![]() From there he went to El Centro, California to take over Training Squadron 472, which was for readying for overseas deployment. In January 1944, having attained the rank of Major, Reeder received orders to report to Jacksonville, Florida for fighter training and to checkout the early F4Us whose landing problems were killing cadets every day. Reeder tells of an unfortunate accident in which the plane he was flying was clipped on its tail and upper right wing, and the cadet he was flying with died. He also served as assistant operations officer, test flying the SNJ aircraft that North American built at the Naval Air Station there. Nevertheless, in December 1942 he graduated from primary instructor school and was stationed in Dallas, Texas, where he became an instructor with the Marine Air Detachment. Taking advantage of an offer to join any branch of the United States Armed Forces, he applied to the Marine Corps, was accepted, and he reported to Quantico, Virginia in May 1942.Īrriving at Corpus Christi, Texas, John Reeder underwent "primary training," which was made difficult by some of the Navy officers who weren't too happy about his unusual entry into Marine Corps. Although it had been Reeder's hope to go into the Eagle Squadrons in England, the group had already reached its quota, and Reeder ended up a staff pilot training air gunners and bombardiers from April 1941 to March 1942. Then, at Picton, Ontario, he checked out for various types of aircraft, and after graduating, he was assigned to Number 8 Bombing and Gunnery School in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He went from his home in Montezuma, Indiana to Toronto's Number 1 Manning Pool for officer training for six weeks. After taking a physical and a test flight in the latter part of 1940, he was accepted in the program. He attended the Boeing School of Aeronautics in Oakland, California and when Reeder heard that the Clayton Knight Committee was looking for American pilots to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, he applied. Colonel John Acree Reeder was born in January 1921 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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