Lucier Trained in Dalhart Texas

POWER FLIGHT TRAINING PROCEEDED GLIDER TRAINING
Sylvan Lucier was in the first or second group of glider pilots to be trained in the US Army Air Force early in 1942. Much would change for those trained later. He first attended primary flight training and it was after earning his wings for power flight that he enrolled in glider flying school. Clearly, aviation was his love even before Pearl Harbor. Fargo North Dakota had its share of stunt pilot shows. A family story is that there was a scrapbook kept about early aviation accidents. Was it Sylvan's, or did his father begin the collection after Sylvan's death? Was it prophetic or an obsession? The scrapbook did not survive the dismantling of the family home. Certainly Sylvan, considered an "old man" for enlisting at age 26, knew the hazards ahead of him.