One of the early drawings of the local flying area around Waco that my father Cadet Ernest Anders Erickson drew in late 1942. An "Excellent to Superior" note written on the upper right corner from his instructor he received while at training to be a pilot at Kelly Field Aviation Cadet Center.

After the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the need for pilots, bombardiers, and navigators resulted in the rapid expansion of the United States Army Air Corps and the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Airfield. Night flying was added to the school program and the amount of training time doubled.

Between January 1939 and December 1943, over 7000 men graduated from Kelly's Advanced Flying School and approximately 2000 additional pilots graduated from various other courses in the Instructor's School. In order to house the rapidly growing pilot trainee population, a "tent city" sprang up as it had in World War I. By the summer of 1942, there were four flying fields - Duncan, Kelly, Brooks and Stinson and flying became dangerous. Consequently, in March 1943, Kelly and Duncan were reunited under the name of Kelly Field.

Besides supplying the Air Corps with pilots, bombardiers and navigators, Kelly ground crew workers overhauled, repaired, modified aircraft and their engines.

Ernest Anders eventually graduated from Blackland Airfield in October of 1943 and received his wings and became a B-17 pilot. He was stationed at Horham Airfield in England with the 95th Bomb Group from February to November 1944. He flew thirty five missions with the 334th Squadron.