Glenn was attending Oklahoma A&M College when he enlisted
in the United States Naval Reserve in May, 1945. His goal was to become a naval
aviator. He was 17 years old.
Glenn experienced what many prospective pilots in the late
stages of World War II encountered. There were too many pilots in both the Navy
and the Army Air Forces at the time and the war in Europe was already over.
However it was thought that the war with Japan would possibly go into 1947 or
1948 and so only the best cadets were sent on to flight training.
Glenn was placed into the Navy’s V-5 program where he was to
complete two years of college while still in the Navy waiting for flight
training.
In 1946 Glenn was transferred to Patuxent River Naval Air
Test Center in Maryland. There he was to wait his turn to begin pilot training.
Because the Navy assigned candidates for pilot training by a sort of lottery
according to Glenn, other men were sent to pilot training and others simply had
to wait their turn.
In March, 1946 Glenn was transferred to Olathe, Kansas where
he worked on maintaining and servicing aircraft on the base. Soon, he found
himself in Glenview, Ill. where he began flight training in Stearman aircraft.
He soloed in the Stearman at age 18.
Later, Glenn flew Stearman’s and Texan training aircraft in
Corpus Christy, Texas. In October, 1947 Glenn trained and qualified in a PB4Y-2
Privateer which was the Navy’s version of the B-24 Liberator.
In June, 1948 Glenn was sent to Seattle, Washington where he
was assigned to Fleet Air Wing 4, Patrol Squadron 27, Kodiak Alaska. He flew
PB4Y-2 Privateer’s while stationed there. He flew patrols over the North
Pacific between Alaska and the USSR. In December, 1949 the unit was
decommissioned and Glenn was discharged from the regular Navy.
Glenn continued in the Naval Reserve flying out of NAS
Dallas until 1958 with the rank of lieutenant.
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