In Noumea there had been a long-standing house of prostitution named the Pink House.  It was, before the war, a place of convenience for visiting sailors.  With typical french logic, it was tolerated because it kept visiting sailors away from the local french ladies.  When the island became headquarters for the South Pacific Base Command (SOPACBACOM).the place became a semi-official house of convenience.  By mutual agreement, the place had on staff a U S Medical Officer.  His job was doing inspections on U S military personnel and on the prostitutes so that venereal diseases weren’t spread in either direction.  The officer with the longest tenure there would on occasion visit our radio station.  We had quietly set up, decorated and stocked a four man tent which was named Duffy’s Tavern.  It was our job to lubricate the poor guy.  His main concern was what he was going to tell his kids he did during the war.

 

Directly behind our radio station was the residence of the Island Treasurer, a long time French civil servant.  He and his family were really genteel folk.  They had a very attractive daughter named Arlette.  You can imagine her mother and father watched over her like hawks.  Too many young American soldiers were there.  A young engineer at our station named W.H.A. Cole (Bill) and Arlette fell madly in love.  He proposed to marry her and take her back to the romantic city of  Los Angeles.  Things were at an impasse for some time because of immigration issues as well as the passion of youth.  A big family conference resulted in an agreement.  Bill was to return to Los Angeles alone.  If, after six months,  they still felt the same way, Arlette would be allowed to emigrate and they could marry.  Distance or time didn’t chill the romance.  Arlette did come to California and she and Bill lived a long married life as he worked in the broadcast industry..

 

Other romances weren’t so permanent.  Our secretary at the radio station was a beautiful young lady from New Zealand named Faith Helen Keller Black.  The shortage of trained secretaries in that part of the war zone caused the U S Civil Service people to recruit such help in Australia and New Zealand.  Faith was courted by many young U.S. GI swains.  I’m sure she was tempted to think of greener pastures in the U S.  As her boss I tried to caution her that there were many obstacles to such international romances.  When she left New Caledonia for New Zealand , she had decided that a bucolic life as the wife of a sheep rancher would suit her fine.

 

At the New Caledonia station we had three mascot dogs, Muck the mother, Melvin and Satchmo, her sons.  Satchmo was a real ball catching hound.  When Bruce Collier was going home, he wanted to take Satchmo.  He was going on a merchant ship and the answer was no.  A complete radio/entertainment kit disappeared from our property room but did solve the problem.  As the ship sailed the Pacific, the merchant marine guys discovered Satchmo’s skill and produced a tennis ball.  It became a daily routine to bounce the ball to Satchmo for retrieval.  One day the ball went down a scupper.  So did Satchmo..  There was a real uproar and almost mutiny until the Captain stopped the ship.  A life boat was lowered and Satchmo was retrieved.  The ship landed at New Orleans and Bruce and Satchmo took a train to Chicago.

 

AFRS Mobile Broadcasting  Station Guam Air Depot Harmon Field Star on door states:   'US Army KU5Q1' and  'US Navy KU5Q'

 

 

August 7, 2001

 

Ed, you asked me to review the book Star Spangled Radio by Edward Harris and Jack Kirby.  This will not be a traditional review.  What I want to do is review the book by section and chapter. Where I have experience or recollections pertinent to the written material, I will interject.  Recall, I asked you to look at a similar book titled Brass Button Broadcasters by Trent Christman.  These books often cover the same eras.  They were, however, published in 1948 and 1992 respectively.  Christman had the advantage of working with and for Armed Forces Radio Service for most of the period between 1942 and 1991.  The books do not always cover the same material nor do they seem to have the same objective.

 

Star Spangled Radio seems to have as its’ main focus, work by the broadcast media to report the news to help morale of civilians back in the US.  The authors stray from that objective at times and when they do, it detracts from the book.

 

Brass Button Broadcasters is a light hearted history of Armed Forces Radio and later Television Service.  AFRTS was originated to help the morale of the troops.  Any benefit to civilians was incidental, but popular.

                     

Both of these books depend heavily on oral history.  Such history has a way of becoming enhanced with time.  That same problem affects this reviewer at times.  You do have as a separate document some of my history.  Hopefully, that hasn’t been self-aggrandized.

 

STAR SPANGLED RADIO

(by sections)

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The names of those mentioned as contributors are mostly well-known to me.  Spencer Allen was my Commanding Officer from Hollywood to Guadalcanal and later.  That said, the inclusion of his name and remarks has no place in the general theme of the book.  There will be more comments when Chapter 5 is discussed.

