Calvin P. Rudd, East Mill Creeky, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, June 7, 2001: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 253 & 254

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LVIN P. R DD J 7 2001 Th y imn1 diately got hot (laughs). So we'd take off and wed drop ffth nd fth strip. We d drop off, like that [demonstrates], down because the lake wa down ther . During that drop off, we'd stick the nose down and keep it alive, picking up a little air speed, enough to keep it in the air. But when we got to Ontario everything changed. It was a high-class base, really. Everything was done, really, with style and we had good instructors and good aircraft, especially compared to Moses Lake and Victorville. BEC: Why was that? What was the Moses Lake deal? Were they really training you to fly these or it almost sounds like they were killing 'time until they could get you to this other place. Is that true? CAL: I don't know about that. See, you're trying to use logic (laughs). BEC: (laughs) I know. CAL: You've just simply never been in the military. BEC: I know. People tell me that all the time: "It's the Army. It doesn't have to make sense." CAL: But, they did not use P-39s much in combat, I mean, they didn't continue to send P-39s. We had P-39s in combat early in the war but they-it was a low altitude aircraft and it was used by the Russians. At Moses Lake we were training we learned how to fly P-39s. We learned how to fly an Allison engine. We learned a whole lot of things. BEC: That were applicable to the P-38 when you got there? CAL: Well, they were useful. Same engine, essentially. So there were a lot of good things but I probably had more fun up there. BEC: At Moses Lake? 24