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Hiram Mann’s class 44-F |
“During their relatively short stay at Walterboro the trainees logged an average of sixty hours in various types of training, including: transition into the fighter aircraft to learn how to make safe takeoffs and landings, formation flying, instrument and night flying, aerial and ground gunnery, aerobatics, and combat tactics.”
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Historical marker in Walterboro, Side 1 (photo by Mike Stroud) |
The segregation grated, though. The base was also home to a POW camp for German soldiers. These “enemies” could use all of the “white” facilities but the black pilots could not. In 1945, an order came down from the brass that officers’ clubs were to be integrated on US bases. In Walterboro, white WAAF officers moved their activities to the local country club rather than associate with black officers. Tensions in town and on base only eased when the base closed that October and all soldiers were transferred elsewhere.
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Historical marker in Walterboro, Side 2 (photo by Mike Stroud) |
Hiram Mann greeting fans at the RISE ABOVE Traveling Exhibit while in New Smyrna Beach, FL, March 2012 |
The free Joint Service Open House and Air Show will be held this weekend at Andrews AFB in Maryland just southeast of Washington D.C. The RISE ABOVE Traveling Exhibit and the Mustang will be there.Department of Defense cardholders and school groups are welcome on Friday, May 18th. The show will be open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, May 19th-20th. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.