Waiting to Fly

Text

“It was on Sunday morning and I was getting ready to go to church and we heard on the radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Now I was 20 years old at that point in time and I knew that I was going to go into the military because I knew I would be drafted. Now all of my life up to that time, I’d always liked airplanes. I used to build model airplanes. I read about World War I and about all of the Air Force activities in World War I. I wanted to go to West Point, but I couldn’t make that, but I was very much enamored with the idea of flying. So, when I heard about Pearl Harbor, I knew I had to go but my mother felt that flying was too dangerous, and she would not sign my approval papers to get into the Air Corps.” 

Editor's Note: Crawford Hicks was 20 years old and living with his aunt in Tulsa at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He would have to wait for his 21st birthday in February to legally sign up for the Air Corps.