entification tags, the card would certify us as 'combatants'. The statement on the card was supposed to keep us from being shot as spies in the event the enemy invaded the Hawaiian Islands.
During the war years, I fixed and packed thousands of man-carrying and cargo parachutes, and serviced many other types of life-saving and survival gear.
After the war, my job was changed. I investigated defects that had been made during manufacture or repair in all types of equipment. My job was to examine what was wrong, and talk to mechanics and anybody who knew how and why it happened. After collecting the information, I wrote reports that described what was wrong so that specialists and engineers, who were thousands of miles distant, would understand the problem and solve it.
I worked at Hickam Field until April 1948, and then returned to the place where I had signed up when the war began. By then, the base had grown enormously, and was named Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.