Edward A. 'Hawk' Cave

Beginnings

Recollections of Edward A. Cave, Jr., better know as Hawk Cave - a name hung on me at age four. Nothing to do with flying. I was born November 1, 1918, in Paducah, Kentucky and was in the fourth year at the University of Kentucky as a pre-med student and was in ROTC Program to get a commission in June of 1941.

I took a physical for the Army Air Corp and was made flying Cadet April 15, 1941, and then sent to Tulsa, OK Spartan School of Aeronautics. From there July 3, 1941, for Goodfellow Field for Basic Training in San Angelo, Texas, and on to Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas, October 3, 1941, and got my wings as Second Lieutenant, December 12, 1941, five days after Pearl Harbor. Left Brooks January, 1942, with 205 hours of total student training time, and with only 20 hours of instrument time and 15 hours of LINK training time.

I was sent to Barksdale Field in Shreveport, Louisiana to the 98th Bomb Group, February 15, 1942, to be introduced to the monster B- 24, the biggest airplane I had ever seen.