<Begin Segment 20>

MA: So let's go back a little bit. You mentioned you started going to school at San Francisco junior college, living with your parents who were in the parsonage at the church.

BU: Uh-huh.

MA: When did you transfer to Berkeley?

BU: One year later, '46. And that was a shock because in '45, when, in June of '45... June of '46 when the semester was over, Cal Berkeley had ten thousand students. September or August, September, when they opened, the student enrollment was twenty thousand. It went from ten to twenty, doubled in one, one semester. What had happened was all the returning GIs were using their GI Bill, and they were all there with the main purpose of getting on with it, and they were all in their twenties by now, you know. And settled down, lot of 'em were married, and they wanted to get through college and become something. And here I was, just turned seventeen now, and amongst all that, and still wanted to play.

MA: So when you were transferred to Berkeley, what were your, at that time, your, sort of, career goals or future plans?

BU: Well, I was thinking engineering, but I took my engineering, what do they call it, screening there, and there didn't do well. And so I was going to go into optometry, pre-optometry. But I really didn't have an objective, I didn't have any clue what I wanted to be until 1949.

MA: And how, so how many years were you in Berkeley? Did you end up graduating from Berkeley?

BU: I didn't graduate from Berkeley.

MA: So you were there for two years?

BU: Well, then I was, I dropped out several times, I'd start, drop out, start, drop out, and they allowed me to do that, I guess. Early, until early, sometime early 1949, I was thinking to myself, "I gotta do something. I can't continue this way." And I went by the post office and saw this Air Force poster, recruiting poster. It says, "Join the Aviation Cadet, United States Aviation Cadet Program. Get your wings and commission." And I thought, ooh, that sounded exciting. And so I signed up and passed all the different tests that they had. And all of a sudden, July 8, 1949, I got sworn in and then started, went to Texas, San Angelo, Texas, and started my basic pilot training.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.