An early portrait of my father, Ernest Anders Erickson soon after he joined the Air Corps in early 1942. As a Cadet he was in flight training at Kelly Field and he would eventually graduate as a pilot of heavy bombers in October of 1943.

By very late 1941, the need for pilots, bombardiers, and navigators resulted in the rapid expansion of the United States Army Air Corps Advanced Flying School. Night flying was added to the school program and the amount of training time doubled. Between January 1939 and March 1943, over 6,800 men graduated from Kelly Fields Advanced Flying School. Around 1,700 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.

Kelly Field became the base of a huge industrial complex. Kelly workers overhauled, repaired and modified aircraft engines and related equipment. Its maintenance shops worked on thousands of B-17s, B-25s, B-29s, P-51s, and the C-47.