Star Trek in WWII: Gene Roddenberry aviation cadet

[Bob Hudson]

From an AAF/USAF veteran's estate, an 8x10 original period photo of an Army Aviation Cadet unit at Duquesne University in Fall 1943. Upper right in the photo is Gene Roddenberry, producer and creator of the original Star Trek television series.

 

 

The bios I see online all telescope his service and don’t tell us anything about his training. They just go from “he joined, got commissioned and flew bombers”

 

Or as wikipedia puts it, “He was commissioned on August 5, 1942, and was posted to the Pacific Theater of Operations where he joined the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group, of the Thirteenth Air Force.”

 

I believe this photo is the 328th College Training Detachment where he other other cadets were prepping for a commision and flight training. This is from Duquesne University's archives:

 

The Army Air Force Corps (AAF), formally known as the 328th College Training Detachment, was a military training program conducted at Duquesne University during World War II. The university was chosen as a training site following a 1942 Army survey.

The AAF began training at the university on 4 April 1943. In all, 937 men were enrolled. The duration of training lasted five months and one-fifth of the students left each month to advance to flight training. These cadets received military instruction, as well as non-credit academic courses. Ten classes of 35 cadets, separated from the regular students were established and 35 faculty members were assigned to teach the classes. Special accommodations were made for housing and schedules were altered to meet the needs of the program. The university was paid by the government for tuition, room, and board at the same rate as the regular students. These funds were very important to the university’s survival, since it was experiencing a dwindling enrollment due to war effort’s manpower needs.  

The AAF was considered a successful venture for both the government and the university. The last scheduled departure date for AAF was 25 May 1944. The success of the AAF was directly linked to the establishment of a second training program, the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP) which was conducted at the university from July 1944 to April 1945.

 

 

[T Ambrosini]

As the guy with pointy ears would say...  "Fascinating" 😁

[Bob Hudson]

There's a couple of photos online of him in uniform: