 Proudly we hail. 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 Army and your Air Force to bring you this story as proudly we hail the pioneers of air safety. This entitled A Medal for Joe. A story of the exciting early days of flying and of the men who risk their lives for safety. Our first act curtain will rise in just a moment but first America looks up to her men in the sky. Yes our country looks up to the young men thundering their way to new glory in the skies. There's is the task held in high esteem by the entire nation. You are needed to swell their ranks and can do so by enrolling now in the aviation cadet training program of the United States Air Force. If you're between the ages of 19 and 26 and a half have had two or more years of college and are otherwise qualified visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Station and ask about the aviation cadet training program. Do it today. And now your Army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production A Medal for Joe. A cup of coffee and I'd explode. Gee that was a wonderful dinner Julie. You're even a better cook than I remember. Well it's been a long time since I had a chance to show off in the kitchen for you. Yeah it has been a long time hasn't it and yet it seems like just a couple of hours ago since we were all stationed in Texas and I was barging in on you and Bob. Now I must have eaten every dinner at your house two years ago. Two years ago. Off a lot has happened since then. Sure has. Bob and I were on our feet then instead of in the air. Remember how we both signed up for the air service on the same day. Remember. I'll never forget it. A date was August twenty seven nineteen nineteen. Our anniversary. I was afraid then it. Now what's there to be afraid of most accidents happen in the home. People slip in the bathtub or fall down. Sometimes I can't help but be a little worried. Haven't you heard anything from the field. No I called about five just before you got here. Said the flight was delayed ran into some bad weather over the mountain. Well I don't think there's anything to worry about. If something was wrong you'd be getting a call from the field. Those boys are pretty good about keeping everybody up to date. Yeah I know. Now let's just forget about any silly worries. Let's just think about how surprised Bob will be when he gets home and finds that Ed Hoff. Oh major Hoffman that is is right here in his own quarters at McCook Field. You know by the way I don't think it's exactly right for me to just move in like. We've got plenty of room and the kids love having it too. When some good bachelor quarters come up you can move out providing it isn't too far away for you to come and have dinner with us every night. Well with this dinner as an inducement I think I'd be able to make it a couple of hundred miles. All right here. Let me help you with the dishes while we're waiting. No no I certainly won't let you help you just go into the living room and read the paper won't take me a minute. Bob will be here before I finish. Might as well have blindfolds on. Let's try to see through this fog. You may got anything Chuck. Your soup Bob. Your soup. Hey can you take it down Eddie. Think we must be way beyond those mountain ranges for now. If our calculations are right we're not far from home. It's times like this I wish I were patrolling the Mexican border again on foot. Yeah you'll sing a different tune when you walk into your front hall and give Julie a big kiss. I suppose you're right. Let's go down a little see what we can see. Look there's the field. They got the flares up for us. Pull her up. She's stuck Chuck. I can't pull her up. Julie stumble over something. No the glass just fell out of my hand. Something's wrong. I don't know what it is but something's happened to Bob. Let's sit here in the sun and tell lies to each other. You're like a dope having to be waited on like this. Wait till I get out of this cast and I'll throw you over my left shoulder with one hand just to get even with you for having to carry me out here like a baby every afternoon. I stole lemonade coming up. Oh it's wonderful having your home all the time darling. Now there's true love for you. She works like a dog both of you do carting me around waiting on me hand and foot and you say it's wonderful having me on the ground. Well it is now and don't laugh at me. I wish you could stay on the ground always. Look Julie if they told me I couldn't fly I don't know what I do so let's just make up our minds to that. Soon as I'm out of this plaster cast I'm gonna be at the ready room waiting for my orders. I guess I knew it all the time. You know I've been doing a lot of thinking in the past five weeks since that night we were sitting here waiting for you to come in Bob. I don't tell me you're on Julie's side look at you are the one who got the idea of transferring to the air service of this U.S. Army. But I was more than five seconds behind you but remember all the arguments you had stored away to answer Julie. Oh sure sure I know don't think I transferred any other branch. No the thinking I was doing was a little different. Well what Ed if it's anything to keep you out of the air you two lunatics I'm all for it. No no that's not it Julie we'll fly. Gosh we were born to fly. It's just that not enough work is being done on making flying safe. Well you're crazy doing everything they can what happened that night couldn't have been avoided it wasn't anybody's fault but you could have done something Bob you and Chuck both done something what we did everything that was humanly possible you can't blame that wreck on me or Chuck or anybody else wait a minute calm down fella I'm not blaming anybody but look at it this way you weren't chained in your pilot seat were you of course not what are you getting at and Chuck could have moved around to couldn't he sure but I don't see what you both could have climbed out of the cockpit couldn't you sure and then we could have soared right down to earth and let the plane crash without us Bob