Soldiers of the Air, September 1, 1941

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Series 2 number 4 of a weekly radio program that aired on Portland radio station KOIN. In this week's program Bill "Butch" Harris speaks with a man looking to find a job and convinced him to join the army.

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UNITED STATES ARMY RECRUITING SERVICE

SEPT. •!,. 1941——KOIN 10:15 - 10-s30

SOLDIERS OF THE AIR

ANNCR: KOIN presents-— Soldiers of the Air!

MUSIC: THEME "SECOND CONNECTICUT REGIMENT" (475) UP AND FADE TO BACKGROUND.

ANNCR: This evening KOIN is pleased to cooperate with the United States Army Recruiting Service in presenting another chapter in the life of Sergeant Bill Harris, soldier of the air..

MUSIC: THEME UP AND OUT.

ANNCR: When his superior officers notified Sergeant Bill Harris that he was being transferred to the United States Army Recruiting Service they assured him that only the most competent men were honored by appointment to this division. After four weeks Sergeant Harris has begun to understand why it takes experienced men and top hands to handle the situations that arise. You never know what’s going to happen or who may call -- but,, let’s listen —•—

SOUND: TELEPHONE'BELL.-

BILL: (Brightly) Army Recruiting Service!- Sergeant Harris speaking

STUB: (FITSRED BY PHONE AND EXCEEDINGLY EXASPERATED) For the love of— say that again!

BILL: (URBANE BUT ‘7ITH MILITARY PRECISION) Army Recruiting Service!- Sergeant Harris speaking!

STUB: (AS ABOVE AND VERY ANGRY) Ten thousand names in the telephone book and I would grab the wrong one!

BILL: (INDULGENTLY) This is ATwater 6171, sir, and many a man has found it an exceedingly good number'..

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

SOUND:

BILL:

LA’JRENCE:

BILL:

LziWRENCE:

BILL:

SOUND:

(AS ABOVE) What's good about it? I want a job! Not the United States Armyl Not the Marines! Not the Fire Department! (FIERCELY) I want a job!

(PLACATINGLY) Well, don't get so excited about it—

(AS ABOVE, WILDLY) Don’t get excited! Don't get excited! You'd be excited too if you'd just spent your last nickel on a phony telephone call that-----For two cents I'd hunt

you up and and poke you in the nose!

Hunt me up and I'll give you the two cents! And if you

still want to — ah — poke me, why I'll give you a chance

(AS ABOVE SAVAGELY) It's a date! Where are you?

In room 323, Main Post Office Building. Broadway and

Glisan---

(AS ABOVE GLEEFULLY READY FOR FIGHT) Broadway and Glisan, huh? Well, Sergeant Harris, I'll be right over! I'm just across the street!

SLAMMING OF TELEPHONE RECEIVER ON HOOK.

(PUZZLED BUT AMUSED) Well! He'll be right over’. (PzlUSE)

Sergeant Lawrence!

(OFF MIKE) Yes, Sergeant Harris.

Cun you take ovor the telephone for u few minutes? It

looks as if I might be going to have a few — ah— maneuvers on my hands.

(FADING IN) What d'you moan, monuevers? Fell a battle coming on?

Yep. zind unless I'm mistaken it's just about time for

the opening gun. Listen!

HURRYING FEET FADING IN, THEN DOOR BURST OPEN AND SLAMMED SHUT.

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

LaWRENCE:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:*

LaWRENCE:

STUB:

LaWRENCE:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

(FADING IN aND BREATHING HARD) Whore is he?

(WITH DIGNITY) May I help you?

(THROUGH HIS TEETH) Where is that guy Harris? The guy

that wants his nose punched?

(TRYING HARD NOT TO LAUGH) That doesn't sound like Sergeant

Harris. He’s much too good looking to want hisface

disfiguredl

(EVENLY) That's probably the reason he cleared out of here so fast.

(COMPLACENTLY) So, he ran away? A fine soldier 1

Yes, a fine soldier. (PROUDLY) A soldier thinksof the service first and himself afterwards. Sergeant Harris probably preferred to let you cool off before ho saw you. He wouldn't take a chance on your making a disturbance and bringing any discredit upon tho Army.

You see, Hr. ah -- what's your name?

(HALF ASHAMED OF HIS BLUSTERING) Stub Golden.

Mr. Golden, you see, probably he would rather you'd think him a coward than that the army should think him unsoldierly Isn't that it, Sergeant Harris?

