Peter Leibert's Page

It was only about a week or two before I was back in school again. The reason that I had selected Aviation Electronics as my second choice was probably because my brother John and I had both become interested in electronics when we were in our early teens. John had put together a radio made up of bits and pieces. I guess it was called a crystal set. We would string antennas around the back yard and then try to tune in some sort of a station.

Initially we spent a lot of time learning about how basic radio transmitters and receivers work -this was called the communication phase. We even got some practice on using the transmitter key and on trying to translate “incoming” messages. That meant we spent a lot of time trying to translate some recorded messages.

But there were a lot of other things that fell into the electronics world. How does basic radar work, how does navigation equipment figure out what to do, what an altimeter does and how does it work. It was a bigger picture than I had perceived when I selected electronics as my career goal. Most of these subjects were totally new to us.

Almost immediately they started all of us on learning the morse code. Now this is important to this biography stuff because we early on were told that when we got near the completion of this 29 week course, we would be given two options - to become an Aviation Electronicsman - the operator of electronics equipment; or to become an aviation Electronics Technician, the repairer of electronics equipment.

All of this basic education was good, but the first major activity which occurred during electronic school was when we finally got to fly. They called it the flight phase. We had gone through a number of sessions about basic radio and basic radar, but the thing a lot of us were really wanting to get to was the flight part of all of this program. That is when a group of six or eight students would get to fly in a SNB trainer.

We saw the planes go up day after day. Finally it was our turn. It was fan-tas-tic1 I am sure you are aware that it was the first time I had ever flown in the air. I am sure that you know that most of us students spent more time looking out the windows of that SNB than looking into the radar scope like we were supposed to - but even looking at the radar scene, this flight was very exciting. I mean, there is the Mississippi River, there is the city of Memphis, there is this, there is that. Ooh, it was impressive.

Uummm! But there is the other side of this adventure. This first flight of mine was a two-hour orientation flight. I eventually had more. Everything went great during the first one hour and forty five minutes of that 2-hour flight. What happen next can be called “then we ran into some weather.” I think that we didn’t really run into any weather, the weather was probably down there all the time, but as we started to decrease altitude for landing the plane started going up and down, left and right, and in other ways trying to show us that the weather was in charge.

I suddenly got sick, and almost did not get that barf bag out in time. But I did.

When I was in Memphis going to school, it was not all “school and stuff”. We also went ashore once in a while. What does that mean? I was a long ways from the ocean. What it meant was that a buddy or two would go with me to the big city of Memphis which was along the shores of the Mississippi. The trips I remember the most were solo bus trips during a weekend when I would be doing my own thing.

One of my own things that I remember was going to a park somewhere in town during a time when they were holding some sort of a picnic. The part I really remember is that they had a big watermelon feed at the park.

Another event at this same park occurred after I had found out that they had a light opera group that performed there. These were outdoor performances, and the next thing that I knew I had purchased season tickets. By today’s standards it was not that expensive, but even at $1 an opera it seemed very expensive to me over 50 years ago.

There were a number of situations that you got placed into just because of the navy rules of that time. For example, a “student” at NATTC could not drive any motor vehicle onto the base unless he had previously purchased accident and collision insurance in excess of some amount. Usually young sailors did not even own a car, and if we did, we usually did not feel that we could afford to pay those excessive insurance rates. If we did own a car without insurance, we would still have to find some place to park it, off the base, and that almost always cost something.

But I was always able to find someone that owned a car and was interested in traveling somewhere on a weekend. The most exciting trip that I took out of Millington was an overnight trip up to Paducah, Kentucky, then on to Cario, Illinois at the junction of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. This is where we went into our first casino. It certainly was my first casino.

This casino is where I placed my first bet. It was a dollar slot machine just inside the entrance. I soon figured out how the system worked and got 20 silver dollars and went back to those machines to try my luck. I put in one coin and got 3 cherries. I put in another coin and got 3 cherries. Within ten minutes I had won over $25. That was big money during those days. A hotel room for the night was four dollars per person. I perhaps should have become a gambler pro at that time.

I had a few other beautiful adventures including one down into Mississippi. It was in the same car that we had used to take the Paducah loop. I am pretty sure of that, but I still can not remember who it was that owned or drove that car. It wasn’t me and it was not insured.

Mississippi was not that far away from our base north of Memphis, but what direction did we go. It certainly was south and there were not any freeways then, so was it US highway 61, US highway 51, State highway 3, State highway 301? I am going to guess that it was the predominate road that follows the Mississippi River, so the largest city during that time was likely to be Tunica - about 30 miles into Mississippi.