 

FOREWORD

You are certainly aware that I worked for RCA for 10 years.  After leaving active duty during the Korean war, I worked for RCA Defense Electronics in Washington, D. C. for several years.  We used to met with General Sarnoff on occasion.  That was the time of the big battles over which Color TV system would be adopted for the US.  General Sarnoff never wrote anything much beyond his signature.  There was always someone around to do the drafting.  Make no mistake, he read everything he was supposed to have said.  I don’t know whether this section was drafted by Kirby or Harris.

 

 

 

CURBING THE KILOCYCLES            CHAPTER 1

This chapter is very well written and contains much historic information.  Hopefully, we won’t ever have to repeat the experience.  From an entirely different point of view, the more important lesson which stands out is that it is possible and likely that people voluntarily living in a democratic society are capable of self-restraint for the more important good of the whole population.  I would like to see such information taught in secondary and higher schools.  And a question occurs to me.  Have we gone too far toward the “me first” society, or given the same set of facts, could we again rise to the same greatness?  I hope it doesn’t take a war to discover the answer.

 

MANEUVERS WITH A MICROPHONE    CHAPTER 2

The point of this chapter is to show that because there was no radio during World War I, techniques had to be developed for reporting newsworthy events while not giving aid and comfort to the enemy.  In addition some perceptive military personnel saw the genesis of psychological warfare.  Successful experiments led to good use of such techniques later.  There is one glaring error on page 18.  In the Louisiana maneuvers a private was supposed to have shot General Ben Lear with his “imitation Garand” rifle.  The Garand rifle now called the M1 was adopted as the standard in 1936 but I doubt that it was available even as an imitation.  We in the National Guard, at that time were still using the 1903 Springfield rifle developed for World War I.  In the Field Artillery, though, the standard side arm was the 45 caliber automatic pistol.

 

THIS IS THE “ARMY HOUR”          CHAPTER 3

I heard only a few of the Army Hour broadcasts live.  They were very well received and believed.  This chapter is well written and does record most of the highlights of the early days of the war.  Only one or two terms used would require researching to make the language speak to people today.  As an example on p. 35 the phrase “the Darlan-Clark negotiations,” is not explained.  Such omissions do not take away from the value of the reporting on this program in keeping abreast of the war.  

 

COMMAND PERFORMANCE, USA     CHAPTER 4

I liked this chapter very much.  It shows the dedication and graciousness of folk in the entertainment world..  However, to me, one of the best thing about this section is that the authors give credit to the many , usually unnamed, people in the background who really made the whole thing work.  They are named and their work celebrated..  On a separate note, it begins to become clear that entertaining the troops had to be done where the entertainers were, in Hollywood.  Most of the talent needed was there, not only those at the microphones, but those behind them.  The authors have identified technical talent, the writers, producers and all that needed to be in the infrastructure.  Whether by gravity, a stroke of luck or a stroke of genius, Hollywood was where troop and civilian morale boosting potential lived.

THIS IS THE ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE     CHAPTER 5

The authors do a dis-service to the unique organization, which developed into the AFRTS, started during the early days of WWII and continuing to this day.  It is worthy of a whole book such as Brass Button Broadcasters.  Most of the information in this chapter is correct but incomplete.  For example, on p. 61, an account is given of one popular broadcast from Guadalcanal, The Atabrine Hour.  That opening was written by Hy Averback.  On p. 64 the account of the weekly news hour in pigin- english never happened.  We did often broadcast the native chorus but not by recording at their location.  You have photos of our studio.  The Presto recorders were delicate and weighed a ton.  There were no portable recorders available at that time.  And as if I haven’t complained enough about this chapter, there is one more beef.  New Zealand was not a part of the “Mosquito Network.”  The station there is mentioned on p.65.

 

BY AIR, BY SEA, BY RADIO     CHAPTER 6

In this chapter, the authors go back to what I feel is their basic thrust.  They return to chronicle   activities of news gatherers.  In addition they report on why radio became so popular as a tool for keeping the ranks of the service filled.  When I was much younger and before the war, I remember admiring the organ music of Eddie Dunstedter.  I recall the program came from Chicago.  It was good to read of his success working for General Hap Arnold.   His work is mentioned on p. 68.

