In the first interview session, conducted on March 2, 1984, Ervin A. Schultz looks at photographs taken during his service as a mechanic in the U.S. Army Air Corps and talks about them, including photographs he took in Guam during World War II, and pictures of other pilots he served with. He talks about his work doing reconnaissance in the Pacific theater after the war, discusses the effects of flying at high altitudes without supplemental oxygen, and shares his memories of being stationed at Selfridge Field in Michigan. He also describes plane crashes he witnessed. He shares his reasons for joining the Air Corps in 1929, and also talks about how the Depression affected him. He then looks at photographs from his early life near Green Bay, Wisconsin, talks about them, and discusses his early life.