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Mr. Schurmeier: I remember hearing about it, I was working in New York at the time. I only stayed on that job in New York for about another, about a year. And then I was convinced that, well it didn't take much to convince me, I was convinced that if I didn't get into the service that I wanted I'd get drafted and I'd have to go where they told me. So I went back, the family is still living in Winnetka, Illinois, so I went home to the family. And about a week after I'd been there, there was an article in the Chicago Tribune that the Navy was looking for cadets for their pilot training. And my father showed me the article and talked to me. So I went downtown to the recruiting thing and talked to them. And by the time I got through down there why they had me signed up (laughter). So I went into the Navy as a cadet for the pilot training. Mr. Misenhimer: And what day did you go in? Mr. Schurmeier: It was early in '42. Mr. Misenhimer: Not too long after Pearl Harbor then? Mr. Schurmeier: Not too long afterwards, yeah. Mr. Misenhimer: Then where did you go for your boot camp?
Mr. Schurmeier: The training was kind of unique. The Navy when they recruited, just for cadets, there were two or three guys that I knew from high school, they also were cadets. And we were sent up to Lake Forest College, which is about forty miles north of Winnetka, to Lake Forest College for training. Because the Navy didn't have any place that they could send us, so they made an
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ben Schurmeier. Schurmeier joined the Navy in early 1942. He served as a B-24 pilot with Photographic Squadron 1 (VD-1). Beginning in the spring of 1944 they traveled to their base at the Naval Air Station on Guam. They completed patrol and photo reconnaissance missions around the Pacific Islands, including Truk, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Japan. Finley was discharged around October of 1945.
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