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| Nowadnick, Prejean, Rogers (flight instructor), Kelley, Smith, Kemper | |
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Happy Cadets -
On May 21, 1943, having completed their final requirements for graduation from flight training, the exuberance of these cadets is clearly evident.
After so many months of grueling training, they are ready to make their long awaited transition from Cadet to 2nd Lieutenant! |
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Bill Nowadnick remembers:
"I knew Guy very well. We were in the same flight together at Kingsville. We had six in our flight and, when training, a flight of four would fly and then they'd rotate the group of six so the rest would fly. We flew formation, gunnery flying, and a little bit of dogfighting in the SNJ. Delesdernier (not in the photos) was also a member of our flight. He was later lost in combat.
Guy and I were the only two Marines and the others were Navy. After we finished flight training, we actually didn't graduate on the 1st of April, our date of rank. We finished about a month before we graduated. They lost our orders and apparently they fouled up on our flight because the Navy people waited about two weeks before they graduated and then Guy and I had to wait another couple of weeks before our orders came. I think we graduated around the 13th. We had roomates and when the roomates left they normally left their Navy cadet hat (the one with a quarter inch gold braid) and we had a stack of hats I think that went from the floor almost up to the ceiling because we'd get a roomate for two days and then they'd leave. So we spent quite a bit of extra time in Corpus. We had open gate liberty practically the whole time.
Guy was one of the more mature individuals. He was more serious, I guess, and of deeper thoughts. He was sort of a stabilizing influence on the whole darn flight." |
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| Kelley, Nowadnick, Rogers, Prejean, Smith, Kemper |
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| Kelley, Nowadnick, Prejean, Kemper, Smith, Rogers | |
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| Prejean, Smith, Kemper, Rogers, Kelley, Nowadnick | |
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