Ed Scharch U.S. Navy

Summary Of Service

Naval Ship/Station	From	To	Rate
NACSB Chicago, IL	29 Oct 1942	29 Nov 1942	AvCad V-5, USNR
CAA-WTS Waukesha, WI	01 Dec 1942	05 May 1943	AvCad V-5, USNR
NPFS Iowa City, IA	06 May 1943	27 Jul 1943	AvCad V-5, USNR
NAS Minneapolis, MN	28 Jul 1943	24 Oct 1943	AvCad V-5, USNR
NATC Pensacola, FL	26 Oct 1943	13 Mar 1944/1945	AvCad V-5, USNR
First discharge		28 Mar 1945	NavAv A-V(N)USNR
USNTC Great Lakes, IL	26 Jul 1945	02 Oct. 1945	S2c SV-6, USNR
NAAS Corpus Christi, TX (Waldron Field)	08 Oct 1945	28 Mar 1946	S2c SV-6, USNR
USNPSC Great Lakes, IL (second discharge)	30 Mar 1946	13 Apr 1946	S2c SV-6, USNR

(AvCad, V-5, USNR, E. L. Scharch reported 29 Oct 1942 - transferred 29 Nov 1942)

The United States Naval Reserve Aviation Base, Great Lakes, Illinois, was commissioned in 1923. The base operated a number of seaplanes from the shore facilities of nearby Lake Michigan. The Curtiss-Reynolds Airfield was built in 1929 by the Curtiss Flying Club, a subsidiary of the Curtiss Corporation established by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss.

In 1940 Rear Admiral John Downes, USN, Commandant, Ninth Naval District recommended that the Naval Reserve Aviation Base be moved to the Curtiss-Reynolds Airport. The Navy petitioned for condemnation of the 319-acre tract and the court ordered payment of $530,000 for the property.

With the outbreak of World War II, the field became a focal point for the Navy’s expanded flight training program and a Primary Training Command. A massive construction program ($12,500,000) was begun in 1942. Prior to expansion, the station consisted of barracks, 20 officers, 120 enlisted men and less than 100 cadets. In only 212 working days, 1,300,000 sq. yards of concrete were placed for landing mats and runways. Hangars, administration buildings and classroom buildings followed. An additional 569.55 acres were purchased adjacent to the field, west of Shermer Road and south of old Lake Avenue. These acquisitions included the remainder of the old Herman Rugen property and the 36-hole Pickwick Golf Course. In 1943 the station was designated a Naval Air Station and recognized as NAS Chicago. It had grown to 300 officers, 1,000 cadets, and 3,500 enlisted men.

In 1942 USN pilot training programs started to ramp up; 10,869 aviators received their wings of gold, almost twice as many as had completed the program in the previous 8 years. In 1943 there were 20,842 graduates; 1944, 21,067; and, with then end of the war in sight, 1945 ended with 8,880 graduates. Thus in the period 1942 to 1945, the USN produced more than 2.5 times the number of pilots as the IJN. And each of those USN pilots went through a program of primary, intermediate, advanced, and, for the carrier pilots combat preparation in RAGs before heading west. New pilots were arriving for action in USN carrier squadrons with as many as 600 hours flying under their belts and as much as 200 hours of that in type.

(Detached duty, AvCad, V-5, USNR, E.L. Scharch reported on 13 Dec 1942 - transferred 22 Feb 1943)

Completed the civilian pilot training program under the Civil Aeronautics Authority War Training Service (CAA-WTS) with the Spring City Flying Service Carroll College, Waukesha, WI from 13 Dec 1942 to 22 Feb 1943.

Classes in mathematics and sciences were taken at Carroll College in conjunction with flight lessons at Waukesha County airport. It is Wisconsin's oldest college.

In 1931, Dean and Dale Crites started the first flight school in Waukesha - they organized the Spring City Flying Service as a weekend flight school. That service was later expanded to offer flight instruction for new pilots, maintenance of planes and rebuilding of antique aircraft. During World War II, Spring City Flying Service trained more than 1,000 pilots for combat.

Attended preflight (ground) school at Carroll College Waukesha, WI and primary flight training at Waukesha County Airport under the Civil Aeronautics Authority War Training Service (CAA-WTS) on 22 Feb 1943. Students typically received 35-40 hours of primary flight training in a Piper J-3 Cub and 72 hours ground school at college.

Flight Training In 1942-43 (An example)

The USA was now involved in WWII and requirements for prospective pilots were such that single eighteen year olds with a high school education that met the medical, psychological and IQ requirements were accepted.

Ground school was routine with classes in mathematics, aircraft recognition, theory of flight, etc and students flew when the weather was good, which was infrequent.

The flight instructors and the planes flown were connected with a contract operator who served the Navy through CAA-WTS. Despite being naval aviation cadets, students did not have navy uniforms but were issued surplus green CCC uniforms. (The CCC was the Citizens Conservation Corp formed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the depression.) Students flew 50 and 65 HP Piper J3 Cub planes.

Carlton D. Weaver describes, "My first solo flight occurred on February 13, 1943 after eight hours of dual instruction. One flight I will never forget was my fourth solo flight. On this flight I was practicing Spins over Thurmont. I would first align the plane with the road to Emmitsburg, reduce power, pull the nose up to the stall position and initiate a spin.

