Soldiers of the Air, October 27, 1941

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Series 2 number 10 of a weekly radio program that aired on Portland radio station KOIN. This week's program follows recruiter, Bill "Butch" Harris, as he helps convince the son of a woman to enlist into the army.

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W>. I

UNITED STATES ARMY RECRUITING SERVICE

October 27, 1941 KOIN 10:15 P.M.

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 Harris, soldier of the air. LIUS IC:__THEME UP AND OUT

ANNCR: For once we find Sergeant Bill Harris of the United States

Army Recruiting Service sitting quietly at his desk. No problems for the moment, not one applicant, although last week Sergeant Harris was swamped with --------- recruits,

-- something of a record even for him. Right now he's sitting at his desk thumbing through a book he's been reading. The title is War Heroes of the Past, and it looks sort of interesting, but — well, (FADING) lot's listen in and sec what's happening down at 323 Main Post Office Building SOUND: TELEPHONE BELL

BILL: Army Recruiting Service. Sergeant Harris speaking.

VOICE: (VIA TELEPHONE) This is the Portland public Library. I'm

sorry, Sergeant Harris, but we will have to deny your request for a third renewal on Ivar Heroes of the Past.

BILL: That's a great book, War Heroes of the Past, — I suppose

that's the reason other men want to read it. I have it right here on my desk. I'll return it to the library today -- sure.

VOICE: Thank you. Goodbye.

MARY: It is a great book, isn't it?

BILL: What's that ?

MARY: Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.

BILL: MARY: I beg your pardon madam, but I was on the phone and didn't see you come in (PLEASANTLY) That's all right, sergeant. I should have addressed you before I began discussing that book,

BILL: Have you read, War Heroes of the Past?

MARY: Yes, I'vo road it. As a matter of fact I read it quite scir.e time ago. I thought it was really inspiring. And then recently I've been trying to get it from the library but it's been out for three weeks I finally got it.

BILL: (LAUGHING) It's the kind of a book that every soldier ought to read, especially right now.

MARY: Yes, I suppose it is a good book for soldiers, but -- well, to my way of thinking, it's a better book for civilians

BILL: Why is it better for civilians?

MARY: I don’t exactly mean all civilians — I mean young men of army age who aren't in the army, might find that War Heroes of the Past could help them --

BILL: How could it help them?

MARY: Well, Sergeant Harris, it's quite a story, but my idea of War Heroes of the Past, und my trying to get it again from the library, are really part of the reason for my coming up here to talk with you.

BILL: (LAUGHING SOFTLY) You don't want to enlist, do you?

MARY: (SOLEMNLY) Yes, I do. But I’m too old now. (PROUDLY) I served overseas with the A.E.F. in 1918, und I’d go with the army -- anywhere -- again — if they'd take me.

2-2-2

BILL: You're a registered nurse?

MARY: Yes, I’m a nurse — but an old one — und a tired one. I've too many dependents to ever serve in the army again.

BILL: I see you know the regulations

MARY: Yes, I know a man who has dependents can't enlist — but my son has no dependents - -

BILL: MARY: Your son? Yes, my son. There’s no reason why he can't serve in my place -- no reason except one --

BILL: And that reason it —

MARY: (UNHAPPILY) He won't'. Just plain won't '.

BILL: How old is your son, Mrs.

MARY: I forgot to introduce myself — I'm Mary Payne. My son is Victory Payne and he's just twenty two. A fine looking lad that a mother could be proud of —

BILL: Could be proud of? Mrs. Payne, you speak as if you weren't proud of your son.

MARY: (BITTERLY) I'm not'. I'm ashamed of him und ashamed of myself and I’m sick to hear him talking the way he does where the younger children cun hear him.

BILL: What's he saying? uhat does he talk about?

MARY: It's all so intangible — so hard to pin down to any one thing he says or does — but somehow Vic — we cull him Vic, -- but his real name is Victory. Sounds silly, doesn't it — Victory for a boy’s name.

