“I don’t know where you come in age. But Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and everybody was pretty ticked at that, wanted to get back at them. Bob and I were both 16 years old at that time. In December, 1942 we went together to the Army Air Force recruiting office in downtown Los Angeles. We told them that we wanted to be pilots. They signed us up immediately, sent us to March Air Force Base in Riverside, Calif. for our physical, etc., and then explained that since we were 17 years only old they wanted us to graduate from high school first. We graduated mid June of 1943, received a stand-by letter and waited the whole summer until Sept. 25 to ship out. We were now 18 years old.
I think he had something to do with writing for the Los Angeles High School paper, The Blue and White. He wrote a terrific letter to all our gang when we all left for service. It was very touching, oh just the great times we had growing up together and now we had to go off on a new tangent. “Herein shall be found the spirit embodied in three years of high school. This is worth fighting for. By Bob Gaudino.” It’s a full page.
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