Oral History Interview with Robert Norman, September 20, 2003

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Norman. Born in 1919, he joined the Army Air Force in September 1941. He began his pilot training in early 1942. He served as a flight instructor in the Army Air Training Command at Marfa Army Airfield, Texas for two years. In September 1944 he was transferred to the Air Transport Command. He relates a story about landing a C-46 on Ascension Island en route to delivering it to England. Because he had experience flying four-engine airplanes, he was sent to India to fly C-87 and C-109 transport planes. He flew missions transporting fuel from Jorhat and Kermatola, India over ?the Hump? to Chengtu and Kunming for use by bombers and other airplanes operating out of China. He talks about the transport mission hazards, such as adverse weather conditions, the combustible nature of the cargo, mechanical failure, primitive navigation techniques, and flying at high altitudes over mountainous. He describes his plan of action in the event his plane crashed in the Himalaya Mountains. He mustered out when the war ended in 1945. The interview also contains information about his parents and siblings