few years ago.
We are moving the MIL and cleaning out her house.
Yesterday, I found his logbook from his time as a Naval Aviation Cadet at NAS Glenville in 1942 or 43. Complete surprise. Rife was at Penn when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He volunteered like so many others.
He had related to me that he was a NA Cadet and did very well at basic flying until instruments: He just didn't "get" it and was dropped from the program.
In those days, dropping from the NA Cadet program meant you went to the fleet as an enlisted man, which he did. He opted for PT Boats and spend a lot of time in the Pacific Theater.
Some pictures:
N3N aircraft he flew:
Log book snaps:
Solo is the first, hard part. The Navy is very particular.
58.5 hours and off to the South Pacific after training in PT boats. Here is a picture of his boat:
So young and so brave.