I'm serious after your accident while Julie and I were here alone and when well all right let's be honest when they thought you were gonna die I stayed up alone night after night thinking about something I saw once that might have prevented all this nothing could have prevented it Chuck and I did everything would be quiet now let Ed explain once I was at a county fair and a guy went up in a balloon I suppose he was crazy to do it but he jumped out in a parachute he could have killed himself but he didn't parachute what's that well they've been doing a lot more experimenting on them in Europe than they have here it's sort of like an umbrella a silk umbrella the wind slows it down enough so that the guy strapped underneath it just floats down to earth sounds like a dream sure it's a dream the right brothers had a dream just eight miles from this field and we're flying in the product of that dream every day well why hasn't more been done about it I don't know lots of reasons there isn't a lot of money around to spend on aviation yet and what there is is being spent to make better planes to make those planes safer besides that there aren't enough people that are convinced it could ever work are you convinced yes I am yes I'm completely convinced there's an awful lot of work in experimenting to be done and maybe somebody will get killed trying the things out but parachutes will work if we work on them hard enough I don't think I get it entirely I wasn't at that county well it's not hard to explain it's look you see that milkweed pod there in the garden that white fluffy thing that's floating down to earth well sure we've got dozens of them out here all during the summer all right now that is the perfect parachute see how it opens out and just like a silk umbrella it floats the pod down to the plants you think that man could build something like that for men to parachute to earth yes I do if you got the right cloth and the right pulleys and the right well the right everything you see that's where the trial and error experimenting comes in but it could be done it could work it could have worked that night for you and Chuck you're a dreamer Ed like I said oh yeah and I think I'll be called worse than that before I'm through and this is a paint section major here's where we've been doing some research on paint that won't rust or chip off yes I see chloroprol looks like it's in fairly good shape and we've been making some headway sir and that room in there what's that oh that's just sort of a supply and storage room I'm afraid it's not as neat as we'd like it sir well if you'd known that the new material chief would be such an eager beaver you probably would have had everything shining huh well sir we are pretty short-handed but we can get it in shape right away well let's go in and take a look anyway we've got a lot of junk in here most of it is just that I guess major but I don't like to throw anything out until they tell me to thought you might want to see it all and then we can throw up whatever you say mm-hmm what's over here in this box boy it's dusty enough all those those are a couple of what do you call them parachutes somebody I can't remember his name some fellow who's attached to this section a couple of years ago he was always trying them out wait a parachute you mean there's been some experimenting on them here at McCook Field nothing much from what I hear I wasn't around then but this fellow I was telling you about was hit on the subject kept weighting them down and dropping them out of planes never got anywhere with them though everybody said he wouldn't but he kept trying until he was transferred somewhere else so they've just stayed here gathering dust should I throw them out major no sir read dust them off I want to inspect them thoroughly this afternoon and corporal get out anything else that that fellow used in his experiments I want everything he used out and ready for me to look at right after child yes sir all right gentlemen anything else how about you Hoffman you're getting around all right finding out about your new section yes Colonel it all looks to be in good order there's just one thing sir well go ahead staff meetings the time to bring up any problems you got that's what we have these sessions for well I have a list of requisitions here Colonel well you can just put those through channels can't you normal requisitions can just be ordered in the usual fashion that's all you've got and we might as well break this up no oh wait Colonel this is a little different this is something I think I'll need staff approval on you see it's a list of requisitions for a new section a new section well that's different here let me see that one sewing machine 12 volts of silk hey what is this are you planning on opening a dress making shop for the wives of the post well no sir it's well I was hoping to get staff approval to start some experimenting on parachutes parachutes now look Hoffman let's get this straight you're in charge of materials your jobs to work on paint and metals and fabrics anything else that'll improve our air service we don't want any crazy experimenting on silk umbrellas going on around here I've got the money of the personnel of the time I'm not going to risk the lives of any of my men Colonel they're risking their lives now every time they go up without any protection I know that just as well as you do but my job is to improve what we've got to eliminate the hazards in the equipment that exists your job is to put your section to work on the improved research now let's not consider any hair brain schemes well Colonel if I work on them in my spare time would that be all right for sure there's nothing I can say about how you spend your time off me daffy idea you want to carry out on your time off your business but my business right now is to throw this requisition in the wastebasket dismissed you see Colonel I honestly think it will work now not right away I know it's gonna take a long time probably but look at it this way if we don't try we'll never know if