Page 74 - The History of Veterans at Highland Springs

PHILIP H. LANHAM
HIGHLAND SPRINGS RESIDENT, ARMY BY JANE LANHAM, WIDOW
After joining my husband of three months in mechanics school in Macon, Georgia, I followed him to many US Training schools in locations that included Robbins Field in Georgia, Cleveland, Ohio; Harlingen, Texas; Monroe, Louisiana; and Amarillo Texas.
Then came cadet training at Enid, Oklahoma, Vernon, Texas, and Randolph Field in San Antonio, where he served as a cadet after enlisting in the US Air Force on November 7, 1942. He was there when the war ended.
Phil was assigned to a crew at Randall Field where he was a flight engineer on a B29, the largest and newest four-engine plane that had dropped 1000 bombs on Tokyo.
He was scheduled to fly out when the atomic bomb was dropped, so instead there was celebration from all five fields there and across the entire city. There was shouting, singing and many hats and caps were thrown high in the sky.
So the war was over, and Phil was discharged after serving three years. Our 1942 car got 18 flat tires on our way to Indianapolis and we were home.
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