Our primary mission at Wendover was learning as much about the B-24 as possible. We practiced takeoffs, landings, formation flying, cross country navigation trips, practice bombing. We spent time instrument flying, and on days when weather did not permit flying, we practiced in the “link trainer” or the “bomb trainer”.

The link trainer was a small mockup of the pilot’s compartment of an airplane. You go in it and someone closed the cover and you could not see out. All that was visible was the instrumentation, the same as it would be flying blind or at night. The controls were the same, but there was an operator on the outside who could speak to you by radio and sho could make this trainer do many things, like simulating cross winds, rough weather, up and down drafts, etc.

While flying this, you would have to simulate flying to a certain radio range, make an instrument let down and an instrument landing. It was really quite nerve wracking because just when you figured you had everything under control, the operator would crank in some unexpected wind or weather.

The bomb trainer was much more complex and had to be run by a pilot, navigator and bombardier. The pilot had to simulate flying it while the navigator plotted distances, heading and time tables. The bombardier had to pick up the target, run the sight and trigger the bomb release button. We all hated the simulators and would much rather be in the plane doing the actual maneuvers.