Radio Operator School

RE: Radio Operator School (ltcgregmoore)

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:26:39 GMT

visalya

Just to tweak the locations a bit.

There was a Radio School at the Stevens Hotel, Chicago....it was created in midsummer 1942 and closed around July 1943. The students were tranferred in June '43 to Sioux Falls AAF, SD. Looks like it operated for about a year, so some students did their entire training there. You can find an article on this school in the May 2003 issue of WWII Magazine. The article is titled, 'Chicago's Vertical Army Post'. Great article on this little known radio school. Push come to shove, send me an email and I can fwd a copy to anyone having an interest. My email address is on my Profile.

Does anyone have any info on when the Sioux Falls Radio School initiated its training program?

From my research, I don't believe there was different training for one A/C over another....

Check my thread from yesterday, 'Radio Operator Billets'. I provide some specifics as to where these guys could end up and the requires the school used to decide where they went. Perhaps your answer can be found there.

Good info Bill, thanks for sharing that.

Larry

Re: RE: Radio Operator School (misterg97)

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:02:15 GMT

Unfortunately the picture isn't very good .... but as a youth during WWII this is one of the patches that I wore on my jacket.

Re: RE: Radio Operator School (winniw)

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:48:26 GMT

Hi:

I just posted some info about the Sioux Falls Radio School on another thread that may apply here. If interested, it's at:

"Radio operator/gunner training' by Phil from Belguim.

RE: Radio Operator School (-vjw-)

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:31:55 GMT

I should have used this site's Search facility more effectively. Found this:
http://forum.armyairforces.com/m_93568/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#93824

Summary of what I have so far:
Late 1942 - Miami Beach - Basic Training
1943:
Jan 12 - ARR'D COL FROM HOME - Columbia, SC - Flight Training (?)
Jan 29 - LEFT COL FOR GREENVILLE- Flight Training continued (?)
Mar 25 - ARR'D FORT DIX = NJ = Indoctrination Center (?)
May 19 - ARR'D SCOTT FIELD, ILL = Radio School
OCT 15 - LEFT SCOTT FIELD
OCT 19 - ARR'D TYNDALL = Flexible Gunnery School
DEC 31 - LEFT TYNDALL
1944:
Early '44 - Joined 310th BG in North Africa
22-May-44 - Flew first of sixty seven combat missions out of Corsica

"Radio Operator Billets" thread:
http://forum.armyairforces.com/m_140750/mpage_1/key_/tm.htm#140913

Best regards,
VJ White

RE: Radio Operator School (-vjw-)

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:56:18 GMT

Thanks for the replies!! I bet "COL" *is* Columbia. I don't have detailed early 1944 dates. He did spend May through November 1944 in combat. The dates in my post above were based on this calendar:
http://57thbombwing.com/gallery2/d/3586-3/DadsCal_AddressBook1943c.jpg

So they are all 1943.

Some time between January and May of 1944, he was stationed in Africa. My mom says he got sick there, before moving to Corsica. I don't have the specific dates, though. However, I recall seeing post cards he sent from Miami Beach, FL. I also know he returned from Europe by ship (as in watercraft). After returning, I have him in Miami Beach at the "Army Air Force's Regional (sp?) and Convalescent Hospital:
http://57thbombwing.com/gallery2/d/10155-6/bandguy_jpg_001.jpg

So Miami seems to be a missing link. Was Miami an RTU site?
Best regards,
VJ White

RE: Radio Operator School (k9iua)

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:20:08 GMT

Possibly. One thought I had was that the two January dates are in fact 1944 dates, as RTU training would typically be last, after flexible gunnery and radio schooling. And Columbia and Greenville were the B-25 RTU schools.
Kevin Anderson

RE: Radio Operator School (Lucky Partners)

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:43:53 GMT

Kevin,

Just saw your post. You mention Columbia, SC. Could COL be Columbia?

Hal

RE: Radio Operator School (k9iua)

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:34:16 GMT

ORIGINAL: -vjw-

Sorry. This might be a little off-topic, but I've always meant to figure this out. My dad was a B-25 radio/op. His pocket address book/ calendar from 1943 shows the following entries:

Jan 12 - ARR'D COL FROM HOME
Jan 29 - LEFT COL FOR GREENVILLE
Mar 25 - ARR'D FORT DIX
May 19 - ARR'D SCOTT FIELD
OCT 15 - LEFT SCOTT FIELD
OCT 19 - ARR'D TYNDALL
DEC 31 - LEFT TYNDALL

On 22-May-44, he flew the first of sixty seven combat missions out of Corsica.

Can anyone help me piece together the time line of his training and what he did in each location?
Does "COL" mean "Colorado?"
I know Scott Field was radio school and bernies once told me which one was gunnery school, but I've forgotten. Thanks in advance!

Don't know about "COL," but Tyndale was the flexible gunnery school. Do you have dates for 1944? I would have expected your dad would have then gone back to Columbia or Greenville (SC), both 3AF B-25 crew training sites, after Tyndale for replacement crew training, or at least placement with a crew, then to the MTO by way of Hunter Field (Savannah, GA) after picking up a B-25 to transport.

I don't know how it was for B-25 crews going to the ETO or MTO, but those bound for the Pacific (as my uncle was about this same time), it was the pilot, navigator, and radio operator who got to fly the plane overseas, with the flight engineer and tail gunner consigned to travel by boat. At least that is what happened to all four crews who left on the same shipment to Guadalcanal with B-25s in early March, including my uncle, a B-25 pilot replacment pilot and his crew. Distance over water, and the need for fuel instead of human weight, is what had not all the crew fly with the plane overseas.

