It was the beginning of the most mentally demanding training program in the American military. For pilots especially, selection and training had to be rigorous. They would not be handling a rifle, but a huge, highly complex weapon of immense cost and destructive capability. Before a pilot received his wings and his commission as a second lieutenant, he went through three flight training schools—Primary, Basic, and Advanced—at three separate bases, each course of instruction lasting about nine weeks (ten weeks later in the war). After that there was a ten-week postgraduate course. At this last
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