Gene Roddenberry - Military Service and Civil Aviation (since 1941)

Military Service and Civil Aviation (since 1941)

Roddenberry developed an interest in aeronautical engineering and subsequently obtained a pilot's license. In 1941, he joined the United States Army Air Corps, which in the same year became the United States Army Air Forces. He began training at Goodfellow Field (now Goodfellow Air Force Base) in San Angelo, Texas and graduated training in 1942, Class G. He flew combat missions in the Pacific Theatre with the "Bomber Barons" of the 394th Bomb Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group of the Thirteenth Air Force and on August 2, 1943, Roddenberry was piloting a B-17E Flying Fortress named the "Yankee Doodle", from Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, when mechanical failure caused it to crash on take-off. In total, he flew eighty-nine missions for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal before leaving the Army Air Forces in 1945. After the military, Roddenberry worked as a commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). He received a Civil Aeronautics commendation for his rescue efforts following a June 1947 crash in the Syrian desert while on a flight to Istanbul from Karachi.

Roddenberry maintained an ongoing association with the aviation world, over the years. During the mid-sixties he spent much of his spare time, while working on Star Trek, at California's Monterey Peninsula Airport with a group of aviation enthusiasts who flew World War II fighters.