-V-vUu i Release #12

U. S. ARMY ENLISTMENT BROADCAST

JULY 9, 1941 - KOIN - 10il5-30PM

ANNCR: KOIN presents. ....... .SOLDIERS OF THE AIR

MjSIC; THEME 11 SECOND CCNEGTICUT REGIMENT11 (475) UP AND FADE TO BACKGROUND.

ANNCR: This evening KOIN is pleased, to co-operate with the United. States

Army Recruiting Service in presenting the twelfth of a series of regular weekly broadcasts, bringing you the informal, informative story of the Soldiers of the Air.

MUSIC: THEME UP OUT.

ANNCR: Good evening, Ladies and gentlemen. Our Soldiers of the tir, Larry

Foster and his buddy, Bill "Butch" Harris, are with us again tonight to continue the story of Larry's experiences during his training period at Randolph Field, Texas, where he was assigned to brain as an air pilot in Uncle Sam's Air Corps. Last week Larry gave us a picture of his first ten weeks of training, technically designated as PRIMARY training. Tonight he will tell us about the second period or BASIC training of the course. Right, Larry?

LARRY: That's right.

ANNCR: Larry, just what is the object of basic training?

LARRY: Precision and coordination.

BILL: Larry means that the cadet graduates from the old crate in which he

was delng primary work and learns to handle a heavier ship.

LARRY: And what a graduation I It's like riding a nice gentle old farm

horse and suddenly being transferred to a bucking broncho.

ANNCR: You mean ih.t> big ship is rough?

LARRY: No. it isn't that. It's just that the training ships are light and easy to handle. They have only ninety-horse power engines and an average speed of about one hundred miles per hour. Imagine going from that sort of a ship to one much heavier that does 250 to 300 miles an hour.

BILL: The change, of course, means that the pilot must develop a maximum

of coordi.nabion and precision.

p.iRRY: Handling a ship precision flying is almost a mathematical job.

When the instructor commands you to fly at 180 degrees, he doesn't mean 179. You soon learn that I

ANNCR: And, I suppose you soon master not only the jargon of the pilot, but how to perform the actual manuevers?

LARRY: Yes, wo do. We learn the Lazy Eight, the Pylon Eight, Pattern

Flying, Je ■■.nuelle, and S Flight.

ANNCR: Are these in thn acrobatic class?

BILL: Tcu might call them that, but you understand, Mr.___________________,

that becoming acrobats is incidental. What our men train for is perfect coordination ----

LARRY: Compared, to real acrobatic flying, the Lazy Eight and Pylon Eight are just play.

ANNCR: I suppose your training prepared you for quick judgment in an

emergency?

LARRY: Yes, but a fellow still gets in some pretty tight spots.

BILL: (SKEPTICALLY) Not you, Larry?

LARRY: Yes, Bill, even me, But my adventure happened during my primary

trainjng ----

ANNCR: Your adventure?

BILL: Come on, Larry, out with the story.

LARRY: Well, I to-k off for a pattern flight ------

ANNCR: What's a pattern flight?

BILL: That's flying around the boundary of a field.

LARRY: (SLIGHTLY MUFFED) Maybe you'd better tell it, Bill. Of course, you

weren't there, but ----

2-2-2

BILL: (LAUGHING) Looks like I'm getting Commander Larry agitated.

XLj. VXt • Come, Bill, le'- uim tell the story.

LARRY: It really isn! much of a story, hut at the time it seemed pretty exciting to me- I was .just about to make a landing when I saw another plane making right for me< I didn't have time to pull up over him so-o-o-o, I banked, landed on one wheel and oozed very gently around him, but I missed his wing only by inches.

ANNCR: Nice going.

LARRY: Then the othe~ pilot turned around with a crooked smile and said, "Better luck next time, Larry I" Just as if it was my fault !

BILL: Well, Larry, whose fault was it?

LARRY: (LAUGHING RUEFULLY) Honest, Butch, I don't know.

ANNCR: When you say "precision", Larry, just what do you mean? Precision flying, now, just how precise?

LARRY: Precise enough to land exactly on a chalk line fifty feet long and four inches wide.

BILL: Without actually seeing the line, he means.

LARRY: That's the precision -part of it, Mr.

ANNCR: But if you can't see the line, hew do you know you have landed on it?

LARRY: You just learn to get the feel of it. The same way they say old river pilots used to smell out the channel in a fog.

BILL: In other words, blind flying.

LARRY: That's right, Put ch.

ANNCR: What about this expression "hanging the ship's nose" on a point on the horizon?

LARRY: Wh»re did you get that one. Mr. ?

ANNCR: Out of an aviation magazine.

BILL: Larry, we've converted Mr. •. He's become an aviation

student !

3-3-3

ANNCR: Bill, you seem to have developed a fine spirit for heckling tonight.