The object was to complete a two-turn spin and recover aimed in the same direction you started. On the spin in question, I recovered from the spin and the propeller was not rotating. I did not then know how to restart the engine so I headed back to the airport in a glide. It soon became apparent that I did not have enough altitude to glide to the field so I did as we were trained. I picked a good field and landed the plane.

I left to find a telephone and when I returned the plane was gone. In my absence, an instructor on a dual flight landed in the same field and he and his advanced student flew both planes back. Finally someone from the college found me and took me home."

Source: Emmitsburg Area Historical Society - Flight Training at Mount Saint Marys in 1942-3; retrieved Jan. 8, 2009

From the Prairies to the Skies - The Memoirs of Richard B. Sigle

"In February of 1943 I got my notice to report to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. We were there for about a month learning to march and were issued our GI uniforms. We were then put on a troop train, and sent to college at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin. We were there for about three months--taking college courses that I already had taken at Fort Hays College. We did take about ten hours training in a Piper Cub. I tried to fool the instructor by pretending I had never had any flying instruction, but he caught on, and got mad because I hadn't told him."

Source: From the Prairies to the Skies, The Memoirs of Richard B. Sigle - World War II page

The old lannon stone hangar is no longer at Waukesha County Airport/Crites Field. But on October 26, 1999, the Waukesha, Wisconsin County Commissioners voted to grant this historic building to the Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum. The entire 120-foot by 80-foot building was then carefully dismantled and moved 70 miles, piece by piece, to the museum site at the Poplar Grove Airport, Illinois! In 2000, a team of bricklayers, stonemasons and welders assembled the building at its new home in Poplar Grove, IL.

Completed pre-flight training at the Naval Pre-Flight School, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.

Military training for the U.S. Navy expanded rapidly in Iowa City. Paul Shaw, founder of Shaw Aircraft Company, ran the airport's FBO (Fixed Base Operator) from 1928 until 1959.

From 1939 to 1944, Shaw and his flight instructors trained over 2,500 pilots, first under the auspices of the Civilian Aeronautics Authority and its Civilian Pilot Training Program, in conjunction with the University of Iowa's College of Engineering. Shaw and his 22 Flight Instructors, four flight supervisors, four mechanics, five linemen, five office workers -- and 41 aircraft -- took care of flight training, while the College of Engineering ran the aeronautical ground school.

An idea of the size of the flight school's operation is apparent in this excerpt from Shaw's memoir. "In 1941 the government decided to pay subsistence for the cross country trainees, and they allowed us fifty dollars a month per student. This covered a room and their meals. They had to pay their own laundry bill. The government also paid this subsistence allowance for the Instructor Training Program. The program got big enough so that I rented rooming houses from people who were renting to male students here in Iowa City. I paid for the rooming houses by the month because I had to have that much housing always available to take care of my students. We had a good restaurant at the airport and we would buy a couple of hundred dollars worth of meal tickets at a time and these were issued to the boys as they needed them."

In 1941, this training program fell under the newly formed War Training Service. This was the beginning of the United States Navy Pre-Flight School, which trained Navy cadets in Iowa City until they progressed to the point where further flight training was provided, often at the nearby Ottumwa Naval Air Station.

The last cadets entered Pre-flight School on May 11, 1944. The school closed in August, 1944, almost three years and over 5,000,000 miles after it all began.

Completed primary flight training on 07 Oct 1943, where he learned to solo with the Boeing-Stearman N2S 'Kaydet' primary trainer bi-plane. "Final Flight Mark: 2.95, Aptitude as Officer Mark: 3.46"

President George H. W. Bush had soloed at NAS Minneapolis just eight months earlier.

The Navy began construction of a new naval reserve air station (NRAB) at Wold-Chamberlain Airport south of Minneapolis in 1928 (now Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport). It was established as NRAB Minneapolis on 01 October 1928, and redesignated Naval Air Station (NAS) Minneapolis on 01 January 1943. During WWII it served as a training facility for aviation cadets.

After the war NAS Minneapolis was placed in a maintenance status from 1 October 1945 through mid-1946. It was placed back in operational status for the reserves on 19 June 1946 and became the home port for reserve patrol squadron VP-911 on 6 July 1946. On 1 July 1963, the name of the station was changed to NAS Twin Cities. In 1970, NAS Twin Cities was disestablished and redesignated Naval Air Reserve Detachment (Glenview). In 1979, the facility was redesignated again, as NARC Twin Cities.

NAS Fleming, Outlying Field (OLF) was an auxiliary airfield to Wold-Chamberlain Airport, all of which was encompassed by NAS Minneapolis. Naval Auxiliary Airfield (NAAF) Fleming Field was established on 20 July 1943 to provide support for NAS Minneapolis. It was named in honor of Captain Richard E. Fleming, USMC, killed while leading an attack on an enemy cruiser in the Battle of Midway. Disestablishment date is uncertain, but it is believed to be in the 1946 time frame. It handled overflow for NAS Minneapolis Navy Pre-Flight School. Many cadets completed night flying requirements at this airfield.

Today Fleming Field is South Saint Paul Municipal Airport and home to the Commemorative Air Force Minnesota Wing and museum with about a half dozen restored WWII aircraft.