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Show ROBERT THAYER D R 2 2 ROB: I had one officer that I did ask to have transferred out of my training section because he didn't, he was a nice fellow but he didn't attend to duty like I want d him too. He was involved in the group play, and he was an actor, and he just was never at the training office when I wanted him there. So I asked for him to be transferred out and they sent in a boy, a second lieutenant, who had been a radio, an enlisted radio operator and completed his missions, and they gave him a commission. And he came in and, see he had had all this training; he was marvelous. Such a nice little guy and I just-that was one of my major accomplishments was to have that boy in the training. BEC: But yet at the time that was probably a very difficult decision to make, to order the one guy out. ROB: That's right. The other one had been in the group ever since it was organized, and he was well liked by a lot of the higher-ups. And it was-I often wonder how I got it through, you know; I had to go through the commanding officer and that. But, well, I told our Wing Communications officer-see, you have squadrons and group that are together, then we had combat wing and that's where our group communications officer went was the First Combat Wing. Well, we were under him and it was through him that I got this man transferred and got this new officer. BEC: I see. ROB: It was a hard decision, real hard. I liked this Gilcrest but I just couldn't-! wanted to train him to be the best, and I didn't feel like he was doing it. So I got this other kid in and it worked out just beautifully. It really did. I understand that Gilcrest moved on and got in another group, and they had a different mission; they weren't a combat bomb group like we were. They were more photographic aircraft, and 50 |
