34 Dahlgren 



This was a course primarily in gunnery. 



It was a course in the first Norden Bombsight when the MARK 1 1 was 

 going through tests here. They [the bombsights] were just about to 

 be sent out to the Fleet, so on my PG tour I became very interested in the 

 bombsight. We had, during our postgraduate tour, what we called a "Cook's 

 tour" about our third year. We visited various government installations which 

 handled or developed certain types of equipment. We went up to Radford 

 Arsenal, New Jersey, for machine guns. One of my tours was in New York with 

 the Norden Company. I goi interested in their tests and in building the 

 bombsights and balancing the gyros. And there was a question of keeping them 

 properly balanced — how do you do that? Just as I finished my postgraduate 

 tour, I was sent back here to start the first bombsight school. \Ve had to teach 

 mechanics how to maintain the bombsight. Then we also had to teach pilots how 

 to use it and operate it in the air, so I was sent back here to start the first school. 

 With my experience in the PG tour and also with my work at the Norden 

 Company in New York, I guess they assumed I would be the logical one to 

 start the school, so we started from scratch. 



This was in 1930. 

 Yes. 



Was there a formal name for the school'? 

 Just Horizontal Bombing with the MARK 1 1 Norden Bombsight. 



Which was a function of the Naval Ordnance Section? 



That's right. All of it was under the Bureau of Ordnance. Of course, the 

 Dahlgren Proving Ground was directly under the Bureau of Ordnance. 



So you more or less moved to Dahlgreri in [June] 1930 when it was in the more primitive 

 state. 



I stayed here until late October. I think I left about Halloween. There wasn't 

 any information on the bombsight, and all I had were a few blueprints from the 

 Norden Company. I had to write up the first pamphlet on the Horizontal 

 Bombsight, the MARK 1 1. I would write it up, and I wasn't given any clerical 

 help. My wife* was good with the typewriter, so she'd type a couple of stencils 

 and then we made a mimeographed pamphlet. I had to make the sketches. The 

 pamphlet was not only on how to operate the bombsight, but it gave the 



*Mis. Braun is the former Miss Mary Lewis Aslitcin of Hock 



