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6,1. Men of tin Air Waves WatchNation’s Radio Messages at All TimesSince Pearl Harbor, the G-Men Of the aif waves, better known asR, men (since theg belong tothe Radio Intelligence Departmentof the Federal Communications infliCommission) have been breakingup spy rings, locating lost bombers, •fling t'Jatrofling the ether, with such antistic success that when all of their war record and achievementscan be told no fiction writer or comic Strip artist can equal their fact with even the wildest fancy.When the war broke out Dec. 7, 1041, a wave of sabotage and espionage in this .country wasgenerally expected. It never came. the invasion took p' June 6 this year, another outbreakof pro-Axis wrecking and sabotage was expected. It never occurred Give the G-men their credit. But the RID men should get theirs too. And they are getting theirs as the record of this war unrolls.It was the RID which two days before Pearl Harbor in almost les3 time than it takes to tell it, traced suspicious radio messages to the German Embassy in Washington and put that transmission station out of commission before it had sent a single message to Herr Goebbels.RID has discovered and closed some 380 illegal radio stations. It has located or helped to locate illegal stations not only in the Western Hemisphere but in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It helpei South American nations round up more than 200 Axis spies and seize their powerful transmitters.But RID does more than track down radio espionage. In peacetime it gained experience and proficiency in counter radio espionage by detecting rum runners, by spotting race track gamblers. In wartime it has located hundreds of lost planes, many of them military, that otherwise would have been lost. It has discovered and eliminated the source of interference to commercial as 'well as military radio service.In one case the mysterious jamming of radio communication in Chicago's municipal airport control tower was traced to a defective neon sign on a near-by tavern. In another case in Hawaii (tho RID men tell this on themselves) suspicious radio activity that looked like pretty important stuff was traced to—crickets.M-G-M has produced a thrilling short which is being shown in the nation's movie houses called “Patrolling the Ether. It publicizes RID activities and gives due credit to the nation’s thousands of amateur radio “hams” who are do • ing their bit in policing the air waves.The hero of RID—since the public must have a hero—is quiet efficient, bashful George Sterling., a former Peaks Island, Maine, boy who has been tinkering with radio ever since he built bis first amateur set in 1908. He heads the RID division of the FCC. He is RID's Edgar Hoover. He is a super (if not a super-duper) policeman. His beat is not Main Street, but the universe.Obviously this is a job that needs to be well organized. It is. These tremendous open spaces of ether are patrolled by RID 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, year after year. It is done by12 primary monitoring stationsand 59 secondary ones stategically located through out the United States, its territories and possessions—4 in Alaska, 11 in Hawaii.There are two intelligence centers, one in the East located at Washington, the other in the West at San Leandro, Cahf. There is athird center in Hawaii. In addition RID has 50 mobile units, or prowl cars, just like ordinary passenger cars so as not to arouse suspicion, which, dispatched to the scene of suspicious radio signals, can narrow a sending station down to a specific house. With a little pocket detection device called tho “sniffer, RID men can then track down a. clandestine radio to tho specific room, attic, basement, or secret hideout,A rum-running case that the RID cracked in 1929 equals anything Hollywood can produce. Forest Redfern, RID veteran, spotted a high-powered station that only went on the air a matter of seconds each day. After a month he had caught enough of its communications to make out 75 or 80 code words. A fortnight later he was able to translate the code and break up a New Jersey ring of rum runners. Thirty men were arrested.But the climax of the story came when the illicit operator was seized sending a message. Redfern stepped in, took over, and without missing a letter finished sending the illicit message. Later he lured the rum runner to port and the Coast Guard seized the vessel.Finding lost aircraft and helping find parties lost at sea is another RID activity chock-full of drama. The plane on which Kay Francis was returning from Africa, where she had been entertaining the troops, reported itself lost at sea. Its gas gauge was falling fast. Quickly, the RID gots its monitoring stations tuning in on the plane’s signals. Even more quickly it got the “fix” on the plane, which the Civil Aeronautics Administration then relayed to the pilot. A second “fix” was soon taken and shortly the plane landed safely at Alma, Georgia. The next night, appearing on a radio program, so Mr. Sterling tells us, Miss Francis asked for a request song ■—“Coming In On a Wing and a Prayer.”Hardly a week goos by that the RID doesn’t come to the rescue of some lost plane. It has helped locate well over 500 of them. Last January a B-24 bomber lost its bearings somewhere in the Southeast. An Army ground station in Contact with it ordered the crew to bail out. But before they could, the RID came in with a “fix, and, guided by Army Communications and continuing “fixes” by the RID, it made a Florida airfield.Last May Civil Aeronautics Administration, Tucson, called and reported a ship lost. The pilot was positive he was northeast of El Paso. The RID took the ship's bearing and found it south of Douglas, Alizona. This was way off from the pilot’s report. He insisted he knew' where he was and made an emergency landing in a vacant lot. The RID fix was found right, and if acted on by the pilot he could have landed at the Douglas airfield.The RID has located dozens of ships in the Pacific. The Seventh Air Force in Hawaii asked for bearings on a plane. It had landed somewhere off the Island of Ka-hoolawe. A Navy destroyer and aircraft rescued the plane and crew within five miles of the “fix” provided by the RID.The RID had its hand in break-building and try to make contact with other American troops. This they did, reluctantly, leaving the more seriously wounded,' who being up the submarine menace in the Caribbean back in 1941. It unearthed a ring including the “king of Belize, a shipping exe-IS YOUR!HELPINGYES... IF YOU 1Who Can Save PaperBaker Dry Cl.an.rButch.r Groc8rConf.etlon.ry LaundryDry Good* HardwareDruggistPlumberRadioEvery storekeeper can save a s today as the paper crisis calls tions of waste paper!All around your store thei should be collected and turnet of the 700,000 articles our tDon't burn any paper. Don bit count for victory .. . and tSAVEABUriDLf fl WFfKSAVISAVF SOMF flflYS IIFFU. $. Victorcutive, which had been refueling German submarines.The RID has fixed the position of a lifeboat with 31 survivors. It has directed rescuers to marooned Army fliers on a frozen lake in northern Quebec.The RID watches enemy alien internment and prisoner camps at request of the War Relocation Authority and the Army. Just prior to the Tule Lake riot last year a station was heard broadcasting Japanese programs from that region. The operator was quickly located and later was sentenced to federal prison.RID files are full of equally thrilling, fascinating and daring experiences as these. But practically all of them are locked up for the duration. Hollywood, however, is already eyeing those files with anticipation. When they crack them they will have struck pure gold.—The Christian Science Monitor£iiimiiinai mi hiiiiiiii.ii i mi i in hi i ivniiiiai mii mm mi **».*•Dr. J. L. Shanklinannounces the opening Iof his office for the ipractice of jjGeneral Dentistry jin tho =MMedical and Professional §Building \631 Water Street |TELEPHONE 237 I...................................................
Newspaper Details
Kerrville Mountain Sun
Kerrville, Texas, US
Thu, Sep 21, 1944
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Judith R.
USA 08 May 2018
Other Publications Near Kerrville, Texas
Kerrville Times
Hill View Times
Kerrville Mountain Sun
Kerrville Daily Times
