 proudly we hail from New York City where the American stage begins here is another program with a cast of outstanding players public service time has been made available by this station for your Air Force to bring you this story as proudly we hail another airman of the United States Air Force our story is entitled the captain and the kid this is the story of a young man who had something he wanted to prove to the world but most of all to prove to himself as proudly we hail the United States Air Force our first act curtain will rise in just one moment here's important news for all like servicemen you may be qualified to enlist in the United States Air Force at a higher grade and with higher pay than you may realize right now the Air Force needs men who are experienced in critical skills skills required to keep America's air defense strong if you have training in these skills then the Air Force wants you and they'll put you right on the job so for full details you ride or visit your nearest Air Force recruiter right away ask him for the folder for prior servicemen today and tomorrow you're better off in the United States Air Force out of all the days a person lives in the lifetime how many does he remember which are the ones that really count I remember a special day that could have been just another routine day I was sitting before a radar scope in a GCA van on an Air Force base in Germany my team chief and I commissioned officer in charge Sergeant Miller and I just affected the play into the field and there was nothing doing but to me already it was a little more than that for a few minutes before coming yeah it's like talking Billy what he wants not time to be relieved yet what's up like hi Tom I got something for you for me yep here you are by order of the squadron commander and his best wishes for a happy birthday a birthday cake what do you know yeah the message you made a guy should as well but how come something new major Jenkins wants every man from now on to get a cake on his birthday well congratulations thanks I come on fellas have a piece what do you think I'm hanging around for 20 21 candles 21 years old well Tom you are as of today a man I had a lot of respect for Sergeant Miller but I was afraid he was off his glide path it takes a lot more than 21 candles to prove that one is a man and if there's anyone who wants to know that it's me it's something I'd learn especially within the past two years two years I remember that day the letter came to our house I've had a high school about a year then and was holding out a job as a grocery clerk my father and I lived alone that morning I was first one up bacon smells good Tom yeah you might as well sit down dad I've got breakfast about ready okay mailing it huh there's a letter for you from Dottie it's about time hadn't had one for a while I guess he's got so much to do there in New York he doesn't get the time well I'll be he's coming home on Sunday for one day and she's bringing along her fiance you mean she's getting married yes Kennedy's his name captain in the Air Force he wants us to meet him before they get married she sure doesn't waste any Kennedy captain Jim Kennedy yes what's the matter you know him know him well who doesn't I mean who hasn't heard of him he's just about the top fighter pilot in Korea that song boy I've certainly got a hand into my sister nothing but the best for her I could hardly wait for that Sunday to arrive where I was not only excited that our family would soon have a real hero in it but I had something I wanted to talk to him about something that occupied my thoughts for the past year but ours is a small town word gets around fast there after Dottie and the captain arrived our house was filled all day long with visitors so I didn't have a chance to talk to him like until my father took us out to arrest us for supper well Jim I haven't had an opportunity to say it before but I'll be mighty glad to call you my son-in-law thank you sir I hope I'll be able to make Dottie happy my daughter always was one for his bringing surprises when I tell us about your plans when you're getting married a month from today and that is a very good chance you might get assigned to a base not far from here fine fine so maybe we'll get an opportunity to visit quite often I'd like to get to know you and and Dottie's kid brother here a little better say how old are you anyway 19 19 you surely don't look at that's because he's got a turned up nose but no matter how old he gets he'll still always be my and my kid brother-in-law right I guess so if they think captain I'd like to talk to you for sure kid many times oh not not him he's got to be at Betty's house in 10 minutes we better go maybe later huh yeah okay see you see you later Mr. Phillips along kid was like a deadest drill flipping and hitting a nurse captain Tandy was everything I'd imagine them to be Paul and lean with the air of a man who knew his business there was only one defect and to me at that time it was a big one I'll be seeing you kid they lay in bed that night it's going over and over in my mind I wasn't a kid anymore I was 19 years old and sick of working in a grocery store I get me three pounds of bananas kid make it two dozen eggs kid kid kid well by the time I fell asleep I'd come to a decision so you want to enlist in the Air Force yes you know I talked to you about it before yes but what made you finally decide but I don't have to ask captain yeah not that I spoke to him about it I didn't have a chance my understanding you find champs he sure is but that's not the only reason I just don't see myself getting anywhere putting cans on a shelf sure what you want go ahead and join up just remember this wherever you go or whatever you do sign here Phillips okay now report here Thursday at 1 p.m. that'll be at Samson Air Force base for fire Samson basic training 11 weeks from dawn to dusk medical