Charles A. Combe On May 8, 1943, at Fort Douglas I was inducted into the Army Air Corps. Following a short stay at Fort Douglas, I was sent to a Basic Training Center of the U. S. Army Air Force at Fresno, California. Though most people consider the Air Corps the glamorous branch of the Army, I admit that basic training was the most difficult in my entire military career. Upon completion, I was given orders to report to Lowry Field, Denver, Colorado for schooling in armament. I was scheduled to be an armored gunner. After 12 weeks of armored gunner school, I decided to take a fling at becoming an aviation cadet. Passing the entrance exam for aviation cadets, I was immediately sent to Sheppard Field, Texas, for cadet training. I lasted three months as a cadet before 'washing out.' I was then given a ten-day delay and returned to Hammer Field in Fresno, where I joined the 425th Night Fighter Squadron. The pilots flew the P-61 Night Fighter plane, only flying at night. The planes were black, so they were not as visible. We then went to Visalia, California, to take two months of overseas training. On April, 1944, we journeyed cross-country to Camp Miles Standish, near Boston, which was our port of embarkation. On May 12, we stepped aboard the SS Brazil and were on our way to Europe. This took twelve days, and we docked at Liverpool, England. The squadron received pre-combat training at Bath and Darlington and then sailed from Southampton, England, for France, landing at Utah Beach around the first part of August. We were stationed at Vannes, thirty miles east of Paris, Reims and Etain, France. I was stationed at Etain during the Battle of the Bulge where we encountered bombings from the German Luftwaffe. Our squadron was flying P-61 Night Fighters over George S. Patton's Third Army. Leaving France, we went to Frankfurt-on-the-Main in Germany and then on to Nuremberg, which was the most nazified city in Germany. VE Day arrived while I was there, and our squadron was immediately assigned to go directly to the South Pacific. While at the port, the war in the South Pacific ended; and our shipping orders were changed. We sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar for the U.S., docking at Staten Island, New York, September 3, 1945. Dean Amos Cook_ Ten battle stars were earned by Dean Cook during his three years of service in the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945. He attained the rank of sergeant, serving in Africa and Italy. He was among the first veterans to be released after VJ Day. Wayne M. Craven Wayne attended Weber in 1940 and was active in the college band, half of whose members joined the military after Pearl Harbor. He entered the service in February of 1941 and was discharged as a first lieutenant in December of 1945. After pilot training, he was assigned to the B-25 and flew 58 combat missions while stationed in India and China. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with the citation reading in part as follows: 'While on a sea sweep of the South China Coast, he was separated from his formation. He then proceeded alone to attack and sink a 1,200 ton enemy freighter and seriously damaged a 1,000 ton steamer as well. Pressing the attack, he made several additional strafing runs on the crippled steamer despite antiaircraft fire, which damaged the wing of his plane. Leaving the sinking steamer, he preceded inland sweeping railroad tracks and inflicting damage on a railway station and patrol boat in a river with his cannon.' Kenneth F. Cravens Kenneth was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. He moved to the Ogden area and graduated from Ogden High School. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He returned to Ogden between his enlistment and basic training and attended Weber College from June of 1944 through June of 1945. Mr. Cravens made the service his career, serving thirty years and retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1977 While in the service, Kenneth was stationed in Georgia, Florida, Kansas, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Ohio, Utah, Germany and Japan. John Hatch Day When John was a child he had cancer of the bone in his leg. The disease left him with one leg shorter than 18 the other. He knew he wouldn't be able to fight on the front lines, but enlisted anyway. The military accepted him and assigned him to work on the instrument panels of bomber planes. To perform this work, he was sent east for training. He worked under Commanding Officer Colonel Paul Tibbets (later General Paul Tibbets) in Wendover, Utah. Colonel Tibbets named one of the bombers after his mother, Enola Gay, and John had an opportunity to work on this bomber. Colonel Tibbets was the pilot in this plane that carried the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The operation in Wendover was kept very secret. On some weekends, he would hitchhike to his intended destination and found many people thrilled to give a ride to a serviceman. Submitted by Marjorie Taylor Day wife Harry James Dayhuff Harry J. Dayhuff and his WWII Fighters Harry attended Weber from 1936 to 1938. He served in the Army Air Corps. During WWII he was stationed in England for 2 V2 years (with one 30-day furlough home) and flew 108 missions providing cover for B-17 bombers in P-38s, P-47s, and P-51s. He is credited with shooting down two enemy aircraft. He received a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with duster, the Air Medal and the French Croix De Guerre. In June of 1940, Harry James Dayhuff entered the service in the Army Air Corps at Fort Douglas, Utah. He was sent to flying school at Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas, and then Ryan School of Aeronautics, Lindberg Field, San Diego, California. Finally, he attended advanced flight training at Kelly Field, outside San Antonio, where upon completion he was commissioned to a second lieutenant on February 7, 1941. His graduating class was sent to Hamilton Field in California for training in the P-36 fighter in the 35th Pursuit Group. On May 30, 1941, he was transferred to the 14th Pursuit Group, 48th Squadron at March Field in Riverside, California, where he was introduced to the P-40 Fighter. There he was also made supply officer by the Commanding Officer (CO.), Troy Keith. While on maneuvers at Mammoth Lake, California, he met his future wife, Maxine Janet Wells, from Orange, California, who was working a summer job at the June Lake Lodge. Stationed at March Field on Dec. 7,1941, Harry was flying patrol in a P-40 when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The group was ordered to land at Fresno, where all pilots were issued 45 caliber pistols before flying back to base. Humorously he remembers, 'What were we going to do with these against a fighter attack?' His group was moved to Terminal Island Naval Base near San Pedro where they lived in tents and were on twenty-four hour alert and high security. There was 'lights off' all over the West Coast and Maxine remembers that Harry couldn't be reached. Harry and Maxine continued to date; and when he was granted a twenty-four hour pass, they were married in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 1, 1942. Good friends Bea and Joe Hinrichs accompanied them. After a brief stationing at Long Beach Municipal Airport, Harry's squadron was ordered to the Naval Air Station on North Island, San Diego, California. He piloted first the P-43, then the P-47 Thunderbolt in February, and finally the P-38 Lightning. Harry had his first flight in a P-38 in April of 1942. He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 14, 1942. A new group was formed, the 78th Fighter Group, made up of the 82nd, 83rd and 84th Fighter Squadrons. CO. Troy Keith promoted Harry to squadron commander of the 82nd on May 8, 1942. He was promoted to captain on June 14, 1942, at only twenty-three years of age. In September, Lt. Wendell Seppich, in Harry's squadron, was killed in an accident in heavy clouds off La Jolla, California. Wendell was also from Ogden, Utah, and he and his wife, Audrey, were close friends with Harry and Maxine. On Harry's birthday, September 13, he, Maxine and the Group CO., Colonel Arman Peterson, went together to break the news of Wendell's 19