1945 - The Beginning*

War is raging in Europe and the islands around Japan. The United States of America is fighting on both fronts and, while we now have the upper hand, don't know how much longer this World War will last. The military must still recruit young men for the war effort. It had been estimated to attack the Japanese mainland would require 2 million soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen (initially). Zoom in on Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno, CA, home of the Rough Riders. A Naval recruiter steps on to school campus and speaks to the boys of Roosevelt. This particular recruiter is looking for a specific type of boy for a specific task, naval aviation - Navy pilots. He offers a free round trip to San Francisco on the train to see if any of the boys would qualify to be a naval aviator. To be clear, he offers all the eligible boys a roundtrip to San Francisco.

Let's get this straight: a bunch of high school boys from Fresno are offered a free trip to San Francisco, a place most of them had never seen in person, to see if they could fly airplanes?! Um, yes please!

Many, if not most of these boys took the Naval recruiter up on the offer and early one morning caboosed...um tracked...ah, rode the train to San Francisco where they were taken to a hotel along with boys from other schools as well and given written tests, physical tasks, and interviews over the course of the day.

One by one all his friends, acquaintances, and classmates dropped out and by the end of the day, the only one left was the son of Alton and Lucille Sheffield, brother of Alton, Jr. (Sheff), Lajuana Jean, and Jurhee - Hughie Don Sheffield.

He was signed up then and there and offered two years of college, flight school, then to be a Naval Aviator. He was considered on active duty for WWII, even though he was still in high school because the Navy had their hooks in him and had planned out his next few years, with Hughie and his parents permission, of course.

*This blog is recollections of Hugh (he changed his name from Hughie to Hugh somewhere in his adulthood, go figure [and still named me "Kim!" What the heck!]) Sheffield as either written down by him or as told to the author, the aforementioned "Kim," the youngest of three children: Debbie, Cheryl, and me with his wife of 68 years, Marilyn. Sometimes what I write as facts may not be 100% accurate. They are memories and as we all know when we have misplaced our car keys, are often not perfect. I am doing my best to be as accurate as possible, but the main purpose of this blog is to retell the amazing story of one of the greatest generation and all he has experienced in his career as a Naval Aviator. As a very good friend of mine tells me often, "You need to write your dad's story down before it's lost forever." He's right. So this is the first of many stories I will tell of my hero, my Dad - Hughie (we kids like to remind him of his humble beginnings) Don Sheffield, US Navy.

(This pic has a hint of a future blog post. Hint: note the rank on his shoulder boards. A nickel for anyone (other than Joseph) who can ID this rank.)