Sol You're Harris?

(QUIETLY) Yes, I'm. Harris.

(LICKED) Oh well, what difference does it make who's who?

I guess you mean all right, and I'm sort of ashamed of myself, but------(WITH RISING INDIGNATION) it's all right

for you guys that are safe in the army. You are being taken care of. But sometimes it's pretty tough for a fellow like mo that's out of a job and down to his last

nickel—

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

XA1JRENCE:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

STUB:

(LAUGHINGLY) You forget you spent that last nickel. (BEGINNING TO SEE THE HUMOR OF IT) That's right, I did.

I took my last nickel for a phone call, picked blind from the phone book-—

But wasn’t that sort of silly? Just picking it blind?

If you’d tried as many places us I have to find a job, you'd know that jabbing your finger on a number and culling it is just as good as any other way. (SADLY) But I've always had hard luck. I couldn't expect anything else. Always?

Yep, Never started anythink in my life that didn't come out wrong.

Pardon me, Hr. Golden, and I'll get back to the telephone.

(FADING) Excuse me, Sergeant Harris.

Now, about this hard luck business—

Oh, I now how it sounds when I say it, but somethingwent wrong with the Goldens when I come along. (CONFIDENTIALLY) I remember Grampa used always to be harping on the family motto, something about Nunc Gelden and it meaning Never Give up, — no, it was Never Yield,

Sounds like a good motto to me,

Well, it might have been all right for Grampa, and oven for dad. They didn't dare give up, They were too busy making money so they could ruin my lifeI

■Jhoa! Wait a minute I What do you mean, money to ruin your life.

(AGGRIEVEDLY) I mean this. When I was a kid my folks were rich, not filthy with dough, but they had enough so I didn't have to do anything I didn't want to do. I never finished

anything inmy whole life. (WITH RISING INDIGNATION) By

the time I was eighteen I was as spoiled a brat as you could find. and then, bloo-eyj Grampa died. Dad went bust and he died too. nnd — well, there I was —-

BILL: (UNDERST.xNDINGLY) Yes, I know. No training, no discipline, no adaptibility, no—

STUB: No luck! (SIGHS DEEPLY) I think I've tried darn near everythin. Sergeant Harris —

BILL: (LnUGIIING) Not quite everything. You can't be old enough for thatI

STUB: I’m thirty.

BILL: (AS IF TO HIMSELF) H-m. Still young enough for the army.

STUB: ■That's that you said?

BILL: (LiiUGHINGLY) I asked if you ever married.

STUB: (BITTERLY) Listen, Sergeant Harris, when a guy has dough and clothes anydame would marry him. TJhen he's broke and looks like a last year's cactus, no dame wonts him.

BILL: The army is pretty well dressed these days.

STUB: Sure, you guys get all the breaks, — good clothes, good food — but what's that got to do with me?

BILL: (EVASIVELY) Oh, nothing, nothing at all. I was just thinking—

STUB: ’That?

BILL: Of that Nunc Golden business. (MEDITATIVELY) Never quit. I was just wondering what would happen if you ever deliberately put yourself in a job you couldn't quit.

STUB: Hm— I wonder.

BILL: You said your name wus Stub Gelden, didn't you?

STUB: Yeh. But I guess I ought to have sqid, Sqmper—Semper Gelden

BILL: (INTERRUPTING) Hey, wait a minute. That means always quitting!

STUB: (SADLY) Yes, — that's me.

BILL: (DELIBERATELY) Listen, Semper Gelden. And get this straight. You don't have to quit. You can do oneof two things; put yourself where you can't quit, or learn to believe in something so deeply you can't quit it. It has boon done—

STUB: (SKEPTICALLY) ■Tho did it?

BILL: Do you really want to know?

STUB: Sure. Go ahead.

BILL: Well, it's like this. I was in the United States Army .air Corps for fifteen years. In a way I sort of grew up with it. I never made the pilot's scat, but I was a flight sergeant. I learned a lot about flying and pilots. Right now I'm thinking about a couple of fellows who would h-j.ve .made good soldiers (DELIBERATELY) because they wouldn't quit They could have — anytime. But they stayed up —

STUB: Up? Up where?

BILL: You'll have to excuse me, Stub. I get so interested in my story I forget you don't know what I'Ll talking about. Tho fellows I'm talking about were couple of men from Spokane, Nick Hamer and Art HAlker.