BILL: Vihy did you call him Victory?

3-3-3

MARY: Well, that’s another story and perhaps a sentimental one. You see, Vic's father and I were married overseas. Jim — that v>rus my husband's name -- was in the army and vrhen he vras wounded they brought him in and it just happened that I nursed him -- and later vrhen he was able to walk again we were married and when Vic was born we called him Victory.

BILL: Did you name him Victory for any special reason?

MARY: (CHUCKLING) Jim and I were still pretty young and very much in love. We said we named our baby Victory because the Allies had won the war, but the real reason was that we thought we'd sort of won life's battle and we were gloating over it.

BILL: (LAUGHING) In my experience Life has a way of winning the last round — just when you're sure you've got it completely kay-oed '.

MARY: That's exactly what life did to us. Jim never completely recovered from his war injuries. Half the time he was in the hospital. Year after year we'd think that surely this time would be the last and — but let's don't talk about that. I want to talk about Vic.

BILL: (PLEASANTLY) Seems to me we started out to talk about a book, not Vic — Remember? "far Heroes of the Past?

MARYi War Heroes of the past or Vic — it's one and the same. In the book there are a lot of heroes who never went to war -- remember -- and many who did — men who distinguished themselves for courage and during —

BILL: Yes, and men who stayed at home and did the very necessary

jobs.

4-4-4

MaRY: That's right, but they all had one special quality that made them heroes. Do you recall what that was?

BILL: MARY t I didn't really think about it, Mrs, Payne — Remember the banker who bankrupted himself to help carry on a war?

BILL: Yes, but —

MARY: And that sailor lad who went down in shark infected waters to release the anchor chain that was caught?

BILL: And Ethan Allen? And General Jackson? What was it they all had?

MARY: Unselfishness, or maybe self-forgetfulness would be a better way to express it.

BILL: Or maybe — patriotism?

MARY: Whatever you call it, it was something that sprang from within each man — it wasn’t something someone compelled him to do — every one of those War Heroes did what he did because he couldn't help himself. Something fine and noble within him made him give — Oh, — I sound like an orator I guess — but Sergeant Harris, it makes a mother feel sort of queer when she is compelled to recognize that whatever it is that makes a man a hero — well, whatever it takes somehow got left out of her son.

BILL: I'm sorry, Mrs. I-ayno —

MARY: It wouldn't be so bad if Vic wasn't descended from a long line of really heroic men and women — Why, five of his ancestors are listed in that book —

BILL: Five '. You mean to say that any one family can rate five men in one bock of heroes?

5-5-5

MARY: That's right — there's that book?

BILL: Here it is — page one — page two — here's the table of contents —

MARY: Look, — here they are, Payne, Morris, Phillips, Ostrander, and Victor, Well, now, that's funny'. I declare I never before thought of how much like Victory that name Victor is.

BILL: Hmm--m (REFLECTIVELY) Poes your son, Victory -- that is — Vic, know about all these family heroes?

MiiRY: I guess I'm pretty stupid. That's the point of this whole interview. He doesn't know about then, and he just won't learn about them. I can't understand it

BILL: MARY: Mind.telling me just how you've -- ah -- exposed him to his family heroes? Not at all. I'vo tried to be subtle about it -- you know — the way the child psychologists tell you to do.

BILL: MARY: Maybe you've been too subtle Maybe I have been — up to this morning — but this morning —

BILL: ’.That happened this morning?

MARY: I threw War Heroes of the Past at him'.

BILL: You threw a book at your son '.

MaRY: (CONTRITELY) I'm ashamed to admit it, but I actually threw the book on the floor at his feet -- and I’m afraid I throw the whole table of contents at him verbally — and the worst of it is -- he didn't even notice tho title of the book. He picked it up — but — well — War Heroes to him was just an object on the floor '.

BILL: How did it all happen?

