World War Two, my Dad, 3 B-24s, trap shooting and my Mom!!
dreher
Member Posts: 8,885 ✭✭✭✭
Dad, like all of the young men in his HS graduating class had enlisted prior to their graduation. Dad chose the Army Air Corp. Dad didn't like walking, thus eliminating the Army and the Marines. Dad also wasn't to thrilled with the concept of living on the ocean. So much for the Navy. But Dad's biggest motivator was snakes!! He was 100% sure there would be no snakes in the air. So Army Air Corp here he comes!!
Dad was a nose gunner in the B-24. Dad's crew had flown their 25th mission. Once you flew mission number 25 you were mathimatically dead so you didn't have to fly anymore missions. Their planes had been shot down twice getting to number 25 but all the crew members made it back alive both times. The men held a crew meeting and decided to continue flying missions. Around 31 or 32 missions their 3rd B-24 got shot down, again behind enemy lines but thankfully, again, the entire crew lived through bailing out of their B-24.
Again, they had a crew meeting. For the second time the vote was unanimous. They were done flying!!
All the members of all the flight crews were supposed shoot trap. Why?? Don't know! But according to Dad a lot of members of these flight crews didn't like shooting the shotguns and would have Dad shoot trap for them and get their paper signed so they could turn in the paper saying they had shot their requirements. As a result of a lot of rounds being shot Dad got to be a real good trap shooter. Since Dad no longer was flying he was assigned to touring other bases around Italy putting on trap shooting demonstrations to entertain the troops. Trap shooting and eating Italian food. A good way to end your service to your country.
So Dad's been home around 2 years and the county conservation club was holding a trap shoot. Dad takes Mom and out to the conservation club they go. Someone talks Mom into entering in the Womans division. Mom outshot Dad!!!🤣
That was the last time Dad ever shot trap!! Talk about a poor loser!!🤣😁🤣
Comments
I raised my Daughter shooting from the age of 6. When she started dating, her boy friend (now husband) took her out to a trap/skeet range where she brought her 20 ga Remington 1100 and outshot him on both trap and skeet. He went back several times to practice, and finally beat her by 1 or 2 targets. 😉
,,,,,, this might help explain the Trap Shooting exercise for your father.
Many varieties of ranges were constructed, including the B-B gun ranges for .22-caliber rifles or machine guns. In the moving-base range, especially popular with students, several trucks equipped with turrets proceeded at intervals around a track, the wheels of the trucks deflecting wires which set off traps. The students fired at the targets as they were thrown up at various angles from the traps. Another popular type was the moving-target range. This varied in form but generally involved the use of a driverless jeep on a fixed track, carrying targets on high poles. The jeeps themselves were hidden by a revetment while the students fired at the targets from pedestal-mounted machine guns. Some sixty-five hours were assigned to ground range exercises of all types.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VI/AAF-VI-17.html
Good story. I always heard they shot trap to learn how to lead the target.
m reading a book now where the AA gunners on the carrier Lexington shoot trap onboard to learn about leading aerial targets.