it'll work or not can't we just try when you've dug my footsteps for four months now every time I look up there you are with a requisition in your hand I'm getting so I look under my bed at night to see if you're there well I'm sorry Colonel I know I've been a nuisance but if you just put through this requisition I promise you won't see hide nor hair of me for months just let me try and see if I can make a parachute work you know I'm not just starting from scratch a lot of guys in Europe and here in the States have been working I've got something to go on all right all right you've worn me down get a bowl of silk and fool around with it if you must not get out of my sight oh and and Hoffman yes sir good luck you are listening to the proudly we hail production of a medal for Joe will return to our story in just a moment young men of America your country is building a mighty Air Force to maintain the security of our nation this means that there is a job for you the chance to do an important job with one of the finest organizations of its kind in the world today the United States Air Force if you're between the ages of 19 and 26 and a half have had two or more years of college and are otherwise qualified the Air Force needs you as part of the aviation cadet training program for complete details visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station today you are listening to proudly we hail and now we present the second act of a medal for Joe here corporal give me a hand with one of these crates sure thing major gosh these things are heavy what's in them sir sewing machines here let's put this one over in the middle of the room so we can open it up easily right sewing machines and you really got the stuff you asked the Colonel for you're really gonna make some of those parachutes mm-hmm that's right and go ahead and laugh if you want to oh sir I don't think I will you don't think you'll work laugh what do you mean I've convinced you after all these months not really convinced me but well I'll put it this way if I were up in a plane instead of here on the ground I'd like everything I could get my hands on to make sure I'd get back on the ground who knows this thing this idea of yours might work I say it's worth trying well what do you know corporal I've got my first convert yes come in yes you gentlemen wanted to see me your major Hoffman that's right I'm guy ball my name's Floyd Smith where you don't have to tell me who you guys are I've seen you make parachute jumps over at right field glad to meet you both well same here major go on go on sit down both of you thank you well what brings you men over here well we heard you wanted to hire some men to help out on your experiments with parachutes I sure do but you're the first ones to come in here since I placed ads all over the country weeks ago you mean you really want job yeah we sure do we've been both risking our next jumping out of planes it fares all over the barnstorm and country we heard you're trying to perfect parachutes if there's one thing Floyd and I'd like it's a perfect parachute well I've never been so glad to see two people in my life you two guys probably know more about parachuting than anybody in the country look I'm afraid we can't offer you the kind of money you get for trying to break your next there look major majors it's like guy says we'd like to get some good parachutes that's all that's why we're here yeah both of us not to mention our wives we're a little sick of believing every jump is gonna be our last so we'd like to work with you but you're hired when you want us to go to work right now listen you can tell me more this afternoon that I could learn in three years of using weight what do you want to know I'll just start from the beginning what kind of shoots did you use what were the pulleys like what about the winds just tell me everything you know and when you finish we'll figure out what we should do to get you to that perfect parachute and there there he is a hundred and seventy pounds and the best looking guy I've ever seen good morning half man Smith morning Colonel hello Colonel well what's this pretty large for a puppet Colonel I'd like you to meet Joe dummy Joe well what's his assignment around here he's gonna make all our experimental jumps Colonel you see we found out that fifty pound weights weren't working right we discovered that if we wanted to make a good parachute for a man we'd have to have the next best thing to a real man that's right so we built dummy Joe here you see Colonel his arms and legs are waited to put the stress on the cords the way a man would do it well anyway almost the way a man would do it and we've even got a time fuse in his right hand so Joe can pull the ripcord for himself pretty ingenious looks like you're making progress here huh well sir we we've been getting along how about materials you got what you need here seems to me I've been signing enough requisition I think we've got enough for Joe's first trial anyway sir we finally got just the right kind of silk had to send all the way to Japan for it but it should be just right you see the wind goes through it it's porous enough for that but enough wind should stay in it to billow a man Joe that is down to earth just as nice as you please well it sounds as if you're getting along pretty well frankly you're doing better than I thought you would I'll have to hand it to you Hoffman you know how to stick to a job well thanks Colonel it's all up to dummy Joe now well he's not going to prove everything in one jump is he no no sir not by a long shot it'll probably be more like a thousand before we're ready to test the shoot with live personnel well don't go using any men on those things until you're sure and Hoffman yes sir let me know when dummy Joe completes a thousand jumps I think by that time he ought to have a medal pinned on him and we got a rig up that time few some other way and you're right dummy Joe's got a delay before the ripcord's pulled otherwise you'll get all tangled in the tail surfaces of the plane