It really does not make that much difference, but we did get into a town somewhere in the northern part of the state of Mississippi, and one of our fellow travelers from Millington decided we should see if we could buy a bottle, whatever that means. So we made inquiries. No! Mississippi was dry, we were told. The only way that you might get any alcoholic drink is to purchase it from a bootlegger. And how do we do that, somebody from the front seat asked?

So we got some very specific instructions. You drive back up this highway exactly 2.5 miles. When you see a dirt road on the left side, turn into it and follow that road. About a half mile in you will come to a dead end where there will be a round-a-bout. Stop your car and put $2.50 into the canvas bag hanging from the post in the center of the round-a-bout. Get back in your car and return to the paved highway. You then make a U-Turn and return to the round-a-bout. There will be a bottle sitting on the stump near that post.

We had absolutely no trouble finding that dirt road, finding the round-a-bout, nor finding the post. When we came back in, there was the bottle. But to my taste, that liquor was terrible. You really had to be hard up to drink that stuff, but someone in our group of four sailors must have liked it. Within a half hour, that bottle was all gone and I only had ONE sip, one very small sip, honest! Whew! It was terrible!

Another restriction that NATTC had was that students could not wear civilian clothes on the base. With time, many of us got involved in local activities where the use of civilian clothes was considered to be more appropriate. So, I started buying a few civilian items and found a place to leave them at the Memphis YMCA. One of my fellow students also bought some civilian clothes including a suit that was exactly the same color as one I had bought - except he was four inches shorter. My mistake! I allowed him to share my clothes locker at the Y.

This should not have been any problem, except that he graduated with me and left for home a day before I did. When I went to the Y to pick up my clothes, there was his short-legged suit. His name is Raul Bedoy and he lived in LA. If you see him, tell him that I want my suit back.

About half way through my Class A schooling, I received a notice that I had been promoted to the position of Airman. I never did figure out why this occurred, but this was an E3 position, my second promotion since I enlisted. It meant that would get a pay raise. So I accepted it.

But I had a lot to learn. We had to learn the basic theory about electronics, all about electronics circuits, communication procedures, and the maintenance and operation of airborne electronic equipments. During this process I do not remember any big highlights, but do remember that we finally graduated. The date was September 9, 1949. I do not know why I remember that date, but I do. The part I had to look up in my navy personnel records was that my final average grade was 85.17, and I was ranked 10th of 56 students in my class.

On that same day, I was promoted to the rate of Aviation Electronicsman Third Class. This rate selection turned out to be quite important as related to my future navy career. I had a choice. Was I to be an Aviation Electronics Technician or an Aviation Electronicsman. Select one! Well, I selected Aviation Electronicsman (an AL) - an operator versus a technician. It was somewhat of a poor decision.

What do you think happens when you complete a navy school of some sort? You are right! You get transferred to some new base, so I was not surprised when as part of my graduating from the Aviation Electronics school that I almost immediately received orders to go elsewhere. My elsewhere was to be FAETUPac San Diego. Isn’t San Diego where I started? And what the heck is FAETUPac San Diego?

When you have been in the navy for 15 months, most sailors learn to ask a lot of questions. One of the questions I asked was: “what squadron will I eventually be sent to?” And the answer was - to VP25 which is a PB4Y2 squadron and is located in Hawaii. Well, that sounded like pretty good duty. I would first be spending some time learning about the specific equipment that was carried on that type of aircraft and this was to done in San Diego.

So I soon was on a train headed for California, actually heading for Riverside as I had decided to take 30 days leave before reporting to school. This train was quite a bit fancier than the one I had taken to Memphis. It was air conditioned, even had a sleeper, and we never had to wait for the milk trains.

A very interesting thing happened when I got into Austin, Texas. We were told there would be an one-hour layover, so when it was suggested that we get off and go get a drink I decided to go along. One guy seemed to know where he was going and he led us up the street a couple of short blocks and then turned down this dingy alley. About midway in that block he led us through an unmarked back door, and started climbing some stairs.

This was getting a little strange. The stairwell was only lit by one small light at the top of the stairs. At the top, in front of us, was a closed door. Our leader rapped on the door and in a moment someone had opened a small door window and was peering out at us. The door opened and we went in. Inside was a very nice, well furnished bar with a number of customers. We had our drink and then went back to catch the train on westward. It was a unique, scary, but memorable experience.

The Fleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit - Pacific (FAETUPac) was located directly across the San Diego bay from the boot camp where I had been earlier. The base was right next to the city of Coronado at a place known as North Island Naval Air Station.

The PB4Y2 aircraft was a 4-engine long-range patrol bomber based on the Army Air Corps B24 Liberator design. The 4Y2 had one tail, not two like the B24. The equipments used in these planes were of pre-WWII designs and considered old and obsolete by 1950 standards. These were the planes being used by my new Squadron, VP25, so I had to learn them inside and out. At least VP25 was stationed in Hawaii.