STUB: (PLEASED) You're talking about folks I knew, or at least knew of, Sergeant Harris. Spokane was my home town.

BILL: Then you should remember when Marner and Walker made their long distance of refueling flight

STUB:

SOUND:

CHIEF:

MAMER:

CHIEF:

SOUND:

BILL:

STUB:

BILL:

(ENTHUSIASTICALLY) Sure, I do. There was a big ceremony before they started. A bunch of us kids watched it. Marner was a Lieutenant in the army or something and an adopted member of the Spokane tribe of Indians. Mamer named their ship the Sun-God in honor of his tribesmen and (FADING) when he and Walker were ready to set out the Spokanes held a pow-wow-----

INDIAN DRUMS UP AND FADE TO BACKGROUND.

(WITH GREAT DIGNITY) My son, and you, my friend, in your great winged bird, you will rise like the sun himself. Like the sun you will ride the heavens. May the sun-god himself, bless your long journey, and bring you safe home to your brothers, the Spokanes.

Thank you, Chief Garry. Art and I will do our best to bring honor to the Spokanes, my tribesmen.

(EXHORTING) Children of the Sun I Spokanes ’. Call upon the sun god

INDIAN CHANT UP, HOLD THEN CUT.

You remember that their flight had been arranged to demonstrate to the public that a stock commercial plane was as safe as a stock commercial automobile,--that a long journey over all kinds of terrain could be made safely, with the necessary refueling done during flight.

Yes, I remember, people wore just beginning to discover that air travel was more than a thrill of a curiosity. Mamer and Walker hoped to prove that refueling was entirely practical, and safe.

So, they planned carefully, arranging to the refueling points from Sun Francisco to New York and buck to Spokane. On the afternoon of August 15, 1929 the Sun-God’s (FADING) motors

were ready und Mamer and Walker went roaring off.

6-6-6

SOUND; PLANE MOTOR UP AND THEN FADING TO BACKGROUND.

NICK: Where are we now?

ART: Close to Rock Springs, ’Wyoming, unless my calculations are wrong.

NICK: (LAUGHING) Well, I hope they're right'. We're getting low on gas again.

ART: We ought to make better time on fueling than we did at Sun Francisco. Four hours to take on 180 gallons

NICK: Yeh. That was slow, but we'll do better this time. (PAUSE) Hey'. What’s that search light doing?

ART: Telling us we're at Rock Springs'. Time to refuel again. I'll drop a note or two

NICK: The fool '. That guy with the search light is blinding me. I can't see a thing.

ART: (DERISEVELY) Well, if you don't like the spot light, Nick, you can always land—

NICK: (INDIGNANTLY) Lund? Who, me?

ART: (LAUGHING) O.K., we stay up. Maybe I cun persuade that fellow to ease up on the artificial sunlight. Here goes with another note.

SOUND: PLANE MOTOR UP AND DOWN.

NICK: I’ll fly a little lower. See if they get the note.

SOUND: PLANE MOTOR UP IN SLIGHT DIVE AND DOWN AGAIN.

ART: It’s on the ground all right. I cun see it in the light but nobody is paying any attention to it. That's funny Hey'. Watch out'. There's the refueling ship right over us'.

NICK: Hung on'. I'll miss him

SOUND: PLANE MOTOR UP QUICKLY, THEN CUT.

7-7

BILL: That was a close shave.. Manor almost cut the refueling hose withthe Sun-God’s propellor, The search light hud blinded both pilots, (PAUSE) Well, it wasn't so hard from there on. Walker- and Mamer learned a lot in the first refueling attempts. Omaha, Chicago, Cleveland-- on they went, tired, unkempt, unshaven--

STUB: I knew how they felt. Look at ne right this minute! I could do with a shave, a hair cut and a bath—

BILL: (CPECULATIVELY) Jfci-m. So you could.

STUB: (DEFENSIVELY) Never mind mo. Get on with your story.

BILL: Yes, that’s right. I sort of got side tracked.

STUB: You were saying Manor and Walker had refueled at Cleveland on the luu-t lap toward New York,

BILL: Flying wasn't soeasy in 1929, Stub. There wasn't any radio coinmuni cut ion and Earner and. ’Talker had to depend entirely upon their droppen notes to make connection with the ground crews, They hud loft a shower of paper clear across the continent. Roosevelt Field at New York received its share of notes and the thousands of spectators eagerly watched the bits of paper (FADING) fluttering down from the circling Sun-God-—

SOUND: PLANE MOTOR UP ziND FADING TO BACKGROUND.

