Mather Field Flight School During World War II in California

WWII Mather Field Flight School in California Narrator: McClellan continued to serve as a maintenance facility, but with the need for a navigation-training base, Mather was reopened. Derrel Fleener: Mather is one of the largest airstrips in America, there are only six of them as long as Mather, especially during World War II at that time. And so they flew every fighter plane. P-51s, P-40s. It was a pilot training and a navigator training and also a bombardier training facility. Mather throughout its career has taught aviators how to navigate, so people from all over the world have learned how to navigate from Mather. Narrator: Many of the pilots who passed through Mather’s gates for training wiould cross the path of instructor David Morse. David Morse: Basically the pilot had to go through primary training when he first started in a primary airplane. Then, they had to go through basic training. Out at Mather field, it was mostly basic and advanced. That’s the type of pilots you started teaching. It was kind of the most ideal situations a teacher could ever ask for because these fellas, they knew the lives of their crew, depended upon this right here. And we knew also that or and understood that at least in the European field that 1/3 of them will lost, they didn’t make it back and so we did everything could to help them. Narrator: Morse expected the time would time when he would see combat but that day never came. David Morse: So, I was really ready for it more than probably than anybody on the base. Overseas would send through an order that they needed men of a certain MOS. MOS meant your classification. They pulled me out from where I was and I’d go through all of the medical things you have to go through and have the shots. Then, what happen is they head to the ground school, he would find this out and he’d always pull me off because he didn’t want to have to train somebody that had all this background that I had because they were hard to find in the Air Force. So, that’s what kept me from going. They figured out I was more important here. Jane Morse: It was frustrating, very frustrating. I don’t know how many times he was put on shipping orders. Every time he’d be given a series of shots for overseas and every time he got sick. But he had to do it and so you had to take it. But it was frustrating. You never knew from one day to the next what was going to happen. Narrator: Morse worked hard to develop new production procedures and develop new ways of teaching pilots the various aircraft systems. He wanted to ensure that his students could not only pilot, but that they left his class knowing how to rebuild the entire aircraft. David Morse: We’d start off, maybe have a big chart up here or the black board and have nothing. Say well, first what do we need if we’re going to have oil in the planes? Actually, well we’re going to have a tank that holds oil. Also, so we started building the system. I asked the questions and they figured out we were right there and ready with the questions. They were ready with the questions. Narrator: Morse lived by the motto “I will prepare and someday my chance will come”. For him, that opportunity came as he taught boys to become men while also learning to be a man himself. David Morse: They marched into the room and marched alongside of the desk and stood there. Then, the one in charge of the flight, he would come to the front of the room and he’d say “Attention!” and then pop to attention and it was such a feeling that I had never felt before.