6-6-6

MARY: "Jell, you see — oh, (PASSIONATELY) I’ve hoped for so much from

my eldest son I wanted him to be like his father — like his father’s father and all the others that have gone before him — unselfish — noble — far-seeing -------

BILL: I’m sorry he has disappointed you, Mrs, Payne — but at least

you can be grateful he is a fine physical specimen — he is isn’t he?

MARY: That's the worst of it’. He looks like a soldier I He looks

like a ---- a ----- colonel --

BILL: (TEASING) Well, maybe just a little young for a colonel I

MARY: (SADLY) But inside he’s just a -----

BILL: (HELPFULLY) A yardbird'.

MARY: I'm afraid you're right. A yardbird'. You know, that's a

good word, Sergeant Harris. I know as well us you do that there isn't such a rank in the army, but — there is in real life'.

And it looks as if that’s where my Vic belongs, ,/hy, only this morning — But there'. That's what I started to tell you. Only this morning, when he finally decided to take that ten dollar a day job was I sure of it.

BILL: (WHISTLING) Whew'. Ten bucks a day. Maybe I was wrong about

that colonel business '.

MARY: (SADLY) No — I'm afraid he's just a yurdbird at heart'. But

I can't understand it’. I just can't'. Well, anyway, he told me this morning that he hud been offered a job at ten dollars u day in one of the defense industries ----- honestly, Sergeant

Harris — what do you think a boy of twenty-two, who's never hud a dollar a day for himself — will do with ten dollars a day?

7-7-7

BILL: ’.Veil now -- that’s really a hard one to answer. Off hand I’d

say that unless he was a pretty steady lad it might go to his head. On the other hand, if he was level-headed, he would invest in insurance, defense bonds, and the like.

MARY: But Vic won't, Sergeant Harris’. He’s not ready for a ten

dollar a day job ’.

BILL: Don’t worry about it, Mrs. Payne. Uhen it comes down to that,

none of us are ready for it. Most of us would make a fool of ourselves if someone gave us ten dollars cash each day

That’s where Uncle Sam is smart in his regular army

MARY; I don’t quite understand.

BILL: I mean that men who enlist for a three year hitch in the regular

army have all the benefits of a ten dollar a day job with none of the moral hazards such a job would curry in civilian life — MARY: Of course, — that's what shocks me so. Vic doesn't see it

at all. I've never tried to cram the army down his throat but I’ve tried to teach him values — real values in character, to give him the ideals — that make heroes of little mon. But this morning when he stormed out of the house, — (SIGHING) well, I felt I had failed — failed myself — failed Vic, — and worst of all — failed all the men who have lived and died before him. And that brings me to the real reason of my visit, Sergeant Harris. Vic is coming down here to see you.

BILL: But I thought you said he was going to take that ten dollar

a day job.

MARY: He was — probubly he still will, but when I — (APOLOGETICALLY)

yelled at him — I guess I sort of said all the things the psychologists say a mother shouldn't. I said all the things I’d been thinking for months — Oh, I'm so ashamed.

8-8-8

BILL:

MARY:

BILL:

MARY:

BILL:

MARY:

BILL:

MARY:

BILL:

MARY:

BILL:

MARY:

BILL:

But why is Vic coming here?

Because of the bitter things I said. Sergeant Harris, I’ve never been anything but friendly und pleasant to my sons, — Poor Vic — he was terribly shocked., fhe lock on his face frightened me so unbelieving — so gried — so — sort of disappointed. And then he clumped his lips together und drew himself up and —-

And said he’d cone down here and shew youi

(ASTONISHED) How did you know?

(CHUCKLING) That's what I told my dud fifteen years ago'.

Why — why —

Oh, I'm no hero, but I was a boy once myself — and I know — Yes, but Vic — Vic — (DESPERATELY) Ch, don't you see, if he should enlist now — he's really sunk’. He'll only do it because of me. Just to "show me" us you say, und he'll hate me and hate the army and hate life'. Ch, Sergeant Harris, you've just got to do something about it —

Wait a minute, Mrs. Payne', My job is to enlist men, not to turn them away, especially fellows like Vic, smart, well educated ---- He is a high school graduate, isn't he?