 

SOMETHING FOR SOMERVELL     CHAPTER 7

When I became an army private early in WWII, I was in the Signal Corps.  Later when commissioned at Guadalcanal I was again in the Signal Corps and wore the crossed signal flags on my uniform.  General Somervell was our fearless leader.  Some of his duties were unenviable.  Other organizations were responsible for procuring manpower.  Supplying them with weapons and all other needs was Somervell’s job.  In addition the terrible job of bringing home the maimed and dead was his duty.  He wisely used radio to help assure high levels of morale for those producing war materiel.  Radio was also used to inform folk at home and prepare them for the realities of the results of war.  This side of the value of broadcasting has not been well told before this book.  Again the authors are to be applauded for naming those who helped in this largely unsung work.

 

THE DEAD END KIDS OF CBI      CHAPTER 8

Of all the theaters of the war, the China India Burma was in my opinion the most difficult for news correspondents.  Those adverse conditions are detailed in this chapter.  I am familiar with glass based transcription blanks.  They were the standard before the war.  They were coated with dark purple lacquer with the surface polished flat.  That was the surface which was lathed away during recording of a transcription.  The usual method of field  recordings was from inside out.  This avoided the problem of the cut strips of lacquer from interfering with the recording of succeeding grooves.  The other main problem was keeping the recording head at a constant height above the blank.  Modulation of the recording groove was lateral.  Professional recorders used the same blanks but recorded from the outside in.  Removal of debris from the grooves was accomplished by having near the recording head a small vacuum which removed the chaff.  These masters remained in this state if they were to be used only once or twice.  Those which were to be real masters were vacuum coated with gold and electroplated on the back with nickel.  These became with further processing the stampers from which vinyl reproductions were made.

 

One of the AFRS crews formed at the same as mine for Guadalcanal, left about the same time for CBI.  The few reports we heard from them confirm those in this book.  The only member of the crew I remember by name was a fellow named Holt.  He is mentioned in BBB.

 

PACIFIC PATCHWORK      CHAPTER 9

By the time General Mc Arthur had moved his headquarters from Brisbane, Australia to Hollandia, the Chief Signal Officer was General Spencer Akin, and of course, my fearless hero.  We never met until many years later.  It was his job, though delegated, to provide all communications.  The military needs came first but a makeshift broadcasting system was set up.  The island-hopping nature of the war in the Pacific called for an unusual solution to the problem of supplying correspondents with a way to file their observations.  A small boat, formerly a Coast Guard Ice Patrol, named Apache, was stripped and outfitted as a floating broadcast station. It was to do yeoman duty as the war rapidly advanced north to the Philippines and beyond.  In this chapter, again the authors celebrate the often nameless guys who made the whole thing work.  They are named here.

 

HERE COME THE MARINES    CHAPTER 10

In this chapter, the authors retell what has often been demonstrated.  It’s the “Can Do.” attitude of the Marines.  Most of the news broadcasters in this chapter, mostly in Marine enlisted uniforms, were known before the war and many became famous after.  The did so by overcoming obstacles.  This book has a copyright date of 1948.  How well they were to become known was moot then.

 

I have been at most of the islands mentioned in this chapter.  Acceptance of a commission in the field required an agreement to remain overseas for one year.  That was my case.  From AFRS headquarters on Oahu, I was assigned to solve problems on the islands of Guam, Saipan, Tinian and others.  Among the thrills were almost getting killed on Guam, a typhoon on Saipan and some gory sights on Tinian.

 

RADIO: WINGS OF THE SIGNAL CORPS     CHAPTER 11

This chapter brings to mind much of my military experience, primarily during the Korean War.  The writers of this chapter were dealing with 1947 conditions.  I was back in service in 1950, only two years later.  Not much had changed in the intervening time.  I was stationed at the Pentagon.  As mentioned in another document attached, my job was the installation of communications stations to supplement the already existing extensive system.  The statistics listed in this chapter were increased in the few years after the book.  The chapter gives details    about military communications few outside government know.  And the reporting here is accurate.  By the way, my office was in the basement of the Pentagon.  In the winter, some days I didn’t see the sun.

