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>Looking for info on Sgt . Mack Pittard Jr. of ATC > >My dad Mack Pittard Jr. served in the ATC in WW II, >and was a flight engineer on the planes that flew the >Hump. He never talked about his service, except to say >that he "got to travel a lot"! > >He finished up his training at 864 (or 564) Army Air >Force Base Unit (AAF BU) in Homestead, Florida he >trained as a C-54 Flight Engineer. By September, 1942, >his 19th month since enlistment, Mack was a Tech. >Sergeant Aerial Engineer 1750 with the 1503 Army Air >Force Base Unit. (Possibly this is Pacific Division >Air Transport Command Hq, West Coast Wg/1 Air Tpt Wg >at Hamilton Field, San Rafael, Calif. that I found on >he web, but do not know) > >I am having a heck of a time trying to find out what >unit he was stationed in when he flew in the C-B-I >theater. I do know from discharge papers that he also >saw action in the New Guinea campaign. > >His memory is very poor, but before it got worse, he >told me that after flight school n 1943 he was >stationed with the Ferry Command for a while outside >Detroit and flew planes to Scotland and England...then >he was stationed in San Francisco and flew to Japan to >pick up the American wounded and bring them home. > >After that he remembers that he was transferred to a >town in India transporting planes and equipment from >there to Australia and the Philippines. He got to >spend some time at bases near the coast of Australia >and New Zealand. It was after that that he was >assigned to fly the Hump. He remembers it as "being >hijacked by some General". His Enlisted Record and >Report of Separation Honorable Discharge states that >he "made frequent trips to A.P.T. (Asiatic Pacific >Theater) on foreign ferrying missions." > >Mack says he can vividly remember his ATC flight group >flying into Japan to pick up the American POWs and >wounded in Japan and transport them back to the USA. >Their plane was armed in case of fighting, but when >they landed, the Japanese soldiers "met their plane >and bowed down to us. Boy, were we surprised!" Dad and >his buddies did not know that the Japanese had >surrendered! > >Now, with this information, do you know of any way >that I can ascertain just what unit dad was in. He is >far from recollecting now, and would not talk about it >at all until a couple years ago. Now he is 87 and not >well, and I want so much to fill in the blanks. > >Any help that you can offer or direction that you >could point me in would be greatly appreciated. > >Thanks so much >Penny Pittard Maroldo >Dad is Mack W Pittard Jr. from Duluth, Georgia >email adress for me is: pennypit@yahoo.com

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