Re: Pearl Harbor
Mike Moldeven (MikeMldvn@AOL.COM)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 21:15:42 -0500
farmhill@connix.com (Farmhill School/Kathy Rodriguez)
MEMORIES@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU (Project Memories of the 1940's, for Children in
Project Chatback)
MEMORIES@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU
***
References: e-mail Subject: Pearl Harbor
a Kathy Rodriguez, e-mail, Jan 29, 1997, 6:04 AM, from
farmhill@connix.com (Farmhill School)
b cactusjack@JUNO.COM (john c mabbett), Jan 29, 1997 3:34 AM
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Quoting Reference a:
>Dear Mr. Moldeven,
>Thank you for taking the time to respond to my student's
> request for your imput on Pearl Harbor. Your information was
> invaluable. He will be thrilled to read your information.
> Thanks again.
> Kathy Rodriguez
> Farm Hill School
> 390 Ridge Road
> Middletown, CT 06457
>farmhill@connix.com
******
Dear Kathy Rodriguez,
I was pleased to get your gracious note on my input to Marvin's research
project on *Pearl Harbor*. I received another an e-mail on the same subject
this morning from John C. Mabbett (e-mail address: cactusjack@JUNO.COM)
concerning a discrepency in my input, and he offers additional insights into
those times. This new information will improve the accuracy of the
background to Marvin's study and enrich its context. I quote the relevant
part of Mr Mabbett's e-mail and then comment on it to the best of my
recollection:
Mr. Mabbett wrote:
> 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 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. <
***
(Mike's comments)
Thinking back to those now distant times, Mr. Mabbett is right. My employer
at Patterson Field was indeed the *United States Army Air Forces* rather than
the *Army Air Corps.* The *major command*, which, on an organizational
chart, would be one of the many organizational entities directly subordinate
to the *United States Army Air Forces* would have been, at that time, the
*Air Service Command,* which was headquartered at Wright Field, adjacent
Patterson Field.
The *Air Service Command* mission included the supply and maintenence of the
*United States Army Air Forces* aircraft, equipment, and facilities. The
work involved in meeting this Air Service Command responsibility was
accomplished at *Air Depots* which were a combination of industrial and
airfield operational facilities located in different parts of the country. I
identify the locations (Fields) in the text; the Air Depots were the sources
of the civilian workers who went to Hickam. I was recruited at what was
then, if I recall the name correctly, the Patterson Air Depot, Patterson
Field, Fairborn, Ohio.
Best wishes,
Mike Moldeven (mikemldvn@aol.com)