VERNON G. GROSVENER,  0-739704 - PILOT
 

Major (Flight Officer when with the 2nd ERS) Vernon G. "Buzz" Grosvenor, (1925-) was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania on April 10, 1925 to Earl and Maybel Grosvenor. Major Grosvenor graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1942, he was awarded a football scholarship to attend Scranton Keystone Junior College in La Plune, Pennsylvania. Major Grosvenor attended for only a year before signing up for the Army Air Corps on February 13, 1943 (he was still 17), but did not actually go in until April 1943 when he turned 18.

Major Grosvenor went to basic training at Keesler Field, Biloxie, Mississippi (for a week or two) and then headed off to the College Training Detachment at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. (May 1943 - September 1943) He was classified as a pilot cadet in Nashville, Tennessee and then went to Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama for Preflight training. It was off to McKellar Field in Jackson, Tennessee for basic pilot training. After completion, he went to Stuttgart, Arkansas for Advance training where he graduated with Class '44H on September 8, 1944.

Major Grosvenor next attended PBY (OA-10) qualification at Keesler Field, Biloxie, Mississippi where he stayed until he joined the Second Emergency Rescue Squadron in February 1945. He and his crew which consisted of (P) Lieutenant Parks, (CP) Lieutenant Grosvenor, (N) Lieutenant Witts, and (E) Sgt Herrmann left Keesler and went up to Hunter Field, in Savannah, Georgia where they picked up a new PBY and headed on a flight which ended at Biak Island! He flew most of his combat missions from Morotai in and around the Borneo area as the 2nd ERS moved North toward Clark Field, Philippines in late 1945. Major Grosvenor left the South Pacific in March 1946 and was separated from the military service in May 1946.

Vernon Grosvenor went back to Syracuse University for about a year before being called back to active duty in the US Air Force in 1947. He retired nearly 20 years later on November 1, 1965. He was trained in such aircraft as the OA-10A, C-46, C-47, C-119. Upon his retirement he had accumulated some 10,000 military flight hours in many different aircraft. In 1966, after he retired, he did a short stint with Capital Airways flying the "Constellation" ferrying troops to Vietnam before taking a job with Boeing as a test pilot. In his nearly 20 years with Boeing he was qualified and flew such aircraft as the B707, B727, B737, B747, B757, and B767. He retired at age 60 in 1985 with nearly 15,000 flight hours total time. Vernon Grosvenor has been retired since 1985 and enjoys spending time as this cabin in the Cascade Mountains.

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