William Seaward:  

Life In October 1944 I enlisted in the United States Navy Combat Aircrewman Program on my 17th birthday and was trained as an Aviation Ordnanceman and Airial Gunner. The Navy had a restriction at that time for entering the V-5 Pilot training and Officer's Candidate program requiring the enlistee to be 18 years or older. While in the Combat Aircrew Program I was given an opportunity to go into the Navy's V-12A Officer's Candidate Program for subsequent assignment to the V-5 Naval Pilot Training. I expect I was the youngest man in the Naval Officer's Candidate and Pilot Training program because I took my college entrance exams and entered the program before I was 18 from inside the Navy. I attended Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. While in Missouri I became a student pilot at the local airpot and soloed. I was placed in the Navy V-5 Pilot Training Program and transferred to Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in California where I was honorably discharge...Expand for more