(PRCUDLY) He's finished two years at college too'.

(MUSING) Might make an aviation cadet out of this lad -----

What's that you say?

I said — I'm no miracle worker, but I'll do what I can for your son when he comes — (PAUSE) Did you ever think, Mrs. Payne, that maybe your son is a hero at heart? Maybe you're too close to him to see it. Maybe it would just take some

little thing ---

9-9-9

SOUND:

OFF MIKE. OPENING OF ELEVATOR DOOR

VIC: (OFF HIKE IN DISTANCE) VJhich room did you say was the ^rmy

Recruiting Service?

HAN'S VOICE: (OFF MIKE IN DISTANCE) Room 323, sir, right down the hall and to your left.

VIC: Thanks.

SOUND. SLAWING OF ELEVATOR DC OR

NARY: (ALARMED) That’s Vic I He mustn’t catch me here’.

BILL: Vici Your son — here — quick, go through that door into

Colonel Hensley’s office. He's out. Shut the door -- and if anyone comes ----

MARY: (FADING OFF MIKE) VJhat shall I do if anyone comes?

BILL: MARY: SOUND: Pretend you are deaf and dumb Now quick --- I'm going

DOOR OPENED AND CLOSED QUICKLY

BILL: Phew — never a dull moment — Now for — man. Vihut can I do for you? Hello, there, young

VIC: (FADING IN) Look, mister —

BILL: Sergeant Harris —

VIC: Okay, Sergeant Harris. (BITTERLY) There isn't anything you

can do for me, but you can do a lot for my mother —

BILL: iThat do you mean?

VIC: Enlist me in the army.

BILL: VJhat branch of service interests you, — t ordnance, cavalry -- iviation, artillery,

VIC: None of it interests me — (ANGRILY) none -- do you understand?

BILL: (QUIETLY) Look, mister —

10-10-10

VIC: Payne — Victory Payne There’s a laugh for you, Sergeant Harris (BITTERLY) Victory Payne enlists I You ought to get a news story out of that '. (LAUGHS BITTERLY)

BILL: I don’t see anything funny about it, What’s odd about your name? Right now I can’t think of a more popular one -- Ever hear this sound ---

SOUND: ... ... , TA11 ED CUT ON WCCD

VIC: (CURIOUSLY AND FORGETTING HIS ANGER FOR A MINUTE) Can’t say I ever did, What is it?

BILL: Ever see those little V buttons everyone is wearing?

VIC: Oh, that. You mean V for Victory, Like the British

BILL: That’s right. And if you ask me, I think Victory is a pretty fine name. »»hy do you dislike it so much?

VIC: (VEHEMENT AGAIN) I’ll tell you why I dislike it'. Ever since I can remember folks have laughed at me about it. »«hen I was a little codger and would get into a fight, the rest of the kids would stand around und yell, (IN PIPING VOICE) Victory'. Victory'. He can't lose’.

BILL: And so you'd win the fight?

VIC: Win the fight? I never had a chance '. And when I got to high school — I said my name was Victor — and then some girl that was working in the principal's office discovered it was Victory — and then —

BILL: She told it -- and you lost the girl --

VIC: THAT wasn't all I lost — I lost everything I ever tried. Look, Sergeant Harris, I'm not dumb — I've passed every kind of intelligence test away above the average. Theoretically Victory should be nine — Actually I'm a flop. And now when for the first time I get a chance at a job that might give me a break on even terms with other men at ten bucks a day too — 11-11-11

VIC: Why mom breaks loose this morning and throws up that old Victory stuff again I tell you, Sergeant, I can't take it any longer. (REBELLICUSLY) Why did mom and dad have to name me Victory to handicap a guy for life with a name he couldn't possibly live up to I Victory (BITTERLY) Victory'. I’m laughing.

BILL: (VERY BUSINESS LIKE) Well, suppose you stop laughing long enough to give me some information about yourself. We’ll need that for our files. Here, let's fill in this application blank Age?

