"There was a cafe across the highway from the MAB entrance that some of us visited occasionally when we wanted an alternative to mess hall food. One day I ordered a hamburger
and told the waitress to "cut the onions." In Texas that means don't put onions on the burger. What the waitress brought me was a hamburger with the onions shredded like cole slaw!"

MEMORABLE--"The T-28 night solo cross-country to Paducah!" 
 
           - L.F., Class 57-A, 1955-56

L.F., Class 57-A

I was in personnel at Malden from September 1944 to January 1945 during the Troop Carrier glider pilot training era.  At the time of the Battle of the Bulge, things didn't look so good for us.  Practically overnight, they transferred 100,000 Air Corps guys into the infantry.  I was one of them.  I got over to Manila in May 1945 and was discharged in August 1946.

B. Keil Personnell 1944-1945

My family moved to the Malden Air Base in 1944 when I was six or seven.  My father worked at the petroleum storage area, my mother worked at the main commissary.  My grandmother took in washing and ironing from the soldiers and air cadets in order to make ends meet.  My aunt, who lived with my grandmother, worked at the base hospital as a medical transcriber.  My mother and dad had the Sunday Morning paper route on the base.  Dad would load the papers in my wagon and I would go thru each barracks selling all my papers by the time I reaches the end of the barracks.  Dad would reload my wagon and I would repeat the process at the next barracks.  I always looked forward to going into the mess hall because the cooks would serve me breakfast.  I don't remember Dad eating with me. We lived in one of the duplexes across the street from the cinder block duplexes my aunt and her soldier husband lived in.  I remember playing in the sand spur infested grass we called our yard.  Every night my grandmother would remove the little stickers from between my toes.  I learned to swim in the swimming pool located close to where dad worked.  I remember the post chapel, NCO club, were I enjoyed my first chocolate malt.  We visited the post movie theater once in a while.  In fact we were there when the show stopped and the house lights came up and a sergeant announced the war was over.  I can't recall which war he was referring to.  I do remember asking my grandmother if this meant Uncle Earl would be coming home.  She was crying and did not answer me the best I remember.  Shortly after the war ended we moved to Marion, Ill.  My aunt had been transfer to the vet hospital as a medical transcriber.  I lived in Marion until 1992 were I retired from GTE.

 

Don Ray

Don Ray, Civilian 1944

My family lived in the pink house next to the base commander's just outside the main gate.  It was originally a part of the old hospital and was moved and renovated for our family.  My father, CWO-4, John E. Engram, was the transportation officer and remained at the base after it closed.  He was responsible for scheduling the moving of the permanent air force party officers and enlisted men.  After the permanent party left, my father closed and locked the gate.  He and I then left in his restored 1947 Chevy for Perrin AFB at Sherman, Texas.

In the summer, my father and several of the permanent party would take a group of students for a three day float trip down the Current River.  The time my family spent in Malden made up some our best memories.  We played golf, enjoyed squadron picnics, and my dad coached the AAA little league team.  We still laugh about our time in Malden.

Jim Engram

Jim Engram, Family AAA

I really enjoyed my 6 months at Malden in 1956. Good people, great instructors, and friendly girls!! Flew in the ANG for several years and then spent 31 years @ American Airlines. Now happily retired and working on and flying WWII airplanes in the CAF.

    - G. B. 57-M

G. B., Class 57-M

I was an Aviation Cadet in Class 55-L at Malden AB in the summer of 1954. My instructor was Finis Barrow and I remember him as an excellent instructor. I completed 24 years in the USAF and logged over 7000 flying hours."

            - D.D., Class 55-L, 1954

D.D., Class 55-L

Memories of The Instructors & Training...
"I could have become the first person to solo in the T-34 in our group, but I told (my) instructor that I didn't think I was quite ready - scared to death is more like it. He seemed quite annoyed but didn't try very hard to change my mind. Later that day a cadet soloed and claimed the "first" title. I soloed the next day, second in our group. I didn't think about it at the time, but now I wonder if all the instructors had a betting pool, and the instructor whose student was first to solo claimed the money. I probably was responsible for my instructor losing a nice bit of pocket change!

"This same instructor was an avid hunter. One late afternoon as we were winding up a training flight in a T-34 and preparing to head for the base, the instructor took the controls and dropped down almost to tree-top level, and we skimmed here and there over wetlands for several minutes. A very junior officer doesn't ask his instructor what he's doing, but the instructor (an exceptionally nice fellow) explained that he was looking for promising spots to go duck hunting that weekend. This happened at the T-34 auxiliary field - I think it was near Dexter.

