 The DuPont Cavalcade of America, starring Zayna Andrews in the story of a soldier who was ordered to bring home the moon. The play, whether it's a weapon on the Cavalcade of America sponsored by the DuPont Company, make her a better thing for better living through chemistry. Before we begin our play, here is helpful information about DuPont's PDC, the wall finish you can use right over wallpaper or any other wall surface. Although PDC is an oil type paint, you thin it with water and apply it with a large brush or roller. In less than one hour, your walls are dry and you have a beautiful velvety finish. It costs less than $3 to do the average room in one color. When you redecorate, it gets PDC. It's PD and it's easy. It's made by DuPont. And now the DuPont Cavalcade presents Weather is a Weapon, starring Zayna Andrews as Lieutenant Howard Jamison of the United States Army Air Force Weather Service. The 11 days ago at his capture, the German Field Marshal Carl von Rundstedt said, Weather is a weapon the German Army used with success, especially in their benefits. This battle of the Bulge, as you call it, might have changed the entire course of the war. Had it not been for the fact that the United States Air Force so quickly took advantage of the break and the weather. Weather was a weapon that fought the both sides during the Battle of the Bulge last December. When we said Newark, our Air Force knew it. And we know now behind our counter-attack were the unsung heroes of the Weather Service. Men will watch the skies. On a lonely outpost in Greenland, lies one of the weather eyes of the Army Air Forces, the Weather Service observation station. It is late afternoon in December 1944. Captain Faulkner, commanding officer of the post, is speaking to Lieutenant Howard Jamison. Lieutenant Jamison, you can get me in the more hot water than any man in this outfit. But Captain, I just... I know you got sick of weather reconnaissance and went flying off looking for German planes. But I brought back the weather report, sir. That was very considerate of you. Jamison, what makes you do things like this? You can understand them if you were a natural born show-off, but you aren't. You're clean-cut, intelligent. Besides, in the show-off escapades, you're as efficient a man as I've got in the outfit. I suppose I did look like a show-off going out to look for German planes and I'd been assigned a weather reconnaissance. But why do you do such things? You're not a rebel? Something on your mind? No, sir. Except that... Well, gone. I just sound kiddy, I suppose. But I want to get the war over. Go on home. I want to do it fast. I took a pilot training, so I could. But the two years I spent snooping around clouds and green and looking for weather, seems like all my time is being wasted. And my training, too. Too good for the job the Army's given you, huh? Oh, no, sir. Well, maybe you can get a different perspective from the ground. The ground? I'm grounding you, Jamison. I'm assigning you to maps and charts. Sergeant Gay will be your assistant. But, sir... That's all, dismissed. Visibility, one-eighth of a mile. Check. Wind direction, 200 degrees. Check. Speed, six miles per hour. Check. I bet I say check more at times in one year than a banker does in his whole lifetime. How'd you like to be in my shoes, Sergeant? I have to listen. Yeah. Two weeks of riding around his island on a jeep playing with wellet charts. Sergeant, I'm tired of getting me. Yeah, it's enough to make a guy hate his draft for it is. Hermits on a fertilized iceberg they're called green ones. You know, I know a hermit once. His name was Michael. Yeah. His name was Michael. Yeah, he was a title. He hermited for over 200 years. That's old, brother. No, no, really. He was 200 years old. Think what a big help it could be if he could remember the weather for 200 years. We could put it down and average it up, you know. Go on. You're clear from the time of Napoleon. That will be a very large average, Lieutenant. Very interesting. Check. I'm a nothing. Charts, maps, lines, circles, barographs, thermometers, and sergeants. Hello? Okay, Sergeant. Come on, back to the jeep. Yeah. Check. That's a great war. A fellow goes through pallet training and, oh, well, the moon lifting a silver rim above a cloud. And with a gradual swim coming into the blue with all her light. What's the matter? Why are you looking at me that way? Lieutenant, what you just said didn't make sense. That's poetry. Oh. I always recite poetry when things seem like they're too big for me. Monotony is strange. Why? Why? Oh, well, I don't know. Because I guess reciting poetry seems like such a straw trick for a guy like me. Keeps me from doing something that's worse. The lines I just recited were from John T. Never met him. The moon brought him to mind. What moon? The moon up there in the sky. Hey, sure enough. Yeah, but this cat says no moon. What? That cat says no, followed by ice, clouds, but no moon. Well, what do you