The Navigators
Turner Field, Albany, Georgia

In July 1941, the first group of navigation instructors (holding the rank of cadet) arrived at Turner Field from Barksdale Field and reported to the first Commanding officer of Turner Field, Colonel John Patrick. These young men were navigators. Over ½ of the class never had any real military training and were definitely the oddities in a military base. It was only in September of that year that these cadets received their commissions as second lieutenants.

Our source, Bob Newcomb, was a member of this first class of instructors. He was recruited into the Air Force in 1939 when he was a senior at Iowa State College. His roommate was broken hearted because thought he had applied for the Army Air Corps he was turned down because of physical disabilities. Bob bet his broken hearted roommate $1 that he, Bob, could get accepted. His roommate looked at his non-military, musical roommate, laughed and accepted his bet, knowing that the military wanted soldiers. What the roommate did not recognize was that at this time, the Army Air Corps was recognizing the need for trained navigators to lead the bombers long distances in the up coming war. Bob Newcomb, with his math background was accepted and became, much to his surprise, one of the second class of navigators to graduate from Barksdale Field, Shreveport, Louisiana. This is a picture of all of the Navigators in the Army Air Corps in 1941. 

 

Bob Newcomb is the 2nd from the left on the second row from the top. 
Standing on the second row from the bottom on the left end is Glenn Portt.  
George Thorpe is on the right end on the same row with Glenn. 
Jack Ragsdale (Assistant Director of Training) is on the right end on the third
row from the bottom. 
Cid Ammuman is standing on the back row in the center.  
Artie Shew is on the front row, third from the right.

These navigators became the instructors for all of the navigators active during World War II. Navigators were trained at three fields: Turner, Kelly and Mather. Prior to the war, all navigators were pilots, flying single engine planes. With the advent of two engine planes capable of flying long distances, the navigational specialty was born. The graduating class of June 41 was the first class of navigators ever who were not also pilots. This decision to make a specialty of navigation was a very important decision that did much to change aviation history.

Fifteen Navigators were sent to Turner Field as instructors. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II in December 1941, all of them were transferred out of Turner Field to Bomber Squadrons all across the United States. Belatedly, someone realized that they had left the navigation school without instructors and the men were transferred back – to the relief of the future wives of four. (The Albany Herald, May 3, 1992)

Of those five sent to Turner Field to train the nation’s navigators, many (four) lost their hearts in Albany, Georgia. Glenn Portt (third row from the top) was no military man. Captain Von Weiler, the first commandant of cadets had to teach Col. (retired) Portt to salute. But military man or not, Glenn Portt won the heart of Albany physician Dr. Cook’s daughter, married her and remained to retire in Albany. His grandchildren are still here.

Cadet instructor George Thorpe married the fire chief Brossner’s daughter. And Cadet Instructor Cyganowitz married Helen Newell, who is contributing his uniform to the exhibition to be built at the current plant site of Miller Brewing on the old Turner Field.

Cadet instructor William G. (Bill) Borella married Virginia Ann Giddens and are the parents of Suzanne Hagins (Mrs. Waddell Hagins) and Bob Newcomb stayed in Albany to marry the former Mimi Pace (at the time the youngest female pilot and one of the first to fly the B-17)

Other navigators also stayed or returned to make Albany, Georgia their permanent homes. A member of the first class of navigators returned to open Bob White Rents, a well-known rental business in Albany. Bill Pace and Harold Snelling also trained at Turner Field.

Of the original five who came from Barksdale Field as the first instructors for navigation at Turner, all made Captain. Two retired as Colonels. None was noted for his military bearing, that being something that was sort of imposed on a group of mathematicians for whom history made them military navigators.

 

Navigators of the time had to learn their bearing from "shooting" stars. They took ten minutes using logarithms to determine where they were. Theirs was the job of determining how to get to where they had to go and to be certain that they traveled by the best route and arrived where they thought they would. The hardest part of all, according to Bob Newcomb, was to train pilots to take instructions from the navigators.

Bob Newcomb is in the center on the second row - standing. 
This picture was taken in England.

While stationed at Turner Field, Bob Newcomb created a training film for the Army Air Corps. A copy of this film will be available for viewing in the exhibition at Miller Brewing Company, Albany, Georgia. It is interesting to note that from the original group of navigators 1500 were trained by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is also interesting to note that for Pathfinder Crews, all were trained together, pilots, navigators, and assistant navigators and radar crew.

The navigation school at Turner Field soon outgrew its quarters and was moved in the fall of 1942 to Selma Field, Alabama. But while Bob trained two flights of navigators at Turner Field, he noticed that they were always ahead of the schedule of their ‘competition’ at Kelly (Texas) & Mather (California) Fields. Bob attributed this to the wonderful weather, conducive to flying.

(The following is an excerpt from The Albany Herald, Sunday, May 3, 1992.) Navigators were know as "Little Tin Gus" because "their nerves seemed all of metal and their minds worked like a compass". The navigator’s job was to get the bombers to their target and then get them home again.

The navigator had to be in good physical shape, because bombers flew at high altitudes, which required oxygen masks. Yet navigators had to be able to move around the plane, which meant they had to disconnect their oxygen masks and still be able to operate with a clear head. During combat over the target, the navigator often manned one of the machine guns.

The school at Turner Field used AT17s exclusively, a twin-engine plane that was modified to hold three students, a pilot, and a navigation instructor. The students sat one behind the other in the belly of the plane. The one in front worked his navigation problem by instrument while the other two practiced charting location by recognizing landmarks on the ground beneath the plane.

The students spent 100 hours in the hour while at Turner and flew over several states on four and eight hour flying missions. They learned celestial, radio, pilotage and dead reckoning navigation.

Problems were caused by having both the navigation school and pilot training at the same base, trying to use the same runways. Pilots from one school tended to cut off pilots from the other who were training to land their planes. The auxiliary fields helped to ease this overcrowding and the navigation school kept a perfect, no-casualties record while at Turner.

The Turner Field school also developed courses for navigation instructors at the primary and basic schools. Most of these instructors were civilians who came to the schools with varied backgrounds and priorities which meant that some things, like navigation, were neglected at some of the training schools. Through instructor training cadets came to Turner with a solid and similar background in navigation.

The navigation school stayed at Turner Field until September of 1942. During that time, it graduated 892 men in 14 classes. By the 12^th of September, all equipment, instructors and students had been transferred to Monroe, Louisiana. This left classrooms and barracks available to expand the pilot training program. (End story from The Albany Herald. Our thanks, as always, to the generosity of The Herald for letting us use these stories – often, as here verbatim).

Navigation was sometimes routine – and sometimes a life or death situation. Click here to find Bob Newcomb’s life or death story as reported in SkyWays – January 1943.  We have included some of Bob's flight records here for you to review.