Eric, Gone West

My friend, Eric, has “gone west.”  In World War I when a soldier died, his comrades placed his body on a caisson with the others who had died and the caissons passed other soldiers on the way to the rear echelons, which was to the west.  Hence the term, “gone west.”  With Eric’s passing, I move further away from my aviation roots.

Eric and I became acquainted through a fraternal flying club, of which we were both members.  We met when I overheard him talking about his days in training.  He learned to fly in 1940 at a little place in Florida known as Clewiston.

Eric was a member of the No. 5 BFTS (British Flying Training School).  He and his compatriots were a very different and brave lot. 

As very young men, England sent them to Florida to learn how to fly.  As the 1940s began, Germany threatened to destroy the English Isles and everything British.  Indeed, as Winston Churchill spoke of the time from the fall of France in 1940 to the invasion of Russia by the Nazis in 1941, England alone stood against Germany.  He referred to this time as England’s darkest hour.

The Royal Air Force lacked planes and pilots; she was also losing more young men and aircraft each day to the Luftwaffe.  England needed more pilots and faced a terrible logistical and training problem.

Training pilots in England was impossible.  There were not enough training aircraft or flight instructors available to do the job.

The alternative? Send British cadets to the United States where training aircraft and flight instructors could teach the British airmen without the threat of German interference.

The British cadets came to Florida literally by the thousands. My friend Eric was one of them.  They came with little or no experience as pilots; they left with a modicum of aerial expertise.

Some of the young British boys became quite enamored with the state, the weather, and the Embry-Riddle Flight School at Clewiston.  Here, the weather was warm, the skies were sunny, and the only danger they faced flying was the slight possibility of an engine failure.  Some even fell in love with a few of the Florida girls.  A few, like Eric, really enjoyed learning to fly in the Florida weather.  It left an impression on him which is probably why he came back here later in life.

When they left Florida, they returned to England for final training in their combat aircraft.  The weather was always gray, the clouds low, and the temperature cold.  And of course, the possibility of the Germans killing them ranked right up at the top if the list as the highest threat to their safety.

When Eric went back to England, he flew Mosquito pursuit aircraft against the Germans.  He, like so many of the former British cadets, now RAF officers, had precious little flight experience and even less combat experience.  Duty tasked them with the job of saving the world – at least England’s little corner of the globe.

Now Eric is gone and as a consequence, I feel as though l have lost the most solid connection to my own aviation past.  For you see, the CTPT instructor who soloed Eric at Riddle Field in Clewiston, FL back in the early 1940s when Eric was just a kid was Charlie Miller.

He was the same Charlie Miller who soloed me when I was a kid 30 years later.

Rest easy my friend.

-30-

© 2010 J. Clark

• Tweet
• Pin It