News Letter 1941 Jul-Dec - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Stopping the Enemy
The Air Defense System In Aedon
By Capt. Oliver F. Holden
THE air defense test of the First Interceptor
Command, conducted along the Atlantic Coast
during OCtober, was a revelation not only to civilians
but to Army and Air Forces personnel of all
ranks.
Outside the small group which has been working
for years in development of the system, belief is
widespread that it has been borrowed outright from
the British. Actually the two systems were developed
along parallel lines and while there have
been interchanges of inforDBtion, the Amer ican system
of aircraft warning in the continental United
States has no duplicate in the world and cannot
have.
The reason is that the United States has more
telephones than all the rest of the world put together,
which means a greater diffusion of commercial
telephones, a greater coverage of territo~y.
The American aircraft warning system is built upon
a framework provided by the existence in this
country of a single company, the American Telephone
and Telegraph Company, which with its subsidiaries
operates a unified system of communications
covering most of the continent, with few
blind spots outside of such areas as the Southwestern
desert.
Off icers Aa.:red
The system itself amazed those who saw it for
the first time. High-ranking officers from Washington
and important officials of the civilian defense
organization were -heard to murmur that it
was like something Orson Welles might have concocted.
There was an important difference, a difference
which Maj. Gen. Herbert A. Dargue, commanding
general of the First Air Force, put into
two words in a comment to Brig. Gen. John C.
MeDonnell, commanding the First Interceptor Command.
They were: "It works."
Here's how it works:
Forty thousand observers, civilian volunteers,
took part in the test at 1,600 observation postsdistributed
five to eight miles apart in a strip
averaging 125 miles in width from North of Boston
to South of Norfolk.
At each observation post one or more observers
was on duty at all times, shifts being arranged
locally. Each observation post was located with
convenience to a telephone as a prime requisite.
When a plane of any kind passed within sight or
sound of an observation post the observer noted,
on a form supplied for the purpose, the nUDber of
planes observed; whether they were single-motored,
bi-motored, muiti-motored or unknown; whether
"very high", ..high", II low", "very low" or "unknown'
(no effort to estimate in feet) whether
seen or heard, direction in which sighted, estimated
distance from the post and direction in
which flying. The observer might be lifting the
receiver of his telephone while jotting this down.
B..
Telephone Right-Of-Way
The switchboard light for an observer's telephone
is of a special color, so the switchboard
operator will know the caller is entitled to send
a collect telephone call to the army with no delay.
An "army f lash" cannot be sent on other
telephones. If this were not so patriotic American
citizens, if they thought they had sighted an
enemy, would Jam the telephone system with so DBny
messages that none could get through. It would be
cCllllp8rable with the packing of French and Belgian
roads with refugees who unwittingly aided their
enemies by creating traffic Jams that blocked the
movement of their own troops.
The observer, however, using his regular home or
office telephone, calls "Army Fl..h!" The operator
asks no questions; she connects him with the
local long distance board where he is immediately
connected with a direct wire to the nearest filter
board.
Ten seconds, on the average, after he says" Army
Flash" a-plotter at the Filter Board replies
"Army. Go ahead, please."
So he reads his notations from the slip of papaper.
No time wasted in discussion; no explanations.
If he says "four planes" she places a small disk
the size of a shirt button, bearing the number
"4", upon a black spot on the Filter Board, which
is really an irregularly shaped table constituting
a one-inch to one-mile map of the filter area.
The black spot indicates the location of the observation
post.
.Pi.-"
8m. TJPe And Location
If he says "multi-motored" she adjusts the
bottom part of a "piJl' (small movable standard) in
her hands so that the letter ..,.is upperlllOSt. If
he reports "Very high" she adjusts the middle s.ction
to show "VH'. If he reports "Seed' she ad-
Justs the point of the pip to show green. If the
NO PEMBER
r94'
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