know about that? Mother Nature's violating the rules. That's what happened more often. A few surprises and a weather job wouldn't be so bad. How do you figure it happened? Uh-oh. Going back again. All right, that down, Sergeant. With the date. And we're ahead of you, sir. It's already down. Look at her go, Sergeant. Pretty, isn't she? And the moon is she, you know. Feminine, fragile. Yeah, that's the same way I tell about Michael, Lieutenant. Even though the guy told me she was in here. Why, I even carved my initials on his back. Listen, what's that? It sounds like an airplane. It is an airplane. Oh, what's so surprising about that? It's a C-46 commando. It doesn't belong to this base. Hey, there's the walkie-talkie. She almost be lonely. I got it, I got it. Hello? Post-18, Lieutenant Jameson speaking. Yes, Captain? Yes, sir. We reported one. Sergeant, start your motor. We're going back to headquarters. Yes, sir. Uh, what's up, sir? I don't know, but the Captain sounds awfully excited. Let her go fast. Well, hold on to your commission, Lieutenant. Here we go again. You wanted me, Captain? Sit down, Jameson. Oh, I have the report here, sir. I, uh, hope nothing's wrong. On the contrary, you ought to be commended for your work these past two weeks. Oh, Lieutenant Jameson, meet Lieutenant Crane at the Army Air Force. Lieutenant Crane? Glad to know you, Jameson. I knew Crane was coming in with orders that you wouldn't want delayed, so I called as soon as his plane was sighted. Well, Jameson, you can now have something you've been aching for. A flying assignment. Hot dog! I mean, uh, yes, sir. You mean hot dog, Jameson? I know how you feel, man. Thanks, Captain. You'd better hold your thanks. This is a tough one. The Germans are broken through on the western front. The Germans have broken through? On Runsted counterattacks in Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, and France. Wow. The whole line is fluid. Every available man is needed up at the front. And I can fly combat there? Not exactly. You see, the Air Force is grounded because of weather conditions. Headquarters wants an observer for a very hazardous mission. A volunteer familiar with this area, since this is the place where weather is made for Europe. Yes. You've been here for two years, so naturally you're the man. However, you don't have to ask for it. The way the fog is settled down, flying across won't be any picnic. When do we leave, sir? By the way, it's Crane here. He thinks he can fly you to the French mainland in spite of prevailing conditions. You've got to make it, Captain. They can't wait on the other side. Well, if they can't wait on the other side, we can't wait here. Good luck, Jameson. Oh, Captain, I'm sorry to leave you, sir, and Sergeant Gale, but this is Greenland. It may be a great spot for predicting weather in Europe, but for me, you can give it back to the Eskimos. Good night. Here. Who is flying I've ever seen? Me, too. We'll make a belt. Sure. Hope like the golden paper's light. A dawn cheers our way. And still, the darker goes the night amidst the bright array. What thing? Huh? I didn't hear what you said. Oh. Oh, I wasn't saying anything. I was just deciding poetry. Poetry? Yeah. You can find poetry, release the tension. Why'd you ask that? Oh, every guy has his own way. Myself, and I'm scared, I've... I look at my kid's picture. That him? Yeah. A3 now. This is how I was when I left, one year old. That little guy? Uh, great. Greatest little guy in the world. How old are you, Crane? Me? 22. Hm. Now, Crane, do you think those Germans will get anywhere with a counterattack? Might if we don't get some better weather. I'm not getting it tonight. Well, that's bad. I, um... Go ahead. Recite poetry if you want to. No. I don't feel like reciting poetry. Um... I mean, the only reason I had the kid's picture out was that, well, it's 60th of August. Sure. Well, there's one thing I like about the air forces. You meet such great guys. Human guys. Major Haunen? Lieutenant Jameson and Crane reporting, sir. Welcome to France, man. You're Jameson? Yes. Crane? Right, sir. Glad to hear it. But you had a rough passage. What was in that? We wore our rubbers. Well, I've heard that you were resourceful, Jameson. Your captain stressed the fact rather strongly. Not Captain Faulkner. We asked him to pick a man for us. He said if there was such a thing as a one-man team, you'd be at... Captain Faulkner said that? He also said to be sure we kept you busy or you're trying things to do on your own hooks. Of course. That's no... Don't look so embarrassed. Don't have it. We need your kind of a man at this particular moment. Excuse me, Major Haunen. Here's a latest report from Baston. All right, Corporal. Just keep them coming. Yes, sir. Captain Crane. Look at this report. Mold is getting bigger all the time. Wow. Hey, that looks bad. We could put our planes in the air. We could stop them. Weather. Uh, excuse me. Major Haunen speaking. Well, Major? Still the same