Consequences for MIA Eagle Squadron Officer

[cheriola]

And a question of my own:
This one is for the Doctor Who / Torchwood fandom, which, as far as my very limited understanding goes, plays fast and loose with World War Two military details, but as I have literally no experience with military culture, I'd thought I better ask anyway.

So, here goes: January 1941, a young American volunteer (71st Eagle

Comments

[duckodeath]

The volunteer could not have been in the USAF as it didn't get that name until 1947 when it became its own branch of service separate from the army. In WWII, it was the AAF (Army Air Force) or the USAAF and before the US got involved in the war it was a very small.

Why would an American join the RAF instead of the US military? The most logical reason is he wanted to help defend Europe against the Nazis and since the US in 1939/1940/11 out of 12 months of 1941 was showing no signs of getting directly involved in combat until Pearl Harbor forced the issue, the best option for honorable fighting was joining the RAF. Having 300 hours of flight experience is actually less improbable than you might think: the 1920s and 1930s was the golden age of flight and lots of people in the US had planes and flew on a regular basis.

RAF in 1940/1941 was a tough gig. The casualty rates were staggering and it would have been easier to achieve the rank of Group Captain during this time merely by being alive, because most of the people you trained with a few weeks or months earlier would have been dead or wounded. Also, from what I've read about the RAF, 31 would have been ancient for a fighter pilot (I'm assuming we're talking about Jack here) and someone that age would have been considered an old man and much more mature and responsible than most of his fellows who would have been in their early 20s.

From what I've read about the RAF in WWII, you don't need to be too concerned about how someone becomes an officer or anything like that. Commissions were handed out left, right, and center. I read a story about one guy getting to the end of his training, and he was asked(!) if he wanted a commission. He wasn't bothered either way, but his father told him to go for it in case he was shot down because an officer would get better treatment in a POW camp. So the guy said yes, and so he got his commission and his clothing allowance and said the only thing that was really different was the tea in the officer's mess was much worse than the tea in the mess he'd been in previously.

ETA: here is the youngest Group Captain in WWII http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Dundas (age 24).

ETA2: If the original volunteer had gone to college/university in the US, many, if not most, had compulsory ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) so he could have gotten his officer training that way.

[cheriola]

Yes, I'm talking about Jack Harkness - both of them, which is a naming confusion I wanted to avoid for the people not familiar with the fandom.

Actually, the real Jack Harkness looked to be in his mid-30s to me, but as Wikipedia tells me you couldn't volunteer with the Eagle Squadrons above the age of 31, that's what he's going to be. From what I've read, most of the other volunteers were in their mid-to-late twenties. But yeah, judging from the episode he was in, the men under his command were characterised as much more immature. I guess they could have put him in command mainly based on his age and personality.

Yeah, I realise why he would have volunteered with the RAF. My problem is more that at his age, he must have some sort of career before that, and his behaviour seems to indicate more than just a few months of basic training and service with a group of crazy "fly-boys". I didn't know officer training was so ubiquious - that helps, thanks!

I suppose that means I could also make him an upper middle-class engineer or whatever, with a fascination about airplanes and flying, who later found his calling and volunteered because his own government didn't want to get involved. He could have been among the first few volunteers during the Battle of Britain and at first pretended to be Canadian, only to switch to the Eagle Squadrons as that option became available. That would give him at least half a year to earn his rank.

Hm... reading that biography, it seems like a Group Captain was indeed the commanding officer of a squadron. At least that makes more sense now.