Description

36 pages
The Las Vegas Army Air Field, oldest aerial gunnery school in the world, spreads out over thousands of acres of arid desert north of Las Vegas, Nevada. Activated May 5, 1941, without precedent, this base was destined to train gunners who would make the Air Forces bombers the most deadly in the air, “four-motored fighters.” With typical American ingenuity, the top officers of the gunnery school conceived new training theories, dreamed up synthetic devices which would simulate combat conditions, studied combat reports and applied their lessons to the brand-new curriculum. Stimulated to white heat by Pearl Harbor, the first class of student gunners graduated on January 24, 1942. First LVAAF graduate to become an international hero was M/Sgt. Meyer Levin, who was chief gunner for valiant Captain Colin Kelly. Since that time, over a hundred graduates have earned medals by the application of the lessons they learned at the Las Vegas Army Air Field. Said one alumnus in a letter to his former instructors: “I can say I owe my life to some of the things taught me fight there in Las Vegas.” Las Vegas gunners “AIM WELL AND SHOOT STRAIGHT.”