VIC: Twenty-two.

BILL: Education?

VIC: Graduated from Lincoln High in Portland. Two years of mechanical engineering at Cregon State College.

BILL: Did you enroll in the KCTC there -- you know — military science?

VIC: Ch yes, — the usual — but I didn't get anywhere with it. They found out my name was Victory'.

BILL: (IGNORING HILI) Full name?

VIC: Victory Harris Anthony 1 ayne

BILL: (EXCITEDLY) Key — say that again, will you?

VIC: Victory — Uorris -- Anthony — 1-uyne. And if you ask me that name's more pain than victory.

BILL: (REPEATS NAMES SLCWLY) Hm-m — Victory — morris — Anthony — Layne ’. What a swell bunch of names '.

VIC: What do you mean, swell bunch of names?

BILL: I mean — I mean — Say, how did your parents happen to give you four names like that?

12-12-12

VIC: (PUZZLED) I don't know. I never asked. Probably out of a book or something. (FCNDLY) Ijy mom’s kind of sentimental. That's the reason she named me Victory, I think — because I was born right after the Allies won the war

BILL: I wasn't thinking of Victory — I mean the other names — Morris — Anthony — Payne — They couldn’t by any chance be your ancestors, could they?

VIC: Why — I don't know — What makes you ask?

BILL: Oh, nothing — only

VIC: Only what

BILL: Let's get on with these other questions, "hat was your last job?

VIC: (VERY MUCH INTERESTED) Oh no you don't. Tell me the truth. Vtho were these birds -- this Morris, this Anthony and this Payne?

BILL: You wouldn't be interested. None of them made ten bucks a day.

VIC: VJhat'd you mean I wouldn’t be interested? .And what's that crack about ten bucks a day?

BILL: I mean that Morris or Anthony or Payne didn't make money serving their country, and that if you're interested only in making a lot of sudden money so you cun spend it in a hurry --why — Anthony and Morris and Payne wouldn't interest you. They didn't cure about money, -- they cared about courage. And courage, Victory Morris Anthony Payne doesn't pay ten bucks a day -- at least not all in one lump '.

VIC: (PATIENTLY) Well, shoot the works, tell me about these (SARCASTICALLY) big courageous lads of the past.

13-13-13

BILL: Strangely enough, I don't have to tell you. Any history book

cun do that. Now this book, for instance — See this book I've been reading — it’s called War Heroes of the Last.

Here — look at the table of contents -- take a gander at

tho chapter heads — Listen, I'll read them ----- No, read

them yourself'. (aS IF ANGRY) They're your ancestors — not mine '.

VIC: Gosh'. Look at 'emi Anthony rIayne Mad Anthony'. Gosh, was

I related to him? I mean -- an I?

BILL: I wouldn't know.

VIC: Thomas Layne. (REVERENTLY) Say — wasn't he something or other

in the American Revolution? Gosh'. He was a printer not a soldier — but —

BILL: Nevertheless, he too was a hero.

VIC: Morris? (WITH INCREASING RESPECT) Morris', Uhy he was a

banker, wasn't he? A real ten dollar a day man -- but he —

BILL: Popular legend relates that he bankrupted himself financing

the continental army — but I wouldn’t know ------

VIC: Gosh’ My gosh'

SOUND: ............. TA. LED OUT ON TABLE. FADE IN TALLING SOFTLY

AND LET IT COME L"i } UNTIL IT DRAWS VIC'S ATTENTION.

VIC: Morris '. Anthony '. Payne Hey, what're you tupping on the

table for?

BILL: I'm tapping out your name, Vic, tupping out Victory. Listen

SOUND: TAPPING IN STRONG AND THEN FaDE TO BACKGROUND BUT LET IT BE

HEARD jxBCVE BILL'S SPEECH. LET TAILING SIMULATE SOMEWHAT THE

------------------------------,----------------------------------

SOUND OF A DRUM ROLLING OUT TWO-FOUR TIME.

