Edsall, James OH95
Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center Transcript of an Oral History Interview with JAMES EDSALL U. S. Army Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force Pilot, World War II 1996 OH 95 1 OH 95 Edsall, James V., (1920- ). Oral History Interview, User Copy, 1 sound cassette (50 min.), analog, 1 7/8 ips, mono. Master Copy, 1 sound cassette (50 min.), analog, 1 7/8 ips, mono. ABSTRACT James Edsall, a Middleton, Wis. resident, discusses his World War II service as a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the United States Air Force. He relates joining the Royal Canadian Air Force after the U.S. Air Force rejected him, training in Canada, and voyage to England aboard the Queen Elizabeth. Once in England he became part of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and comments on training at Ramsbury (England), spending a week as an inmate at Desitt RAF prison, resentment from the English, and developing friendships with other RAF members. He mentions his duties including laying mines in the Bay of Biscay, dropping propaganda, and flying weather reconnaissance. Edsall transferred to the American Air Force in 1943, he talks about the transfer process, instruction courses at Waco (Texas), duty at Lecce (Italy) and the twenty missions he flew from there. Edsall compares the American Air Force with the RAF, touching upon differences in discipline, tactics, strategy, and flight formations. He relates his flight home from Europe, use of the GI Bill, treatment of veterans by the University of Illinois, service related medical problems, and brief involvement in the AMVETS.
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