tunnel. There's some flying weather inside for at least 24 hours. This is getting to be an old story with you, Major. When will we have some flying weather? I'm afraid from the looks of things. This may go on for days. The low ceiling is all over the area. Come on, the low ceiling. Get my planes off the ground. If you don't, we stand to lose this whole front. Maybe even the war if we don't stop fun. Colonel, we don't make the weather. We just forecast it. I'll call back in half an hour. Jamison, you see what we're up against? Germans in front of us. The Air Force is at usher. They think we're manufacture weather. I wish we could, sir. Get now. Here are your orders. Take a look at this map here. The 101st Airborne is fighting in this area here. You see? You are to follow us closely as possible. With our protection, you and Crane can establish rights about air. See? Set up your mobile weather equipment at once. Take readings every half an hour. Radio on back and code. That way, if we break this on the way, we'll know about it. Right, sir. Crane, it's all clear to me, sir. Without our air power, the Germans can chase us out of France. So get us some flying weather, do you hear? And when you get there, make it a point to stay alive. We need those reports. I'm in the thick of it now, Crane. He's down. He's down nothing. We can't stay here and live. We get up. We won't live long. We're lucky. What if we'd gone with the 101st Airborne instead of following them? Yeah. And us poor guys. Cut off. Hey, there's an abandoned jeep. Let's make a try for it. If the thing runs and we get to it, maybe we can drive back to headquarters. Any part of the storm. Come on. Keep low. Don't run on the straight line. God, we're spiking your poetry, fella. Get out of that picture of a kid. She did my hand. She's been there ever since we got here. I've had a feeling my time... Down, Crane! Get down! Crane! You are listening to Dana Andrews as Lieutenant Howard Jamison in Weather is a Weapon. On the cavalcade of America, sponsored by the Dupont Company, make her a better thing for better living through chemistry. Now, here is the second part of our story. In a field weather outpost in France, a few days before Christmas 1944, Major Heineb in charge of local Air Force's Weather Service is in constant with an Air Force Colonel. The Battle of the Bows has been in progress for ten days. Ten stormy, cloudy days, during which all allied planes have been grounded. Well, Major? The answer is still the same, Colonel. Major Heineb, I've got a thousand planes waiting for the word, and all I get is excuses. You know the hundred and first airborne has been cut off, but they're lost, and our planes are sitting... Yes, Corporal. You asked me to sign contact with Lieutenant Jamison and Crane, sir. There's still no answers on them. Thanks. They must have been caught with a hundred and first. Nothing else, Corporal? Yes, sir. Two more good officers wasted. Hundreds of others, thousands of men, and we... Major, will you please stop shuffling those cards? These are analog maps. I know what they are. They contain a summary of daily weather maps for the past 50 years. Oh, that ancient history! You should stop trying to deal in the past and get the work of weather like all history repeats itself. Weather moves like the ocean, and highs and lows, pressure areas, wind currents. Tomorrow's weather is in this like a card somewhere. I don't care where you'll get it as long as it's fine weather. If you don't find worsted, we'll sweep it back to being this channel. Give me twenty seconds, Major. You know fine. Well, I'll leave you to your cards, Major. I hope you'll find that joker before morning. Twenty-second, 1906. Twenty-second, 1907. Major, sir. Is that Jameson here? Here? He's here? Oh, Jameson reporting, sir. Well, glad to see you, Boyle. You all right, Jameson? I mean, a hundred and first was cut off there. We trained in nine minutes to get out. We were running for deep. The train was killed. Howdy. You're a well-died. Well, Major, you look as though you had a rough time yourself. I am okay. Let's see your report, Jameson. Yes, sir. Not very encouraging, I'm afraid. No. No, it isn't. Well, it agrees with ours anyway. So, Boyle. Yes, sir. Send this report. The same old story day after day. You train from all over. Here it is. We're visibility. Greatest clouds fall. That's all, sir? That's all. That's it. Sending out such reports day after day while the Germans keep killing our men. We've got to get our planes up. What are the analogs out there? The usual December story. Fog, snow, clouds. The ones that knew it. That's why you stuck now. I wish I was out there. That's right, Jameson. But I belong out there. We still have a few other men out? There must be something I can do. I don't want any risk. Tell me what to do. What are you after? A miracle? Look at these reports. Every area, ceiling zero, 1010 saturation, sleep, snow all the way across the Atlantic, and still coming at