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WWII Ola Pauline Adams Strickland
OLA PAULINE ADAMS SRlCKLAND 1908 -1998
Link Training Instructor
My sister Pauline graduated from Lewis High School, Forney, Texas. She then enrolled
in The College of Industrial Arts (CIA) in Denton. She attended CIA for 4 years but did
not quite finish all required courses. Perhaps due to the depression years, she did not
return and fully complete her degree requirements. At least one year, she taught school in
one of the rural schools just north east of Forney. Soon after that, she was married.
Pauline lived in or near Terrell, Texas all of her married life. So, actually, she lived in
Kaufman County, Texas all her life except for the period of time when she was away
from home attending college in Denton, Texas.
Even before the United States formally entered World War II, Terrell was involved. With
the enactment of the Lend-Lease Agreement with Great Britain, many avenues of support
for the British were explored. One was the training of pilots 'for the British Air Force, the
RAF. A British Flight Training School was set up in Terrell and began training of cadets
in August 1941. As one can tell, this was a few months before Pearl Harbor and the
formal entrance of the United States into WW II. Pauline was hired, probably about 1943,
as a Link Training instructor. To the best of my knowledge, she had never even flown in
a plane, much less ever had any training in flight. Her son states that she did go up in an
airplane every once in while and that the instructor pilot would let her "take the stick and
fly some" but never had any formal flight training as such.
I can remember her reminiscing about some of the situations the cadets found themselves
in, as they were training with the Link trainer. One that I remember was one of her
students "crashed" as he was out on a "training mission" but never away from the class
room. She would comment that it was much better to "crash" while "flying" in a Link
trainer than to actually crash and probably be killed. Anotht?r was that one of the cadets
would take off on the wrong compass direction (seems like she would say 180 degrees
off) and then really get lost and "run out of gas" and have to "bailout," by stepping out of
the trainer.
Her son also has some memories of her during this time. They follow in three paragraphs.
After the boys graduated and left to return to England and combat duty, she would try to
keep up with her students as much as possible. As any instructor she had her favorites
and worried about them as they went off to war. Also I remember that she kept a list of
all her students as there were many and would go over it from time to time and silently or
in a low tone wonder about her boys.
While still in training, one of her students did have to bailout at night somewhere around
Greenville, just north of Terrell. He parachuted out safely but got caught in a tree. In the
darkness and not knowing how high he might,be dangling, he remained in his parachute
all night. As it was getting light, he found that he was about 2 feet off of the ground.
Another student was experiencing difficulty with his plane. He set all of the controls,
rudders, tabs, etc., for level flight and exited safely. Later his plane ran out of gas, but
landed in an open field with only minimal damage and no damage to any surrounding
area.
There is an RAF section in the cemetery in Terrell for those students who were killed
while in training.
By any definition, she was an active participant in at least one of the many manifestations
of support for World War II on the home front. And she too was a member of "The
Greatest Generation" as described in the book by Tom Brokaw.
B. J. Adams
College Station, Texas
July 2005