BILL: What does i-; mor i? Sh-er exuberance, Mr. . Sheer Exuberance I

LARRY: Don’t you believe it, Mr. 1

ANNCR: If it is exuberance, Bill, suppose you tell me what this ’’hanging the ship’s nose on the horizon” means.

BILL: That's what you do when you complete a Lazy Eight — pick a spot on the sky and swoop around it, lazy-like, and then swoop around again, completing a figure eight. From below a Lazy Eight looks a little like one gold fish bowl inverted on another.

ANNCR: So that's a Lazy Eight?

LARRY: There's another kind of Eight. Mr. . The Pylon Eight, but I haven't come to that yet.

BILL: You'll come to it soon enough, Lieutenant. And when you do, remember that the Pylon Eight has a waist line !

ANNCR: Wait a minute, Bill. You're going too fast for me. Doesn't the Lazy Eight have a waist line too where the circles intersect?

LARRY: A Lazy Eight is a figure eight with a wide waist line. In other words, it is just two circles with no intersecting point. A Pylon Eight is made in one continuous movement, just as you would write the number eight.

BILL: You're so glib, Larry, and sc certain — (WISTFULLY) Times certainly have changed since the days of my stunt flying. Today flying is scion1'if ic.

ANNCR: How did you plan your stunts, Bill? Or did you just blithely set off into the sky and

BILL: We just blithely set off.

LARRY: With no predict,'ion as to your figures, and none of the precision of instrument flying to worry about? 4-4-4

BILL:

LARRY:

ANNCR:

LARRY:

BILL:

LARRY:

ANNCR:

LARRY:

BILL:

ANNCR:

BILL:

ANNCR:

LARRY:

RILL:

No prediction. But you see, I didn't have anyone to worry about except myself, Today fliers have a much greater responsibility, not only for their machines but for their crews.

Like in Jeandelle flying,

Jeandelle? Explain that one, Larry.

(PROUDLY) That's French I It means — well it means —

Never mind the translation, Larry. Just explain it in one syllable words !

When the plane is on straight flight, you put the nose down to gain speed and then suddenly bank 180 degrees and loop up. Just about half way over you bank again, and straighten out. Like the S movement of a snake. Or like making an S lying down. See, the way I move my hands ----

Yes, I can see your hands, but no one else can. This isn't television, you know, Larry.

Oh, I forgot.

Yes, Larry, you forgot to tell us how Jeandelle flying originated.

How did it originate, Bill?

A french pilot of that name originated that particular kind of flying during the first World War. He sort of perfected it.

But how do you learn all these movements? How does an instructor know when a pilot is ready to do them? How does he know which men to place in which plane?

During training rhe instructor observes the young pilot and. learns his characteristic reactions to various problems.

If the pilot is quick and. accurate he is assigned to a pursuit plane, Others are assigned to duties proportionate to their degrees of accuracy and speed.

5-5-5

LARRY: A cadet is never forced into any channel or into any permanent line of duty for which he does not have a bent or leaning. The instructor tries to direct the cadet, not to drive him. The object of training is to develop individuality in flying.

BILL: But if a guy can’t make the combat division — such fellows are sometimes called "Washouts", he can try for other positions on the plane, such as radio pilots, bombardiers, gunners, parachutists, and so on.

ANNCR: Well, if that’s the case, even a so-called "Washout" is important in the scheme of aviation.

LARRY: He sure is,

ANNCR: Wat kind of a plane did you fly during basic training, Larry?

LARRY: A monomplane. And could that baby go? I was tempted to "let her out", but

BILL: But you didn’t dare, not with an eagle-eyed instructor watching.

ANNCR: No caper-cutting, eh, Larry?

LARRY: No, sir! The pilot follows orders to the letter. But you know how it is, Mr. . When a man gets up there by himself — when he gets sc far above the earth he feels as if the plane was a part of him. You forget there’s anything to hinder you and — well, you sort of want to try your wings.

ANNCR: But it wasn’t trying your wings that got your picture in the papers, was it. Larry?

LARRY: Oh ! So you saw that too?

BILL: (LAUGHING SLYLY) Picture in the paper, tsk, tsk ! Local boy makes good 1

LARRY: (LAUGHING) You should talk, Bill. You seem to forget there was a seouel to that picture of you and me and the plane.

BILL: Roll up your flaps, buddy! Roll up your flaps ! 6-6-6

ANNCR: Roll up your flaps? What does that mean?

LARRY: It moans in plain language, "Shut up IW Bill doesn’t want me to tell

BILL: As if X could stop you.

LARRY: When that pictv.ro was printed some Tootsie saw it and sent me a "sugar" report in Bill’s name.

ANNCR: Sugar report?

LARRY: Sure, fan mail.

BILL: This fame wrote, (AFFECTED VOICE) After seeing your picture in the paper, you big beautiful six foot aviator, my heart leaped into a new high !

