I do not know which boot camp he may have been trained at, but there is a place east of Apalachicola, Florida, on the coast called Camp Gordon-Johnston.
Many soldier’s were trained there, and within the heavily forested area inland known as ‘Tate’s Hell’. It still exists as a museum.
As far as aerial gunnery training, it most likely was Tyndall Air Force Base, then called Tyndall Army Air Corps Base or maybe just Tyndall Field which was common for Air Bases and Airports back then.
He may well have been at the school with none other than Clark Gable, the famous actor from 'Gone With the Wind. His picture is on the wall in the Wing HQ building.
Learning ballistics, and trying to learn how aim at a moving target while the platform that you are on is also moving is daunting to say the least.
One gunner who was also a waist gunner and had the highest percentage rate of actually hitting enemy planes - said - ‘To actually be successful in hitting attacking fighters was to throw out everything he was taught and go with gut instinct’. He learned by experience on his own that unless the fighter is coming straight in, or in a predictable straight line at angles, you do not lead the target - ’ You aim behind the target, then begin firing and sweep the line of fire, aided by tracer rounds from behind and through the target as his path is usually diving from above and through his target approach. ’ That is the only way to match his approach (or recession) speed, angular velocity, and path through space.
He was extremely successful at hitting and downing or repelling attacks using this method of feel, and intuition, adapting to the endless variations of different attack scenarios. Of course he learned from actual combat experience, and was fortunate enough to survive long enough to share and spread the technique and tactics with others. And word spread quickly across the forces on what did and did not work in practice.
Shooting birds, fowl and skeet are done with you standing on solid ground and leading a target going 30 miles per hour in a straight line. On an aircraft going 300mph and maneuvering against an aircraft traveling at 400 +mph in sweeping arcs is totally different. Dove hunting in North Dakota would be the exception. The learned to jink and jank and dart after the first day of hunting season- and the only way we could hit them was to hide behind huge round hay bales and fire after they flew over us.
Partridge and Grouse just tried to fly low, but predictable paths.
When I flew on the B-52 some models had manual track, manual range and on the D model where I sat in the tail - an optical gunsight. But that was last chance mode. We had radar track, radar range and a gyro stabilized, hydraulically driven turret which was aimed by a ballistics computer. The D, F and G had basically the same system with four .50’ cals. On the G and H the gunner sat up front, and had radar only. Early on the G had a TV camera, but it was deleted because it was useless. On the H model a much more sophisticated radar and guidance computer was employed along with a 20mm rotary cannon effective at farther distances.
We still learned ballistics to understand the system, and if I remember correctly, there were 21 ballistics computations to be made in order to achieve a firing solution. On the 20mm it supplied 300vdc to the primer through the firing pin, varying with air temperature and density to manipulate the primer to micro adjust and further refine ballistics. Engineers think of every aspect of a problem.
In world war 2 the gunner was the computer. Some guns were turret mounted, but all aimed by the gunner. I think that the tail gun on the B-29 Superfortress had a radar and computer for at least the tail gun position.
