Raymond Carotenuto

Branch of Service: Army Air Corps
Length of Service: 9 years
Rank: Sgt 1st Class
Armed Conflict: World War II

Background and History:
Graduated Vocational School January 1943, age 17
Enlisted in Army, March 1943, age 17
Basic Training in Atlantic City/Brigantine New Jersey
Graduated Meteorology School as Weather Forecaster in 1943
Assigned to Secret 2nd Weather Recon. Sqdn. 1943-1946
Created 21 B-25 Billy Mitchell Bomber Crews into "Flying Weather Stations."
He and Squadron were shipped and served 2 years in China, Burma & India 1943-45
Forecasted Weather for CBI Military Campaigns Including Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Philippines.
Trained the crews of the Three B-29s, to do Weather Observation that preceded the Enola Gay on the Dropping of the Atom Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.
After the War I realized my squadron was part of the Manhattan Project, to see that there was a reliable weather forecasting system in place, for the bombing of Japan.
I was a member of the 512th Troop Carrier Wing out of New Castle, Del. To fly troops to California for shipment to Korea. Left service in 1951.

Experiences:
In 1943 I boarded a Troop Transport from California, with the Mars Task Force & picked up a hospital unit in the Fiji's, stopped in Melbourne, Australia and Bombay-India. We traveled to Calcutta, India and flew all over Burma, which was in Japanese hands, at 500 ft. off the ground. I left Calcutta, in November 1945, under stress conditions, on First Ocean Sailing Ship to come up the Hoogli River. (India was starting their action against the British to get their country back). We traveled thru the Suez, Gibraltar and then into the Atlantic Ocean into New York Harbor on December 26th, the day after Christmas, 1945. A Ferry Went "Toot-Toot" as it passed us. 


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