4/6/2024 0 Comments Breaking the quiet part 3 btq3![]() ![]() ‘Boy oh Boy! This flying business is really the stuff! More fun than I ever dreamed of’ (letter dated )īy late April 1943 Bud had moved on again, to the Army Air Force Classification Centre in San Antonio, Texas where he was assigned to a Cadet Squadron. We did climbs, glides, turns, banks, crabbing (taking the wind drift into consideration) etc etc’ (letter dated 4 April 1943) It was just on the border of being too high to fly. The air was terribly rough because the wind was so high. Of the 45 minutes we were up, I had the controls about 35. ‘I was the first one up this morning and really got a thrill out of it. We have had no orders to wear them yet, but expect them any day’ (letter dated )įurther letters that month showed his enthusiasm for flying: ![]() All those who are flying are distinguished by the air corps braid on the khaki caps. Only a few of the bunch here are taking it, and I’m lucky to be one of them …. We fly Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings (no classes!) and Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Most of flight 29 is together in what is known as Flight H. ‘At 2.10 this afternoon I got my first flying. In April 1943 he got his first taste of flying: here said all sorts of hell is going to be raised at Sheppard Field, because we were the most worn out, run down gang he has ever seen’.īy the end of March 1943 he had been made up to Flight Sgt and his duties included drilling his flight for four hours in the afternoons, and commanding them on parades. ‘To date, five men have died from our barracks, one from pneumonia, one from spinal meningitis, and three from scarlet fever. ![]() However, his next letter a few days later probably gave his parents more cause for concern: I think I might pick up though, for I have lost my cold, the hours are regular and the food is excellent …… My courses are not hard for me yet, but then we have not gotten into the higher math yet’ His letter dated suggested he liked it there: By early March he had been posted to an Army Air Force Squadron (Sqn F, Flight 29) at Texas Tech, Lubbock for more intensive studies. It was during this time that he enlisted in the US Army Air Force in November 1942.īud’s letters home begin in February 1943 when he was doing his basic training at a Training School Squadron (TSS) at Sheppard Field Air Force Base, Texas. After high school, he attended Colorado State University for a term during 1941/1942, and then transferred to the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts during the 1942/43 school year. Bud was close to his sister, Janet, and the two spent many childhood hours hiking and fishing in the mountains and forests around Mogollon. The family moved to Mogollon, New Mexico in 1928 where Mr Heyne worked at the local mine. Richard (‘Bud’ to his family) Heyne was born in Missouri, USA in July 1923, the second of two children to German born to naturalized American, Hans Richard Heyne and Marion Lipsey Heyne. The letters include 82 wartime letters from Lt Heyne to his family covering his initial and flight training at various USAAF bases in the USA, and his deployment as a fighter pilot in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) until his death in action on 29 October 1944 on a raid over Landau, Germany. The material consists of a biography of Lt Heyne compiled by Mr Ray, 127 original letters, seven scanned photographs, and several scanned news cuttings. ![]() In August 2020 the Centre received material relating to 2nd Lt Richard Heyne USAAF donated by his nephew, Mr J Ray of New Mexico, USA. ![]()
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