His first posting was an assistant provost marshal at Camp Bowie. Then it was off to the Fort Benning Infantry School, called Fort Benning’s School for Boys by the young officers. The training in that summer of 1941 was haphazard at best. When the class was completed, Cooper was asked to give his choice of three places to go, Camp Roberts in California, Fort Dix in New Jersey, or Camp Walters in Texas. Camp Walters was only 100 miles from his home. He had been in the Army long enough to know how things worked, so he put down Roberts as his first choice, Dix as his second, and Walters as his third. Sure enough, exactly as he hoped, he was assigned to Camp Walters.
Source:
Ambrose, Stephen E. “Where They Came From.” The Wild Blue: The Crews of the B-24. Simon & Schuster, 2002. 39, 40. Print.
Classic reverse psychology!