it. Strong wind blowing from America tonight, tomorrow and the next day. Exactly the same as it's been for 10 days. I can't sleep. There's no use crying. Don't talk foolish. We can't eat this thing. We have to take weather as it comes. We can't do it. Major, I'm going back to the combat area. I told you we've got men there. Here, over there. But we don't have any at this point. Certainly not. That's miles inside the German lines. Are you tired of living, you think? No, sir, but train wasn't either. And we can't let the air force down. How do you expect to get inside the German lines? I can fly. You? In this weather? I can fly, believe me. And I can observe. I can look for a break that might be on its way. And if I find it, I'll recognize it because I'm a trained man. Major, you've got to give me permission. Suicide in this weather? No, sir. I've been flying in stupid batteries in Greenland for two years. Isn't gambling just one life against thousands worthwhile? Isn't it, sir? I've been able to find about two miles back. And a man here who'd like to go all alone, I think, came in with a replacement. That's about it. Deal? Hudson Gale? Oh, boy. Major, everything's got to be all right. That guy is good luck to me. Thanks, sir. Thanks for everything. Come back alive, my boy. I don't want to have you on my conscience for the rest of my days. And I don't want the infantry on my conscience. I'll be back, sir. Visibility? Four. Well, six. Wind direction? 150 degrees. Six. Damn, my life is sure monotonous, ain't it? Six. Six. Six. Those are fog monotonous. How's the gas situation? Low. Hey, Lieutenant, would I be impregnant if I suggested we turn back? You would. We're not turning back until we reach our destination. Our destination, eh? We're 50 miles over the German lines now, Lieutenant. What is our destination? A prison camp? Don't, Lieutenant. What's the wind speed now? Below 30. Below 30? Don't fool me, Sergeant. Oh, yes. Oh, but below 30, the wind is dying down. We're supposed to be having a high-west wind from North America. Yeah, I know. It's the book that weather progresses in a constant direction from North America to Europe and from the west to the east. Except when there's an east wind, that the east wind should bring up now. If that's why the west wind is dying. You expect to find an east wind at this time of the year in this weather? Look over there. Those clouds are shifting. Yeah. That might mean something. Hey, the wind is changing. But it's getting cloudy. You're in saturation 10-10. It makes a liar out of the rest of the stuff. Yeah. We're probably wrong. Yeah, we're hoping too hard. We're hoping so hard we think we see what we want to see. Maybe. But remember in Greenland? No. What? When we looked up and the moon was shining, making a monkey out of the rest of the cars. Yeah, I remember. And an east wind did that. Hmm? That's a different weather. Do you think- I'm not thinking, Sergeant. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed. If we could just see those clouds break. If we could just see the moon. Bright-eyed fancy hovering oars, gatters from her pictured iron, thoughts that breathe and words that burn. Hey, what'd you think? Oh, that's voluntary again, huh? I know you. No. Hey, wait a minute. I just got an idea. I'm coming up front to take it. And, darkness bearing down, gloomy, heavy-weighted, like some children's cheese with the trappings of war. Hey, I ain't super-stacious, Lieutenant. Don't think that. But remember in Greenland, when the moon started to come up and make a wire out of the charts, you talked to it. Remember? Like the moon was a beautiful day. I did? Yeah, to think to help, too. The moon got brighter. And I was wondering, well, could you talk to it again, Lieutenant? I could try. It'd have the same effect on your reciting portrait. It does hit you from blowing your top. I mean, well, you wouldn't be losing nothing. All right. I'll try, Sergeant. Yeah. I'll try. Come on. Your bright face, doll. There's a million of your boys waiting for you down there. A million of them. The sight of you would mean more to them than any pen up girl. They've gotten their collection. Come on, baby. Come on. Put those guys down there. I love your brother, that son. Your little cousins, the stars. And your boyfriends, too, the planets. And your elevations, your wind currents, and your lunar readings. I love them all, baby. All right. Sergeant, I guess I'm getting a little silly now, huh? Maybe you ought to get tough with it, Lieutenant. All right, then. I'll get tough. Listen, you. You're stuck up tea cake. Come out from behind those cumulonimbuses. If you don't. Come on, Lieutenant. Yeah? Maybe I'm seeing things. Nah. It's gone. What is it? Over there at nine o'clock. I really thought I saw something. Holy smoke. Yeah, it's back again. I see it. A beautiful bright past. Yeah. It looked as though somebody tore a hole in a black sky with a silver knife. Yeah, she's pretty all right. Oh, you did