"My T-28 instructor was named Schutt (which may not be the correct spelling of his name). He was a good pilot and a good instructor, but he had the well-deserved reputation of being a masterful butt-chewer. One day I was practicing instrument takeoffs, and uncharacteristically performed the procedure almost perfectly, reaching the assigned altitude without a waiver. "Very good, Lt. So-and-so," came Mr. Schutt's voice on the intercom, using the name of another of his students. "This is Lt. ---," I replied giving him my name. "Oh," he said. Well, I counted it as a compliment, which were rare enough and valued highly, even if it was credited to someone else."

          - L.F., Class 57-A, 1955-56

 

L.F., Class 57-A

Whenever a cadet made a major mistake and others found out about it, that person got the opportunity to stand up and tell everyone else in the dining hall all about it. It served three purposes: 1. It was embarrassing to the individual so hopefully he would never do that again, 2. It was in most cases extremely funny for the rest of the cadet corps, and 3, The rest of us should also learn from this so we would not make the same mistake.

 

I will give you some examples: I remember one cadet tried to taxi his T6 to go fly with the tail wheel still tied down. He was using a huge amount of power trying to make the aircraft move until a crew chief ran out wildly waving his arms to get him to reduce the engine power until he could untie the tail wheel.

 

Another cadet tried to get taxi clearance over the radio by using the intercom switch instead of the radio transmitter button. He kept calling “Ambitious (The call sign for the tower) this is Black Hawk 27, row 4, spot three, requesting taxi instructions.”  The instructor in the back seat figured out what he was doing, changed his voice and said back through the intercom, “Black Hawk 27, I do not see you. Are you sure you are on row 4, spot three”? The student looked around then hit the intercom switch again and said “Roger Ambitious. I am at row 4, spot three.” The instructor then said, “Black Hawk 27, take your hat off and wave it in the air!”  The student took off his radio head set, then his hat and waved it in the air. When he put his hat and head set back on the instructor said “Black Hawk 27, I still do not see you, stand up in the seat and wave your hat.” At this, the student had to set the parking brake, unstrap from his seat belt and shoulder harness, stand up on his seat, and start to wave. When he glanced in the back seat where his instructor was seated, he saw his instructor, doubled up with laughter and so were all of us in the mess hall when he related the story to us.

 

Other accounts involved getting lost on cross country flights, bad landings, things like that. One of my favorite stories involved a cadet who was scheduled to fly a T6 on a solo practice flight as soon as an aircraft became available. Some of his classmates noticed a T6 without a propeller parked nearby. They ran up to him and told him that he had just been assigned that airplane to fly. The cadet grabbed his parachute and raced out to the aircraft, gave it a very quick pre flight inspection, strapped in and was just about to start the engine, when the crew chief walked up to him and asked him where he was going without a propeller? The cadet looked around and off to the side were all his classmates were rolling on the grass with laughter. He knew he would be speaking in the mess hall that night. These various accounts did not happen every night or even every week but when they did, they brought great amusement to the rest of us.

 

Larry Steed, Class 56-B

Larry Steed, Class 56-B

"I remember when we would be in lineup (in the) early morning and the upper classmen would haze us. One question they would always ask: "what was showing that day at the theater?" Of course, we would not have had the time to check. All of my class agreed to say "Strange Love with Boris Carloff and Shirley Temple" knowing they had not looked themselves. Then after drill, before the next formation, one of us would quickly check the theater and pass the word so when they asked again we knew the answer. This went on for the whole time at Malden for our class."

          - Guy, Class 53-B

Guy, Class 53-B

"My instructor, Mack Hogan, was about to wash me out of instrument training. He called me into the flight shack and said in my pattern A and Bs I seemed to always be drifting up and to the right. He then asked me to go through everything I did from the time I got in the T-34 until I got out of it. In the course of explaining, I mentioned that, when under the hood, I sat back in the seat with my left hand on the throttle and my right on the stick. He smiled and said: "That's the problem." I asked him "what do you mean?" He explained how my arm would get tired extended out like it was and suggested I rest my right elbow on my knee. He was so sure we went back up and sure enough it solved the problem. From then on IFR was my favorite way to fly. What a great instructor!!! I remember going to his house and sampling honey he had gathered from a local beehive in a tree."  

            - D.I., Class 56-T

Some of the most memorable times of my life were spent at Malden under the tutelage of Mack Hogan--a truly wonderful flight instructor.  Capt. Monroe was our Commanding Officer.  Although I did not pursue the military as a career, I did apply much of what I learned about trust and camaraderie as a Cadet to my life and the discipline learned has proved to be most helpful.  About Malden, all I can say is "Good Times".

-D.I. Class 56-T

D.I., Class 56T