There was not much activity for a few weeks after May 7. I was a supernumerary in my squadron, since , as a major, I outranked everyone except the commander, and had no job to do or any specific duties. Thus I was assigned any special mission that came up.

The first of these was to organize a passenger service for Gen. Patton's 7th Army so that personnel could quickly go from one place to another in order to perform their duties under the Occupation in a timely manner. We had 6 or 8 planes of various types assigned to us some of which I had never flown before. The biggest was a C-47, and there were a number of smaller twin engine planes such as the B-25. We had some rather large single engine planes such as the C- 78, and we also had an L-5, which was an oversized Piper Cub carrying 4 people, including the pilot.

We were stationed at an airfield near Augsburg, and we lived in German houses near the field. The home owners were not very happy about their situation, but they took care of the houses, did the cleaning, washed our clothes, and generally tried not to cause trouble. We ate our meals in a mess hall on the base.

We ferried the occupational dignitaries all over southern Germany, and we were on call all the time. We must have done a good job, because I have a letter of commendation in my file from the commanding general attesting to that fact.

During this time, I sent a letter on July 25, 1945 through channels to the commanding general asking that I be transferred to the Pacific theater of operations. These things take time to pass through all the offices up the line, and when I got it back in late August, my request had not been approved. I was overjoyed, because the war in the Pacific was over and I was beginning to enjoy myself in Europe.

I continued with my air-ferrying work through September 1945. I had many pleasant experiences, no accidents, and I got to go to Paris twice. I also saw most of southern Germany from the air.


In September I was ordered to take a C-47 to Denmark to participate in a good-will mission. It was in the form of a display of American Air power, and included about 12 of our most important planes. The Queen of Denmark came to see the show, and somewhere I have a picture of her shaking hands with me. We went first to Copenhagen and later to Aalborg, where I stayed with a charming couple named Bladt. I must have asked my parents to send them some things (coffee in particular) which were not available in Denmark, because I have a letter from the Bladts to my parents thanking them profusely.

When I returned to Germany I was relieved of my duties with the airline, and I was ordered to report to the headquarters of the 12th Tactical Air Command as commander of the headquarters squadron, while still a major. The 12th was then located in Erlangen near Nurnberg. At first, I hated the job of squadron commander. My flying days were temporarily over and I had trouble getting the minimum four hours a month flying time to retain my rating as a qualified pilot. The HQ squadron consisted of 200 men and 6 officers; we supported the HQ, which included the general, several colonels, majors, captains and numerous lieutenants.

What we did was paperwork, and not much else. My job was to supervise the physical operation of the base, including the Post Exchange, the housing, the mess halls, the clerical section, and anything else that needed supervision. I had no experience whatsoever in this kind of activity to guide me, but I buckled down and did the best I could.

We lived in German houses near Erlangen Base, and it was there that I suffered my only war wound. The bathtub in my house had porcelain handles on the taps, and as I was turning one of them, it broke in my right hand and cut the middle finger quite deeply. I still have the scar.

Some time around Dec 1, 1945 we moved to Bad Kissingen. This was a summer resort town before the War, with a number of luxury hotels and other features associated with vacations. We took over the entire hotel district and established all our offices, mess halls, and housing in them. I had a private room with a bath, maid service, laundry and dry-cleaning service. Our mess hall was in the dining room of the same hotel I was staying in.


As 1946 approached I began thinking about my future,. Many of my associates were determined to stay in the Army., and I also considered doing that. There were some advantages associated with this, including the fact that one could retire at age 40 with a pension determined by one's rank, and, after all, it has been said that "life begins at 40".

I finally decided not to stay in the Army, and I was determined to finish my college education.. Since I didn't need to be home until September 1946 to start college, I volunteered to stay in Europe until May 1946. This, I thought, would give me time to get ready for school. Since it would probably take a month to be discharged and get home, I would have served 5 years in the Army by June 1946.

All the time I had been at HQ in the hotel district, I had been pestering my boss to transfer me to an operational unit whose principal mission was flying. Finally in Jan 1946, I was transferred to a reconnaisance squadron located in Marseilles, France. Our mission was to take pictures of all the cemeteries in France and Belgium, because someone in Washington DC had apparently decided that the relatives of soldiers buried in these cemeteries would like to have an aerial photograph.

We were also ordered to take pictures of all the bridges in France which might have some strategic or tactical importance. We had 12 planes and 24 pilots and each day we flew out to the chosen sites and photographed them from about 500 feet up.

The squadron had already been in Marseilles several months, so by mid March 1946 we were finished in south France, and were ordered to move to an airfield about 10 miles outside Paris. By this time the city was well on the way toward recovery from the German occupation, so I was able to enjoy myself the few times I was able to get to Paris. We took many pictures of the cemeteries in the surrounding areas of France as well as those in Belgium and Holland. I enjoyed this period very much.

However, at the end of April 1946 my time was up. When my replacement came, I turned over everything to him, and made my way back to Bad Kissingen to prepare for my homeward journey.