On June 17, 1943, Conn moved to Aurora, CO and served at Buckley Field. The training here was initially planned to last fifteen weeks, but because the class sizes were so large, the course was split into two sections, lasting nine weeks long each. Although the curriculum was thorough, it mainly focused on aircraft machine guns, synchronization, explosives, gun sights, and a 12-day field exercise. Conn was one of over 50,000 graduates in the two years of the school’s operation.[1]
Less than two months later, he transferred to Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, CO where he would continue training with B-24 Liberators at the Lowry Modification Center. |
On November 30, 1943, he moved to Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Although some training was done here with the B-24s, this base would later become a vital maintenance and supply base for B-24s and many other aircrafts.
Conn moved back to Colorado – this time in Colorado Springs – to Peterson Air Force Base on December 31, 1943. The next day, January 1, 1944, he went to Harvard, NE where he would begin training with the 484th Bomber Group. On March 24, 1944, he transferred to Lincoln Air Force Base in Lincoln, NE. Lincoln AAF was officially a mechanics school but began training air crews of heavy bombers, including B- 24s, at the start of the war. This is the last base he would be stationed at before heading overseas. |