Military Monday - San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (SAACC)

As I mentioned in this post, my dad, Warren Westcott Grant, was in the Army Air Force during World War II and was honorably discharged as an Aviation Cadet just before he finished his flight training. At the time of his discharge, he was stationed at AAAF Amarillo, TX. Before that, he was an Aviation Student at San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (SAACC) in Texas.  My father spent 11 months (according to his Separation Qualification Record) at San Antonio before moving on to Amarillo.

According to Wikipedia:
"On 8 January 1943, the War Department constituted and activated the 78th Flying Training Wing (Preflight) at San Antonio and assigned it to the AAF Central Flying Training Command. The 78th provided aviation cadets the mechanics and physics of flight and required the cadets to pass courses in mathematics and the hard sciences. Then the cadets were taught to apply their knowledge practically by teaching them aeronautics, deflection shooting, and thinking in three dimensions. Once completed, the graduates were designated as aviation cadets and were sent to one of the primary flight schools for pilot training."

The San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center is now part of Lackland Air Force Base.

My father successfully completed the course at San Antonio before he moved onto Flight School in Amarillo. Here are the cards that indicate the completion of his Flight Checks at SAACC.



Flight Check Cards - SAACC, San Antonio, Texas

The second flight check took place on his 23rd birthday. It was just one day later his mother died in New Jersey and his flight training was interrupted for a month-long leave to settle his mother's estate. His father had died 5 years earlier.