and dental examination issue of uniforms grill learning Air Force regulation losing weight or gaining it whatever is needed to make it physically trim then finally 14 after two tests followed by career counseling interview it's a show you quit thinking intelligence got steady nerve good vocabulary you could fit many jobs in the Air Force with men like you and eat it maybe AAC Airways and Air Communications it wasn't easy we learned air traffic regulation weather radar fundamentals air traffic control procedure theory of flight radar scope operation with many periods of actual operators practice during this you'll be just in scope alignment phrase the allergy use of computers handling aircrafts and courtesy to the pilot okay Phillips you're next sitting on the stool before the radar sets watching this week from my asthma and elevation scope giving information by radio to a pilot in this plane well what can I say except that it's selling bananas all hollering after 18 weeks of intensive training we were graduated and got our next assignment extra housing Germany nice trip overseas but you got a 15 day leave coming to look on home yes I can but I'm gonna stop somewhere else first oh this is a surprise hi your daddy I have a 15 day leave but I stopped by my way home to say hello oh I'm glad you will be home in a few minutes how's he doing fine just fine now let me look at you have you grown a lot you look so tall no I just standing straighter I guess well whatever you know when I saw you there in the doorway in your blue uniform you look so wonderful that if I've been an airman I'd have saluted you dotting may have been a little over enthusiastic but I have to admit that I I felt kind of good to I come a long way the seven months I've been in the Air Force I was by now a qualified GPA operator sure I did stand straight when I wore that blue uniform but I have plenty of reason to do so when I was hoping Captain Jim would maybe look at me with different eyes too but I guess I was hoping a little too much it's sure good to see you again you're looking great kid nice captain for your DCA well kid if you don't know it already you're in one of the greatest outfits in the Air Force and I'm speaking from personal experience many of the time they helped to bring me down out of the soup they did a great job in Korea but where I really learned to appreciate him was during the Berlin airlift why I remember once kids looking back now I see that I was a self-fettered dope but to hear the man I admired so much still refer to me as kid despite the fact that I was now a fellow airman sort of got me otherwise my visit was a pleasant one when I left I vowed to myself that one day he stopped calling me kid goodbye Tom say hello to dad for a long kid if you ever get to land school say hello to everybody my father was glad to see me when I got home and just as proud of me as daddy it's been the days went fast and before I realized it I was on a plane flying toward my first assignment Esther house in Air Force Base Germany within 24 hours I was reporting to the non-commissioned officer in charge DCA section of a 618th AACS squadron Master Sergeant Miller career man 11 years in the service a man who knew what it was doing where it was going and how he was going to get there but a man who could take the time to make a newcomer feel right at home yes our DCA sections like a family here Tom I know you're gonna fit right in I hope so Sergeant there's one thing I'd like to remember though and that is that our unit has a reputation among the pilots of this whole continent they know when they come in here that they've got an outfit they can depend on 100% so proud of that reputation I guess you have a right to start and you will too now you're fresh out of school right yeah okay so I'll assign you to a team with an experienced manager partner and team chief airman first-class Joe Reynolds the report out to the van at 0800 hours tomorrow. Glad to have you Philip. Nate Johnson. Hi Philip. Hi. You'll replace Johnson after you get used to our setup here. Normally we're supposed to have three man teams but it seems there aren't enough DCA men in the Air Force to go around. Hey come on grab a stool out familiarize you with the local terrain features. Air traffic control uses the same procedures everywhere but there are features individual to each station such as emergency procedures local navigational aids and of course the layouts of the runways taxiways and so forth. I spent the next week poking these things into my head getting myself used to the feel of the equipment I had to work with. I want to keep the elevation gain control just so the center of the aircraft's target is illuminated and ride down the gain as the aircraft nears touchdown. Try it with how's this Joe. Okay. Good good. Otherwise your target's gonna bloom on it. Yeah that's fine. Well Philip she's done pretty well as traffic director. You want to try a final controller position? Final controller position what you might call the payoff in DCA. The final controller sitting before his precise radar scope with guidelines marching the glide path to the runway. All you have to do is to keep the little greenish white blip moving down those two lines. You won't have any trouble. Just follow SOP. SOP standard operating procedure. Everything we do and say is written down for us in black and white and drilled into our heads until it becomes a part of us. I was perfectly calm and ready for anything except the one thing that did happen when Joe Reynolds picked up the phone and called squadron headquarters. Hello Sergeant Miller. Reynolds here. Fine. I just wanted to let you know that I put the kid on final control. Maybe if it hadn't been that this is my first DCA run in an operating unit and that I was a little more tense than I realized I might have disregarded what Reynolds called me. But it hit me especially hard