ART: Look at New York spread out down there below us!'

NICK: Gosh, I'll bet there's a million bath tubs---

.AIT: And ten million barbers My face feels like a curry comb.

NICK: laid tea bone steaks---

ART: For heavens sake, Nick, shut up.. I'm drooling.

NICK: I've hoard it said that in life the first hundred years are. the hardest— and I'm positive in flying the first hundred hours arc the longest. Lot's drop that letter to

Mayor Jinray ’Talker and ask for sone water and food and

J.RT: Gasoline! After all, we must have gas or the Spokanes will never see the Sun-God again.

NICK: O.K., I've got the note written. Give her the gun-—-

SOUND; PLjiNE MOTOR UP RAPIDLY THEN HOLD .JJD CUT.

BILL: At Chicago they completed their first undred hours, long, grueling hours of flight, Therewas never a thought of quitting. Those lads believed in whut they were doing

STUB: (MEDITATIVELY) Yes. They believed it—(INTERRUPTING HIMSELF) Say, I saw then land when they got back to Spokane! The Sun-God sure had taken a beating. It was smudged and dirty from spilled gas and dirt, and Manor and ’Talker had a forest fire too-

BILL: Yes, over M^les, Montana. (PAUSE)

STUB: Mils, Montana. I had a job there once — As a matter of fact it wus the last job I had.

BILL: YJhat made you quit?

STUB: I didn't really want to quit but

BILL: But you could, so you did? Old Semper Gelden, eh? always quitting!

STUB: (SIDREG.HIDING THE JIBE nS IF THINKING ALOUD) ’That does a fellowdo in the army — quitif hogets mad?

BILL: (LAUGHING) QUIT THEARMY? Sure — just the way Marner and Walker quit. In the army a guy never quits! You know, Stub, when a fellowwalks up to tho Recruiting Desk and deliberately and thoughtfully dedicates himself to Service, — Oh I Know it sounds as if I'm preaching, and maybe I an. (ENTHUSIASTICALLY) I belive in service. Well, if a fellow is nan enough to cone jp here and enlist in the regular array he knows he's not going to quit. I don't know what 9

.<5

STUB: happens to a follow when he voluntarily pledges three years of his life to his country, but to me it’s sort of like getting religion. Yeh—like whatever it was Marner and '.Talker got that made then forget thornselves during thatendurance flight—

BILL: YEs, that's right. I don't know what it is, -- maybe it's the uniform, Maybe it's the good food, the regular hours,

STUB: and the discipline — Anyhow when you enlist in tho regular army you suddenly discover you aren't the same nan (THOUGHTFULLY) Not the sane nan--

BILL: (PERSU. kSIVELY) How'd you like to change your none, Stub? No more of that Semper Golden always quitting stuff —

STUB: It sounds good to me. uhere's that enlistment blank?

BILL: Here it is —-—

SOUND: RATTLE OF PAPERS.

BILL: (VERY BUSINESS LIKE) Name?

STUB: (EQUALLY DECISIVE) Nunc Gelden ——

BILL: Never Quits Golden?

STUB: Yes, sir! From now on, that's me!

MUSIC: THEME UP „iND OUT.

rJJNCR: jind so we leave Sergeant Harris signing up another recruit for the regular United States army at 323 Main Post Office Building. Next week at this sane hour KOIN will present another in thisseries of Soldiers of the Air. Tonight's program was written by the Oregon Writers' Project and produofed by members of the Youth Theatre Guild. The cast included;

SOUND:

BILL:

music:

Listen again Next Monday night utten fifteen over this

station when you will again hear--------

TELEPHONE BELL.

.»ray Recruiting Service. Sergeant Harris speaking.

THEME UP .HD OUT.

Extent

12 pages

Contributors

Digital Publisher

Multnomah County Library

Subject.Topic

Subject.Place

Portland, Oregon

Language

English

Rights & Usage

No known rights (no copyright or related rights are known to exist for this work).

Identifier

JWtxt_001518

Type

Text

Date.Created

September 1, 1941

Shelf.Location

O358.4 F29 Apr-Nov 1941

Source.Collection

John Wilson Special Collections