This photograph from the McAleer family album shows a group of young airmen posing on a WWII-era training aircraft, numbered 461, likely a Vultee BT-13 Valiant or comparable basic trainer used to prepare American pilots for combat. Such casual snapshots, taken between training sorties, capture both the camaraderie of Army Air Forces cadets and the aircraft that formed the backbone of the wartime pilot training pipeline. Project: 218186