On the day of the flight we knew at least that it was to be a
three-day trip, a flight from our central Texas base (James Connally
AFB near Waco). The destination would be Mitchell Field on the
western end of Long Island, New York, with an intermediate fueling
stop at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Enroute we were to give the
general a chance to learn the operation and use of the radar and
associated bombing computer.
To my complete surprise, I was chosen to be the general's instructor. Me, a mere first lieutenant and with but a year's instructing experience under my belt. Why me? That's a question that never got answered and still I don't know why I was chosen. Available, I guess .. or just a fluke of scheduling. I sure didn't expect it.
We took off in our shiny new airplane, that military version of the Convair 240 prop-driven airliner. It was, for the time, a plush and smooth flying classroom. Normally we carried four radar students and six to eight navigation students plus two instructors and the flight deck crew of three. Not this time. There was only my one student and me in the main compartment.
We headed east to Shreveport and then on to the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. There we turned north for the first simulated bombing run on a bridge across the river near Memphis. After nearly three hours aloft the general was getting the hang of it. He'd learned how to determine the airplane's position, to track a target and determine the wind. Not bad for a non-rated fellow, but then generals are paid to be smart I guess.
He did quite well and could chalk up a "hit" on that Memphis bridge, even without my coaching over the shoulder. From Memphis to central Ohio he did all right too, until it came time to pick out the radar features of the Dayton area and find the airbase where we'd refuel. Bridges across rivers show up a bit better than scattered buildings and airstrips near cities.
The second leg of the trip was pretty easy too, especially once we got close enough to the Chesapeake and coastal waters which look one the scope just like they do on the charts. He had a little trouble picking out Mitchell Field in the clutter of all those buildings near New York City, but by then it didn't matter. We'd gotten to his destination and the real reason forour so-called training flight.
It turns out that the general went New York to attend the opening of a Broadway show, one featuring movie and stage actress Rosalind Russell. She was a personal friend of the general and he was invited to attend the production and related social activities.
Well, he did get some familiarization with the Q-24 radar. And he did learn how radar navigation and bombing was done, back in those early days of vacuum tube avionics and analog computers.
The prescribed training elements of the mission were genuinely satisfied, though it was all a ruse to get the general to the Broadway show. That's a perk reserved for generals, I guess.