it, sweetheart. You glamorous hunk of heavenly girl. You did it. Gail, radio the major. Shoot. Now, let me look like a break in the straight-up. Good visibility, moving west toward our lines. You think I'll reach our lines by morning? Let's keep our fingers crossed, Sergeant. Hold tight. We're going back. And there was a narrow split in the clouds. As soon as we got to report, we alerted the Air Force over the entire area. I hope it keeps coming this way. It will. Oh, I feel like a kid on his first airplane ride. Yes, Corporal. Here's a summary of the whole area, sir. Well, here goes. Let's plan a map and see if conditions at other stations make your discovery a pre-captaining or something in which a forecast can be made. I've got my fingers crossed. Jameson. Jameson. It worked. The second time in 50 years that December 23rd shows clear weather. Here, here, here. Read it for yourself. I reckon I, blowing in from Siberia, getting stronger every minute. I knew it. And thanks to you, we'll get the jump of the Germans. One rump that left himself wide open if he didn't know this was coming. There goes the first wave, sir. Yes. And look. Look out this window here. Holy cow. Bombers, fighters, ours. Boy, oh boy. We got it. Wide open, Jameson. Can I send the report, sir? At once. This is the one I've been wanting to send. Cahalan, Luxembourg, Belgium, France. December 23, 1944. Unlimited ceiling, good visibility, clear and cold. December 24, the same. Yes, sir. And December 25th, American Christmas from the Air Force is weather, sir. Our thanks to you, Dana Andrew, and to all members of tonight's Dupont Cavalcade cast. Now, here is Game Whitman. War is giving Americans, in fact, the world a new appreciation of the value of scientific research. From the achievements of America's scientists have come the weapon with which our troops meet the challenge of enemy weapons. Radar, rocket, amphibious tanks, jet planes, mines that can be set off at a distance by dialing their number on a telephone. These have come from the Office of Scientific Research and Development. From university laboratories, from scientists in the Army, Navy, and the other branches of the government, and in industry. And when the full story is told after the war, their achievement will be even more fabulous than the part of it we already know. The great work these men of science have accomplished is an illustration of the kind of research followed in peacetime throughout American industry. The chemical industry, the electrical industry, the glass industry, the steel industry. Every field which makes use of science, which today means just about every field there is. It's an illustration of the kind of research DuPont knows so well and puts into practice to bring you better things for better living. One specific thing peacetime research at DuPont is working is to help lower the prices you pay. For instance, the price of neoprene, DuPont's chemical rubber, has decreased 73% from the time it was introduced commercially in 1931. The infected side that shows promise of being the best ever is still new, but the price has already been cut 62%. Weatherproof adhesives have been reduced 25%. The price of freon, DuPont's safe refrigerant, which you probably have in your refrigerator, is about a third of what it used to be. And there are many other examples among chemicals less familiar to you. You'll probably never buy any urea, for instance, but manufacturers of plastics buy it. The United States used to import all its crystal urea. Now DuPont makes it, and the price has been reduced more than 20%. Research is caused cannot do the whole job. Engineers must build the plants to turn research development into chemical realities. Management, service departments, laboratories, foremen, the girl watching the trembling needle of a gate are all partners in efficient production. They're working together results in greater efficiency, and that efficiency is reflected in the decrease in prices. You get the benefit of these lower prices in DuPont, better thing for better living through chemistry. Next week the DuPont cable will bring you an amusing and moving story about doctors who care for our fighting men and the seabees who bill for them. It's the story of a small group of gallant men fighting against overwhelming odds to save hundreds of lives, hampered by jungles but aided by demons. Our star will be Robert Young, and our title, How to Build Paradise. Dana Andrews may soon be seen in the 20th Century Fox Technicolor production, State Fair. The music for tonight's DuPont cable trade was composed and conducted by Robert Ambruster. Our cable trade play was written by Charles Rabiner based on factual material supplied by the United States Army Air Force's Weather Service. This is Frank Graham inviting you to listen next week to Robert Young's In How to Build Paradise on the cable trade of America brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is the National Broadcasting Company.