"Actually, when I first got to Europe, I got there by way of Liverpool on a ship that carried 14,000 troops. This was the USS America, and I think it was called the West Point at that time. It was our largest ocean liner. And we took five days to…

"I started out really as a photographer at an air base squadron at Tuskegee, Alabama. And incidentally at Tuskegee it was the training for black pilots. About 1,000 were actually given wings at this institution. It really was not at Tuskegee…

Editor's Note: W.A. Scott was studying at Morehouse College and waiting to marry his childhood sweetheart, Marian Willis, a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, when he was drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces in 1943. He was able to visit her at…

"I ended up getting some more training in camera FLIR at engineering school in Balfour Virginia (sic -- this could be Balls Ford, Virginia), and went overseas with this unit after. The fellows really were ready to eat nails. They had 14 weeks…

"They changed the program, and we were sent to organize an engineer combat battalion in Mississippi, and that's really how I ended up, you might say, going into the phase that I did. But when I got into this engineer combat battalion, we had a…

"I ended up in Howard University in Washington D.C. I completed the program along with six individuals, a pilot. Six of us completed the program, in really two-thirds of the time – a 300 group. But we were called and told instead of commission,…

"And the Army started what they call specialized training program, ASTP, in '43, and it came through and tested individuals. And I said, 'You know, maybe I'll try it.' Because they were offering a little commission if you…

Editor's Note: After graduating from the Atlanta Laboratory High School, W.A. Scott went on to study business administration and mathematics at Morehouse College. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and inducted into a segregated squadron at…

"The biggest memory I have-- we had an American-- it wasn't a base. It was a huge tent in the green area near my house, and there was a bunch of Americans lived there. We used to go up there and say, “Got any gum, chum?” Because we…

"I was probably around five. Five or six. And I remember my mom and dad putting my brother and I on the train, and I remember us having our gas masks, but I don't remember having any luggage. I'm sure we did. And they put us on the…