Re: Pearl Harbor
john c mabbett (cactusjack@JUNO.COM)
Tue, 28 Jan 1997 22:48:04 PST
I think you and I were on the same convoy to Hawaii. You mentioned you
sailed
on the U.S. Grant. Could it have been one of the President Liners? The
President Grant? We were on the President Cleveland. We sailed the
evening of
the 17th of December 1941 and arrived in Honolulu Harbor the morning of
the
24th of December.
You mentioned you worked for the Army Air Corps. Actually you may have
prior
to June 1940 but after that you worked for the United States Army Air
Forces,
also known as U.S.A.A.F.
This is a common mistake and many men spent the whole war thinking they
were
in the Air Corps. I met a retired full Colonel who was furious when I
told him.
We call the U.S. Air Force and they said they get at least a call a week
about
this.
The difference between the two was quite important. The old Air Corps
was
organized similar to the Signal Corps, Medical Corps, Corps of Engineers,
Quartermaster Corps and other corps. The Air Corps wanted to become a
separate branch of service like the Navy and the Army. (Similar to the
R.A.F.
in Great Britain) A compromise was made and they became the Army Air
Forces,
a semi-independent branch, and after the war became the U.S. Air Force, a
third
branch. We now have U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force. The
Marines are a branch of the Navy and their name is the Marine Corps. In
wartime
the Coast Guard become part of the navy also.
The Marine Corps has no medical units but depends on a medical detachment
from
the navy, while the army has its own medical units. That is why when a
man
goes down the Marines call for a Corpsman and the army calls for a medic.
In the old Air Corps an infantry officer could be made squadron commander
of
a fighter squadron. Under the A.A.F. only a flying officer could be
named a
commander of a unit. (except medical, supply, repair or similar types of
work)
A man could not be transfer from the A.A.F. to any other branch of the
service
without his permission (sometime even with it). It was also very hard to
transfer
into the A.A.F. from any other branch of the army. (I know, because I
transferred from the Infantry to the Air Forces.
Cactusjack@Juno.com