because I wasn't expecting it. Just then a call came through for an approach landing assist. One that turned out to be a little different than I expected. You're listening to the proudly we held production of the captain and the kid and we will return for our second act in just one moment. Are you a service veteran with a service game skill that's just going to waste if you possess one of the critical skills needed to keep America's air defense strong. You can put that experience to work in the Air Force and do so at a higher grade and with higher pay than you may realize for full details. You ride or visit your nearest Air Force recruiter as for the prior service man's folder. This folder will show you why today and tomorrow you're better off in the United States Air Force. This is a tower. We have a run for you DCA. Let's bring them to have you available. Saddle age. Why is it that something has happened at the worst possible time. It worked side by side with Joe Reynolds for a month. It was OK and we got along. But at all that time why do they have to pick that particular moment to say what he did. He'd never done it before. Boy it sure irritated me. Well I put it out of my mind when the call came and DCA you have to. You've got enough to occupy you. I corrected the gain on the precision scope and waited until Joe brought the target of the twenty six into the traffic pattern to the point of what. Whitehorse Jack distance from touchdown seven miles change to DCA final controller on channel hotels one three four point one mega cycles and stand by over. This is Whitehorse Jack. Whitehorse Jack. This is the house in DCA final controller. Turn right heading zero four zero. Maintain present altitude. How do you hear me over. This is Whitehorse Jack. Right heading zero four zero receiving loud and clear over whatever nervousness I might have had vanished as I settled into my school. But before I started my final approach to this. This is Whitehorse Jack. I have a simulated emergency one engine out and feathered. This is simulated a training flight emergency and on my first try at final controlling out of the corner of my eye I saw Reynolds watching me for any signs of panic or nervous but I wasn't upset by the pilot's call. I knew the emergency procedures backwards and forward. I repeat this is simulated over Whitehorse Jack. Can you maintain your altitude over. This is Whitehorse Jack affirmative over Whitehorse Jack will give you a gear check within three miles on final distance from touchdown five and a half miles. Your heading of zero four zero is good. Twenty feet above slide path down a little. Turn right to degree. You are over the end of the runway. Take over for landing. This is Escherhaus and DCA final controller out. Touchdown. You made it nice. Yeah. You did OK kid. OK. Can it. I said can it. What's eating you. Nothing. Now come on let's give will you. There's not much room to turn around in here and I don't want to have to rub elbows with a grudge. Did I do something to your kid. What's rental. There's something I want to get straight with you. Stop calling me kid. My name is airman second class Phillips and that's the way I want to be referred to from now on. Get it. Sure I get it. That's the way you want it. I'm in second class. That's the way I realized that I've been unjust with Reynolds that he hadn't meant anything by calling the kid. It was just full pride. So the next morning at breakfast I asked me to sugar please go. Sure. Thanks. Joe. Something I want to say to you. By the way Tom your team chief Reynolds here is going to be transferred to another team. Yes torture. Yes you'll be getting another partner. Me. You. How come. DCA sections losing some men I've got to fill in. Back to the old thought mind they thought. Don't worry I won't mind at all. No sir. Is that the only reason you're teaming up with me. Sure it is. They say Tom. You wanted to talk to me about something. Yeah. Yeah I did. But not anymore. Not anymore. I was the kind of guy in those days that had jumped at the first conclusion I'd come to. Sergeant Miller seemed a little evasive to me so I figured right away that Reynolds had asked for a transfer and that the sergeant had decided to check me first hand to see if I was hard to get along with. As it turned out I got along well with Sergeant Miller especially after one day when he found out something about me. And I learned something about myself. So you're Captain Jim Gemini's brother-in-law. That's right sorry. You know him then I know him and I talked him down many times during the Berlin airlift. You did. You could drop out the shack and thank us a lot of times after the run. How's he doing anyway. According to my sister's letter is great. That's fine. Say hello to him in your next letter for me. Sure well sorry. Being in C.O.I.C. as it's good point but there's nothing like sitting out here doing this sort of regret having to go back to my desk again. Going back. You mean you're not going to be working with me anymore. Not right away. A few weeks. Things are straightened out now and you'll be getting another partner again. Oh Joe Reynolds. Reynolds why don't get it. Guess what. Listen Sergeant didn't Reynolds tell you I was hard to get along with. No of course not. What. Didn't he tell you I was hard to get along with. Of course not. What. Didn't you take his place to a check meal. I wanted to give you a check all right for a different reason. One of my team chief is going to be transferred in about a month. I'll have to make a recommendation for someone to take his place. What I've seen of you from the scores of the airman proficiency test. Designed to think that you have a chance to be it. That was it. Oh what a wobble head I am. I was what. For something I didn't didn't do. It sure is well of you to write me so high in your book. Being a team chief I never expect anything like that. That's