 

One change taking place in the 1950s was conversion from encrypted teletype traffic to encrypted voice.  One of my jobs was to dismantle the first encrypted voice facility, also located in the basement of the Pentagon.  The system had been configured and installed by Western Electric.  It had audio equipment which would make any audiophile drool.  And it was surplus.  The method used was quite sophisticated.  The human voice was split into multiple bands.  Some bands were inverted .  Others were not.  Which, how many and in what order was changed often and instantaneously.  Semiconductors changed all that.  I am not a historian about communications but do know this chapter is accurate.  General Stoner must have cooperated in it’s writing.

 

CONQUEST BY WIRELESS                        CHAPTER 12

In earlier chapters there was mention of psychological warfare by use of radio.  With the invasion of the continent nearing the Allies found the most powerful psy war weapon-truth.  The news bulletins and analyses were always sanitized to prevent giving help to Germany.  The people who read the news were well-known and trusted.  Radio materially shortened the European part of the war.

 

The story of the impact of news on morale, our citizens, allies and the enemy, Japan was best told in this chapter.  It concerned the mass raids on Yawata by B-29 Super fortresses.  It isn’t mentioned in the text but the bombers took off from Tinian Island in the Marianas.  That was the closest island to Japan which had two mile long runways.  That island was also the place where the Enola Gay took off to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.  You may recall that ship is now in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

 

The story of the planning for the announcement of the raid is a tribute to the thoughtful process necessary to accomplish the surprise.  Remember this was in the time before broadcast satellites were even a gleam in anyone’s eye.  Again the names of those who accomplished the feat are memorialized. 

 

HOW TO DEVELOP ANGLO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP DESPITE THE BBC CHAPTER 13

Listening to the BBC has been an occasional pastime since my first short wave receiver.  In my opinion the tradition there has always been maintenance of the gentry’s way of life.  The lack of cooperation and attempts at control of what was heard through BBC facilities was a real eye-opener for me.  Several business and pleasure trips to England didn’t prepare me for what I read. The present-day BBC is somewhat different.  There is some commercial television in England now.  The monopolistic situation in the normal BBC programming does still uphold the traditional British view of the world.  And, yes, the British still have different view of what’s humorous.  The local ASU TV Channel 8 does regularly show some BBC programs such as “Are You Being Served.”  To summarize my reaction to this chapter, I wonder how the US newsmen could cope with that situation.

THE A B C OF D-DAY                             CHAPTER 14

If any chapter of this book describes the difficulty of broadcasting news to this free nation, this one is it.  Any broadcast journalism student will find a dose of reality here.  This, too, should be required reading for anyone hoping to make a career in this field.  The authors accurately depict, in this chapter, the somewhat organized chaos of conflict reportage.  This chapter, too, is well written.

 

CORRESPONDENTS’ NOTEBOOK               CHAPTER 15

This chapter is about the human side of the correspondents and their problems of reporting the war.  Unfortunately, they had no status, no rank and had to overcome many obstacles to get close to the action.  They suffered the same fears of death or injury as did the military.  So this chapter has gathered the personal notebooks of some of the well-known correspondents in one place.  It is easy to empathize with their problems and to be proud that there were such.  Some of the descriptions are even today quite realistic.  I liked the tale of the climbings of Mount Vesuvius while it was erupting.

 

RADIO REPORTS THE VICTORIES                CHAPTER 16

The achievements and difficulties of communicating the defeat and surrender of both Germany and Japan are reported here.  The events weren’t widely separated by time, however, the relative ease of reporting the Japanese surrender shows how quickly methodology can be learned.  Two observations may be pertinent.  Most of us who were closely involved with the Pacific war referred to General Mc Arthur as” Dougout Doug”, not a very nice appelation.  We did grudgingly, admire the General’s communication expertise.  He did have a flair for self-aggrandizement.  The details of the arrangements for both announcements are well reported here.  It is nice to have the history of the events.  When so many of the important details were not under control of the communicators, it’s a miracle that the announcement ceremonies worked.  By the way, among the photos I am supplying with this review are two from Saipan.  There was located the transmitter which broadcast the surrender arrangements to Japan.  It was a technically beautiful setup.

 

 

STARDUST AND CHEVRONS                           CHAPTER 17

Like Chapter 15, this one reports on the personal side of the war.  This time, it concerns the stars who so generously and graciously gave of themselves during the war.  Even at this late time, more than 50 years ago, the humor is still there.  The poem “England’s a Lot Like Illinois” appealed to my wife.  We recall standing where Vick Knight did.  She asked me to make a copy for our scrap-book.