all right let's fix it right now now this is the way I've worked it out a load of 400 pounds released from a plane flying in 120 miles an hour will put just as much strain on the shoot if not more as a delayed drop of 16 seconds yeah okay I'll take your word for it let's go find something for dummy Joe to carry on his next jump come up with anything to figure out why those rigging lines are breaking I think so this thing looks complicated and it is sort of but you see it should record the amount of strain on each individual cord then we'll know what's pulling too much in the drop look at you what's the matter your company got a parade well can I put on my dress uniform once in a while sure sure I just haven't seen you in anything but fatigue for so long it came a sort of a shot well you and Guy and me are invited over to Julie's and Bob's tonight so go find yourself a white shirt and a tie she's expecting us in about half an hour why didn't you bring dummy Joe along we really should have you know this should actually be his celebration how's that as he performed some MacDee on the call of duty can certainly say that tomorrow is going to be jump number 1000 more than that to as a matter of fact the last hundred times he bailed out it's been perfect there's no reason he has to make this one tomorrow except the Colonel promised him a medal if he did it I'd like to make that bail out instead of dummy Joe tomorrow why do you look so shocked why do you think we've been making all these experiments we've been working on these parachutes for men to use not for dummy Joe sure of course I know that well I guess I never really thought about you or Floyd or guy or or Bob parachuting from a plane Julie you confuse me nothing would satisfy you but Ed had to have everyone believe in him and help him in his experiments now that he's got it ready for a man to try out you're sitting there mumbling that a man shouldn't do it I know it's silly but I just wish somebody I didn't know would try it well it's not going to be someone you don't know Julie it's going to be someone you've known for almost 10 years me look at I know how you feel I've been in on a lot of this I know just as much about that shoot as you do and furthermore I've had actual experience I've jumped in shoots a lot worse than the ones you started with I'll jump tomorrow and now wait wait a minute how about me I've chalked up just as many jumps as you I've got a better idea than any of you after all it was my crash that got you started on this let me have the first try at the thing you thought about because of me I think you're all crazy there's only one way to settle this we'll do it the way we did when we were kids now here I'll break these toothpicks don't watch you'll draw straws stop stop crumbling just draw one edge of a first Floyd guy and Bob thanks I should hate to be selfish but I sort of hope you're out I am I think you stacked them oh well let's see the rest of them of all the rotten luck okay Floyd it's dummy Joe shoot for you tomorrow I'll go along in the plane with them all right I'll check from the ground Julie you and Bob come on out to the field with us tomorrow you were in on the beginning I want you to see our dream come true I almost think of the easier up there in the plane than down here and right it would be planes coming in for the jump now cross your fingers and pray there he goes not opening the shoes not opening oh it'll open it's got to there it is it's open oh just as pretty as you please and not a tree in sight for him to land in and no wind to blow him anywhere but right down here at our feet I almost didn't make it I wouldn't miss this for anything Colonel I well I thought you were off the base I was down there broke my neck getting back here wouldn't have missed dummy Joe's jump for anything 1000 today isn't it I've been keeping pretty close track of that little guy Colonel this is a little difficult to explain you see you went around what are you mumbling about Hoffman well I'm just trying to say that well that isn't dummy Joe sir not dummy Joe well then who Hoffman you don't mean to say there's a real live human being in that contraption it's Floyd Smith Colonel we drew straws and he won Colonel look how beautifully it's working why it's just like a child in the swing he's down let's go out and give him a hand well how'd she work Floyd perfect perfect not a thing wrong y'all ordered enough of these for every man Colonel what I ought to do is court Marshal you Hoffman Colonel think what it would have meant to the men like Bob who crashed if they'd had parachutes think what it will mean to all the men who are flying and will fly in the future and besides Colonel all you said was not to let a man jump until the parachute was safe well you just saw it work sir yeah I guess that's what I said well I'm a man of my word and I said something else too so let's go aware Colonel into the hangar you've had your glory for today I'll give another guy a chance going to pin a medal on dummy Joe America is depending on her leaders in the air if you're a young man between the ages of 19 and 26 and a half have had two or more years of college and are otherwise qualified you are eligible to join the ranks of America's leaders in the air you can become an aviation cadet the defense of our nation hangs heavily on our air strength the finest in the world but we cannot relax our efforts the Air Force still needs pilots and aircraft observers if you have the primary qualifications visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station today ask about the aviation cadet training program do it now this has been another program on proudly we hail presented transcribed in cooperation with this station proudly we hail is produced by the Recruiting Publicity Bureau for the United States Army and United States Air Force Recruiting Service this is Kenneth Banghardt speaking and inviting you to tune in the same station next week for another interesting story on proudly we 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