14-14-14

BILL: Listen, Vic --- I’m just a soldier, one of thousands, yes,

one of hundreds of thousands whose feet are tapping out the measure of their personal victory'. I haven't any illustrious ancestors to help me, but you — why you have a whole company of them, marching derm the years, — marching down to 1941 to you. They believe in you, Vic. They believe in your name. They're not ten dollar a day men — they're just the guys that get their names in the history books '.

SOUND: UP A LITTLE WITH THE TAI-FING

VIC: (REVERENTLY) Just the guys that get their names in the history

books — (THOUGHTFULLY) Why even I —■ I — Gosh ’ Sergeant Harris, do you mean I -- I --

SOUND: TAPI-ING IN LOUDER

BILL: Yes, Victory (THIS DELIBERATELY AND MEANINGFULLY) That's

exactly what I mean. You — too '.

VIC: Me too'. Here, give me that book'. I want to go home and show

it to non --- I'll bet she doesn't know -----

SOUND: TAILING FADES INTO ROLL OF DRUMS IN ILJICH TIME

BILL: Here, take it —

VIC: Thanks'. (FADING) 1’11 be buck in a couple of hours and sign that application

SOUND: DRUMS ARE DROWNED IN M&RTlAL MUSIC WHICH SWELLS Ui , THEN OUT

BILL: You cun come out now, Mrs. rayne.

MARY: (FADING IN) Oh, Sergeant Harris, — I'm so grateful — I'll never be ashamed of Vic again'.

BILL: No, Mrs. Payne, he has that divine spark — whatever it is — that makes heroes. The trouble was he never knew before that

he hud it.

15-15-15

MARY: (SOFTLY) Maybe the psychologists are wrong -- Maybe I should have thrown the book at him sooner

BILL: MaRY: Did you hear him? Ho took War Heroes of the Fast home to show you (LAUGHING) I heard him (PAUSE) Oh, I hope he'll never be sorry about that ’’ton bucks a day” as he calls it,

BILL: lie won't. I can promiso you that. You see, Mrs. Payne, a soldier gets a lot of things besides his basic puy, which runs from $21 as a private to $127 as master sergeant, That basic pay is actually just spending money. Show me any ordinary lad of twenty-two who has twenty-one dollars spending money each month.

MARY: That’s right. I never thought of it that way. Vic will have hi room and board

BILL: His clothes and all equipment --

MARY: (ANXIOUSLY) And insurance? Ho really ought to

BILL: Yes, even insurance. But that is one item that will cost him a few cents per thousand dollars. It's government insurance, however, and the cost is very low on young men like Vic.

MaRY: But what about doctor and dental care?

BILL: He'll have those services too, at no cost.

MARY: (ANXIOUSLY) They do issue long underwear in cold weather, don’t they?

BILL: I'll say they do'. And rain coats and goloshes and all the clothes any man could want. I'll bet Vic never hud as extensive a wardrobe as he'll have as Private victory Morris Anthony Rayne

MARY; (PROUDLY) Private Victory Payne'. Oh — Sergeant Harris, I'm so proud of my son '.

MUSIC: THEME UP AND OUT 16-16-16

ANNCR:

And so we leave Sergeant Harris ready to sign up another recruit for the regular United States Army at 323 Main i-ost Office Building. Next week at this same hour KOIN will present another in this series of Soldiers of the Air. Tonight's program was written by the Oregon Writers' project of the Work Projects Administration and produced by members of the Youth Theatre Guild. 1'he cast included:

SC UND:

BILL:

MUSIC:

Listen again next Monday night at ten fifteen over this station when you will again hear ----

TELEPHONE BELL

Army Recruiting Service. Sergeant Harris speaking.

THEME UP AND CUT

Extent

17 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_001524

Type

Text

Date.Created

October 27, 1941

Shelf.Location

O358.4 F29 Apr-Nov 1941

Source.Collection

John Wilson Special Collections