Kevin Anderson

RE: Radio Operator School (-vjw-)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:30:52 GMT

Sorry. This might be a little off-topic, but I've always meant to figure this out. My dad was a B-25 radio/op. His pocket address book/ calendar from 1943 shows the following entries:

Jan 12 - ARR'D COL FROM HOME
Jan 29 - LEFT COL FOR GREENVILLE
Mar 25 - ARR'D FORT DIX
May 19 - ARR'D SCOTT FIELD
OCT 15 - LEFT SCOTT FIELD
OCT 19 - ARR'D TYNDALL
DEC 31 - LEFT TYNDALL

On 22-May-44, he flew the first of sixty seven combat missions out of Corsica.

Can anyone help me piece together the time line of his training and what he did in each location?
Does "COL" mean "Colorado?"
I know Scott Field was radio school and bernies once told me which one was gunnery school, but I've forgotten. Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
VJ White

RE: Radio Operator School (bernies)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:58:02 GMT

The building in the class picture is on Scott AFB (WW II Scott Field). IIRC it is on the north side of Birchard Street. It probably was the base hq during the war. It later served as the headquarters building for Military Airlift Command (during the early 1970s), and when MAC moved across old IL 158 (now Scott Drive), it became the hq building for the 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing.

RE: Radio Operator School (bernies)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:46:39 GMT

I'm a little confusted with what Radio Schools were at Scott Field. Were there three separate Radio Schools at one time or the other?

It was common practice during World War II to activate units at an installation where similar units were already located, draw a cadre from the existing unit, and once the new unit was adequately [sic] manned, move it to its permanent station. Scott had a radio school dating back before the beginning of the war, and I believe this is what happened with the other two schools that were formed there.

RE: Radio Operator School (visalya)

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:32:41 GMT

Hal.....I'd never counted the photo's in dad's Radio class book. So, I went and did that. My gawd! There were 624 in his class that graduated on 22 September 1943, from Sioux Falls. I've read someplace that approx. six classes graduated in any given month. Do the math for that! Like you suggested, it's one heap of qualified Radio personnel to deal with. Apparently there were slots for all of them.

According to an article I have on the Radio School, Chicago, IL....it says that all training was conducted on a 24-hour schedule.

Guess it helps to explain why there was no group photo. It would have been tough to coral all those guys for one group grope.

Larry

RE: Radio Operator School (Lucky Partners)

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:34:34 GMT

Hi Larry,

Sorry, but the photo is all I have from dad's days at radio school. It would not surprise me if they did a class book but I do not have one. Regarding the logic of moving classes from one location to another, I have no idea beyond the possible physical limit of how many people they could handle at one location. There are 134 men in dad's picture, if it was class #3 of however many classes graduated that day it would not surprise me if they had at least 500 students at that school for any given session. Figure a radio man in every crew, what would that be, wild guess, 50,000 radio men to train? Probably more.

Hal

RE: Radio Operator School (visalya)

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 17:12:49 GMT

Great photo Hal...thanks for sharing it.

Did they do a Class Book for these guys? If so, do you have it?

I'm a little confusted with what Radio Schools were at Scott Field. Were there three separate Radio Schools at one time or the other? Two ended up being relocated, leaving one in operation? I wonder how that all came to pass....why start them there then move them? Why not just start them at their prospective distinations to start with?

Larry

RE: Radio Operator School (Lucky Partners)

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:51:58 GMT

On second thought here's the whole picture in case someone might recognize the location.

Hal

RE: Radio Operator School (Lucky Partners)

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:24:34 GMT

For what it's worth, here is the inscription that I cropped from my father's radio school 'class photo' from Scott Field.

Hal

RE: Radio Operator School (bernies)

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:53:40 GMT

In 1944 there were four Radio Schools; #1 Scott Field, Belleville, IL; #2 Boca Raton AAF, Boca Raton, FL; #3 Truax Field, Madison, WI; #4 Sioux Falls AAF, Sioux Falls, SD

There was a Radio School at the Stevens Hotel, Chicago....it was created in midsummer 1942 and closed around July 1943. The students were tranferred in June '43 to Sioux Falls AAF, SD.

I show the following AAF Technical Schools (Radio)

#1     Scott Field, IL
#2     Boca Raton AAF, FL
#3     Scott Fld, IL (moved to Truax Fld, WI around Jul 42)
#4     Scott Fld, IL (moved to Sioux Falls AAF in Jun 42)
#5     Chicago, IL
#6     Tomah, WI

RE: Radio Operator School (joepatwink)

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:35:34 GMT

Thanks Bill, I know that my father-in-law was discharged from Sioux Falls on 14 Sep 45 and went in 27 Oct 42 in Milwaukee, WI so I am getting closer.

RE: Radio Operator School (joepatwink)

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:33:30 GMT

Thanks for the info. my father-in law went in on 27 Oct 42 so he may have been in Chicago or may have been at Madison, WI. Now I have things to look at.

RE: Radio Operator School (visalya)

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:43:15 GMT

Just to tweak the locations a bit.

There was a Radio School at the Stevens Hotel, Chicago....it was created in midsummer 1942 and closed around July 1943. The students were tranferred in June '43 to Sioux Falls AAF, SD. Looks like it operated for about a year, so some students did their entire training there. You can find an article on this school in the May 2003 issue of WWII Magazine. The article is titled, 'Chicago's Vertical Army Post'. Great article on this little known radio school. Push come to shove, send me an email and I can fwd a copy to anyone having an interest. My email address is on my Profile.

Does anyone have any info on when the Sioux Falls Radio School initiated its training program?

From my research, I don't believe there was different training for one A/C over another....

Check my thread from yesterday, 'Radio Operator Billets'. I provide some specifics as to where these guys could end up and the requires the school used to decide where they went. Perhaps your answer can be found there.

Good info Bill, thanks for sharing that.

Larry