 Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Staff Sergeant DeShazer, along with other members of the 17th Bomb Group, volunteered to join a special unit that was formed to attack Japan.The 24 crews selected from the 17th BG received intensive training at Eglin Field, Florida, for three weeks beginning on Sunday 1 March 1942.The crews undertook practice carrier deck takeoffs along with extensive flying exercises involving low-level and night flying, low altitude bombing and over water navigation.