Photo courtesy Celeste Graves 
Photo courtesy Celeste Graves Magnolia historian served as a dispatcher
As American men were sent into combat during World War II, a shortage of military and civilian airplane pilots highlighted the need for pilot training programs across the nation. Although such programs had been advanced before the war, the pilot shortage in the early 1940s was so severe that at one point the Army recommended the grounding of all private flights. Instead, Congress expanded the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which by 1944 trained almost 500,000 men and women to fly aircraft of all varieties.
Pilots were usually college or university students and were trained by instructors at private flight schools, such as Aviation Enterprises at Houston Municipal Airport, now Hobby Airport. After the American entry into the war in late 1941, the CPTP became the War Training Service, and pupils were required to sign a contract obligating them to military service after the completion of their training.
Magnolia historian Celeste Graves served as a dispatcher for Aviation Enterprises, first briefly at Easterwood Field in College Station, and then in Houston.
"The students were mostly college boys training the 'Navy Way' to prepare for entry into the Navy," she said. "But they came from all walks of life. One of the students worked on a flight line and gassed planes in order to pay for his flying time."