ANNCR: But you aren’t six feet, Bill —

BILL: That's the pay-off► I’m not six feet tall. I don’t own a beautiful smile, but Larry — well there were three of us in the picture, me, the plane, and Larry. You figure out which one she meant.

ANNCR: How could she ha.ve been mistaken?

LARRY: The caption for the picture read, "From the left is handsome Butch (Bill) Harris and Larry Foster." But it so happened that I was on the left and. Bill on the right.

ANNCR: What did you r1o about the fan letter, Larry?

LARRY: What can do? After all I can't hurt my girl friend's feelings. I'm no match for a girl in an argument.

BILL: That's right<.• Argument with a wcman takes more courage than your

first sole fligxr

ANNCR- Well, limo's up for tonight, boys. Thanks a lot for coming up to the studio. Ladies and i»entlAmen. next week our two Soldiers of the Air. will be with us again to tell us about Larry's final advance training that completed his education as a pilot. We would like to present another guest who has kindly consented to add a few words to our program concernin. th.e Air Corps of ’uncle Sam's Army. 7-7-7

(Cont' d)

ANNCR: Ladies and gentlemen, Lt. C. W. Ralph, Assistant District Recruiting Officer

RALPH: Thank you Mr.____________________________. I would like to say a few

words about a branch of service that is little heard of, but is one of the most important branches of service in the Army. That service is the Ordnance Department. The Ordnance department, whose enlisted personnel are few in number as compared to the strength of the entire Army, is not often in the limelight; possibly its very existence as a separate service is not known to some generally well-informed citizens. Yet it plays a major role in the drama of national defense, for upon this branch depends the success or failure of entire campaigns in war.

Men may be poorly clad and still fight, they may be hungry and still fight—sometimes all the more tenanciously, but if their weapons and ammunition are inferior to those of the enemy, they cannot fight successfully.

The Ordnance Department is charged with the supply and maintenance of both weapons and ammunition. This department also has the responsibility for the development cfnew and improved types of weapons and accessories, either in the Army’s own arsenals or through the medium of commercial manufacturing plants. With this theoretical phase of the science of the ordnance, however, the enlisted man is not directly concerned. His talents find an outlet in the many skilled trades involved in maintenance and supply work. He does, however, in connection with his regular work, have an opportunity to study at close range the latest scientific discoveries and developments in his field, if ha is fully awake to his advantages, he can thus increase materially not only his skill as a workman but also his knowledge.

8-8-8

(Cont'd)

RALPH: After the recruit has become familiar with routine Army life and

given instruction in the basic training of a soldier, he is assigned either to an Ordnance organization, a depot, an ammunition or maintenance company, or to an Ordnance detachment or a post or station where his services are most needed. It may be said, however, that the opportunities for travel, both in the United States and in our overseas possessions apply to the soldier of the Ordnance Department as fully as to soldiers of other arms and services.

In carrying cut its mission, the Ordnance Department requires the services of the following skilled workers: Armorers, automotive mechanics, -artillery mechanics, instrument repairmen, carpenters, electricians, machinists, munition workers, welders, toolmakers and many other specialized, jobs. Like other branches of the Army the Ordnance Department maintains schools for the training of its men in special work.

The Ordnance Field Service School at .Raritan Arsenal, New Jersey is one of the best of its kind, in the world. At Raritan the students are given a nine months course in the specialty which they have chosen. Upon graduation the student is returned to his station and is in line for promotion and. an increase in jjay. I might add that the trained.

Ordnance man is needed in the Aviation as well as other branches of the service. Besides the vacancies fcr Ordnance, all young men with a high school education should inquire about the new "Enlisted. Men's Pilot Training." You do not need two years cf College to pilot one of Uncle Saras fighting planes. "Don't delay" this is your opportunity not only to serve your country, but to fit yourself for a lifetime profession. For further information I would suggest that you make your application tomorrow at any of the following recruiting stations

in Oregon and Idaho.

9-9-9

(Cont'd)

RALPH: 323 Main Post Office Building, Portland or in the Post Office in,

Eugene, Salem, Medfor, Ontario, Klamath Falls, Pendleton and Tillamook. In Idaho ap_. ly at the Post Office Boise. Thank you and good evening.

ANNCR: Thank you, sir. You have just heard ____________________________

who was kind enough to come up to the studic and add a few words to our program. You are all invited, to come up to the studio again next Tuesday night and we'll ha.ve another chat about what's doing in this army you have joined to become a Soldier of the Air.

MUSIC: THEME (475) UF AND FADE TO BaCKCROUND

ANNCR: You have just h°a,rd the twelfth of a series of programs, Soldiers of the Air, in which We are presenting the various phases of induction and training for this most fascinating branch of army service, the Air Corps. These programs are produced in cooperation with the Portland regular army recruiting station, with the assistance of the Oregon Writers' Project. Tune in next Tuesday evening at the same time when Soldiers of the Air will again be broadcast from the studies of KOIN,

the Journal, Portland.