An early Air Corps portrait of my father Ernest Anders Erickson when he was a Cadet in training to be a pilot at Kelly Field (Aviation Cadet Center) in 1942. He is nineteen years old here and looks every bit of that young age. If you look at photographs from 1944 you can see how fast he aged.

Two days before he would turn twenty two he would already have flown thirty missions over German occupied Europe with the 334th Squadron of the 95th Bomb Group. His last five missions would be complete by August 26th, 1944 and he had accomplished thirty five missions out of Horham Airfield in England. His days of combat flying would be over.

The 43I (1943) below his name in the photograph signifies the Cadet class he would eventually graduate from.

Ernest Anders graduated from Blackland Airfield in October of 1943 and received his wings. He became a B-17 pilot and headed to England to begin combat flying in January of 1944.