The number of airmen who were injured or killed in training accidents is one of the little known facts about the dangers of training during WWII. My father bailed out twice of burning B-24’s in training in Texas and survived a take off crash. The training centers in Texas and Arizona used “war wearies” for training the crews, i.e. these were aircraft that had survived dozens of missions overseas and were sent back to be used to train new aircrew. And they used rebuilt engines, that if flown beyond their limits, had a tendency to catch fire. He ended up with a double hernia that was found just before he was to ship out from March Army Airfield to the Southwest Pacific. He was trained as a nose gunner for the B-24J model.
“He was trained as a nose gunner for the B-24J model.
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A hero forever my book.