Document Type
Newsletter
Publication/Presentation Date
5-2025
Reflection
2025 marks 80 years since WW2 ended and 80 years since the four BFTS, that were still operating on VJ Day, stopped training pilots. Although Lend-Lease which funded the training, stopped the day WW2 came to an end, these four fields, #1 in Texas, #3 in Oklahoma, #4 in Arizona and #5 in Florida were given a few more days to train cadets. But cadets on the last two courses were sent home before graduation and without their Wings and although some did continue training in the UK and eventually gained their Wings, many did not. RAF Flying Training in the USA came to an end on August 27, 1945, and by September 1945, activity on BFTS fields had ceased. #5BFTS Instructors were redeployed by the Embry-Riddle Organisation if they wished although many went home to their pre-WW2 lives.
I have recently returned from sailing across the Pacific from San Francisco to Sydney. We stopped in Honolulu where I visited Pearl Harbor and USS Missouri. My father was at 5BFTS when the Battle of Pearl Harbor took place in 1941. He left camp as a civilian in a neutral country on Saturday, December 6 and returned on Sunday, December 7, once again a serviceman in a country at war. USS Missouri was anchored near Japan when the Japanese surrender was signed on August 15, 1945, but is now at Pearl Harbor. It was a very strange feeling to stand on the deck where the surrender was signed. It might have ended RAF pilot training in America but not the wonderful relationships between RAF cadets and their American hosts, many of which continue to this day.
Next Thursday, May 8, sees the 80th anniversary of VE Day with ceremonies taking place across the country and activities planned for the weekend. Activities are also taking place at the #1BFTS Museum in Terrell, Texas. On May 26 (Memorial Day) I have been invited to be the guest speaker at the British Service at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Arcadia. The 80-year anniversary will surely be mentioned! #4BFTS are holding a reunion at RAF Cosford in October and another in Mesa, Arizona to coincide with Veterans’ Day and Remembrance Sunday to mark 80 years since #4BFTS closed. And Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) and #5BFTS is starting a digital podcast project to coincide with the 80-year anniversary. More about this later in the newsletter.
Plenty then to allow both Remembrance and Celebration.
‘Their efforts to preserve the freedom of the world were not in vain and will never be forgotten.’
Scholarly Commons Citation
Harding, J. A. (2025). 5 BFTS Association Newsletter No 31 - Spring 2025. , (). Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/bfts-clewiston-newsletters/30