the way it is in the ACS. Anyone who can do the job best gets it. Anyway you're sure and do for a new rating. Gosh I just don't know what to say. Save it. You're only getting what you deserve. I wasn't so sure about that. But then Sergeant Miller was seeking only from the military point of view. I could hardly wait till my ship was over and I had a chance to get back to the barracks. Luckily Joe Reynolds was there. Look Tom you don't have to apologize. But now that I'm soon going to be working with you again. Well I'm sure glad there's nothing between us anymore. You know that yeah. Sergeant Miller told me a little while ago. He also said it might not be for long. That you'd probably move up the ladder. He did huh. Well all I can say is we've seen she's got to stick together. Come on. Let me treat you to a coke. Baring a grudge can be an awful burden but you don't realize it until it's gone. Joe and I had a good time with the service of that knife listening to dad's records and watching TV. German style. When I got back to the barracks I sat down and wrote a letter to my dad and my sister. Letting him know the good news. And just today this morning I got a letter from Dottie. With a post script by Captain Jim. You'll always like to hear from you. Now's dad. Hi kid. You're sure moving along fast. You better watch out or you'll be a general before you know it. He's hoping I'll see you soon. You're Jim. Well now it was a nice letter but we're back to where the cake arrived. I know that the captain had still called me kid. Sure I saw the jab when I read it but it didn't bother me as much as it once had. And twenty one candles on a birthday cake. Maybe it meant I was growing up at last. But I've learned that what kind of was what is inside of you. What you are. No matter which name people call you by. GCA. Yeah. OK. Channel Baker. Tom Paul from log roll CGI. They're vectoring attention F-86D to us. He's low on fuel. I just enough to make it here. I channelized the channel Baker while our control tower brought the 86 dog into our flight pattern. But on the precision scope acting as final controller. So Sergeant Miller would vector in the approach link. We had to be careful. All other aircraft had to be cleared from the area. We had to see to it that the product maneuvered as little as possible in order to conserve his precious fuel within minutes. Rat Top Joe. This is Esther housing power cleared for GCA. Contact Esther housing GCA on channel one. George one three six point eight zero. If you lose radio contact revert to this frequency. Over. This is Rat Top Joe Welco. Channel George out. Esther housing GCA is Rat Top Joe out. Rat Top Joe this is Esther housing GCA. Turn right heading one eight zero for identification over. Sergeant Miller's teammate long enough to know exactly his manner of operating down to his last voice inflection. He was always the same emergency or not except now. For some reason I had a feeling there was something bothering him. Maybe I was imagining things but while he brought a plane closer he glassed me once in a while as if he was expecting something. Get ready Tom I'm switching him to your channel. Right. Tom. Yes. I'll tell you later. Rat Top Joe this is Esther housing GCA. Wondered what was eating it. But I'd other things to think about then the product was changing to my channel. Rat Top Joe this is Esther housing final controller. Turn left heading zero four zero. Maintain your present altitude. How do you hear me over. Joe Welco leaving you loud and clear over. He only had no fuel for one run. No spot for a missed approach. All I had to do was to follow the book if I had hundreds of time. Steady. Down the glass. Closer. You are on the glass has half a mile to touch down. Look ahead for a landing runway straight ahead. Quarter mile to touch down. 20 feet above slide path down a little. You are over the end of the runway takeover for landing. This is Esther housing GCA final controller. Out. Well it's minutes later. The last run is now history written down in our operating law. And an hour is in the hottest memory. Hey Sarge. What did you want to tell me before. Oh tell you in a minute. Hello. Yeah. What is it. Oh it is. George. Okay. Right. I guess no one has to tell you any more time. Here he is now. Come in Captain. I recognize your voice as soon as I heard it. Hello Sergeant. Good to see you again. Now where is that brother-in-law of mine. Captain Jim. How in the world. Very simple. The airport decided they could use me over here so here I am. How are you. You're looking great. There isn't too much time. The captain has to get back to his base. Just time enough to exchange greetings and some information. Sorry I've got to run off like this. But we'll get together again soon. Tom. Well. Nice seeing you. Sure was. Long. Oh. By the way Tom. It was a good run. Good run. Bye. Hey. Did you hear what he called me. He called me Tom. What's so unusual about that. Plenty. Plenty. Come on. Let's finish the stage. A man is 21 only once in his life. If you're a next serviceman experienced in a critical skill needed to keep America's air defense strong. More than you're in luck. The career incentive act opens up new opportunities in the Air Force to veterans of all the armed forces. If you possess one of the skills the Air Force needs. You may qualify for the United States Air Force and in a gray that'll be a real pleasant surprise for complete details. You ride or visit your nearest Air Force recruiter today and tomorrow. You're better off in the United States Air Force. This has been another program on proudly we hail presented transcribed in cooperation with this radio station proudly we hail is produced by the recruiting publicity center in New York for the United States Air Force. And this is Dick Herbert speaking inviting you to tune in the same station next week for another interesting story on proudly we hail.