title: Bonaire

text: Utilizing the naturally low-lying geography and traditional Dutch dike design, much of Bonaire's southern half has been made into a giant system of ponds and pools which evaporate seawater to produce salt. Presently operated by Cargill, Bonaire's solar salt works produces 400,000 tons of industrial grade salt per year. After collection, the salt is then washed and stored in pyramid-shaped piles roughly 50 feet in height, each containing approximately 10,000 metric tons of 99.6 percent pure salt. The salt facility operates its own pier where ships are loaded with salt destined for North American, European and Western Pacific markets. Bonaire's salt is used primarily in industry.


title: Bonaire

text: The large condensing ponds which ring the crystallizer basins, called the Pekelmeer, are a natural habitat for numerous species of brine shrimp which in turn feed flocks of hundreds of pink flamingoes and other migratory birds. This is the location of Bonaire's flamingo sanctuary.


title: Bonaire

text: The Bonaire Petroleum Corporation (BOPEC) is a fuel oil storage and transshipment terminal on Bonaire. BOPEC is wholly owned by Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, and functions primarily as a storage facility for multiple grades of refined and non-refined oils from Venezuela and refineries on Curaçao and Aruba. BOPEC also has mixing and blending capabilities for its stored fuels. BOPEC's #1 pier can receive tankers up to 500,000DWT, which means there are only seven ships in the world that are too big for the BOPEC terminal. A fire at the BOPEC terminal in 2010 is believed to have had a significant impact on Goto Lake and at least one other nearby lagoon.


title: Bonaire

text: In 1868 and 1870, a large part of the government land was auctioned and sold. These included five lots for forestry and livestock farming and nine lots for salt exploitation. The buyers of these large lots were mainly wealthy people from Curaçao, successful merchants, who had no intention of living on their plantations. There are no real plantations on Bonaire. The climate and soil conditions on Bonaire are not very favourable for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables of any size. Only salt extraction is economically attractive. In addition, on some "plantations" aloe cultivation (last exported in 1973), maize cultivation (due to drought there was not enough harvest every year), charcoal burning and cattle breeding (mainly goats, last exported in 1970) were carried out.


title: Bonaire

text: In the early 20th century, Bonaire's middle class was also able to buy plantation land. On Curaçao, the land house served as the main house of a plantation, where the owner lived. In the immediate vicinity were outbuildings, barns, stables and corrals. Surrounding it were the slave dwellings. On Bonaire, the plantation houses became the owners' cottages, where they stayed during the weekends. Often during the week there was an overseer (vito) who supervised the work on the plantation.


title: Bonaire

text: Bonaire's first airport was located near Tra'i Montaña Subi Blanku and crossed the current path of Kralendijk to Rincon and was built in 1936. The airport proved to be too small when American soldiers arrived on Bonaire in the second half of 1943. The commander stated that a new airport had to be built. Construction began in December 1943, with the new "Flamingo Airport" opening in 1945. A small terminal was built that was suitable for the number of passengers at the time. This building was used until mid-1976. The airport had received many extensions of both the runway and the terminal itself.


title: Bonaire

text: Today the airport is known as Flamingo International Airport and is served by a variety of both domestic and international airlines. Services from the US include Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines. Airlines providing European service include TUI Netherlands and KLM. Consistent air service from Curaçao is available through Divi Divi Air and EZ Air.


title: Bonaire

text: The airport is equipped with a fire station, control tower and hangar. Plans are underway for modifications to the current airport facilities, runway and the fire station.


title: Bonaire

text: Kralendijk has many suburbs/ neighbourhoods, although on an island with such a small population, the distinction is not always clearcut.


title: Bonaire

text: The town of Kralendijk is a result of a merger of five villages: Antriol (Entrejol), Nikiboko, Noord Saliña, Playa, and Tera Kora. The town of Rincon is the only other town.


title: Bonaire

text: Labra, Ishiri, Kokorobi, Jan Doran, Vlijt, Rigot, Porto Spano and Kunchi were several smaller towns that had existed in the national park but were later abandoned.


title: Bonaire

text: The population is estimated to be 20,104 in 2019. Most of its inhabitants are of African descent, or mixed race, the product of European and African intermarriage, for whom the term "mulatto" is often used. However, a significant part of the population has a variety of origins, including the Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname and the United States, among others.


title: Bonaire

text: The star on Bonaire's flag has six points, representing the six original settlements. Due to population growth and building expansion, five of them have grown together with the capital Kralendijk. Only Rincon, the oldest settlement on the island, located in the northern half, remained an independent village. In addition to these nuclei, a number of new districts have been added over the years. Behind Kralendijk, against the hill, are the Republiek and Santa Barbara districts. Behind Santa Barbara, on the coast, is the luxurious new district of Sabadeco (Santa Barbara Development Corporation). Beyond the airport, in the direction of the salt flats, is the neighbourhood of Belnem, named after Harry Belafonte. The population of as 2017 is distributed in the old towns and districts as follows:


title: Bonaire

text: Bonaire is predominantly Roman Catholic (68%), and there are also Protestant minorities. As in the rest of the former Netherlands Antilles, the predominant religion in Bonaire is Christianity, with the Catholic Church being especially important. Although the island passed from the rule of Catholic Spain to the Protestant Netherlands, Catholicism remained the principal island religion. Ecclesiastically, the churches on Bonaire depend on the Catholic diocese of Willemstad on the neighboring island of Curaçao.


title: Bonaire

text: After the discovery of Bonaire by Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, the spiritual life of the Christians was in the hands of the monks who came from Venezuela for baptisms. These missionaries belonged to the Jesuits of the Franciscan order. The first resident priest was Jacob Bernardus Eisenbel (Dutch), who came from Aruba to settle for several years in Bonaire and after whom the Parish of St. Bernard, the main Catholic church of the capital of Bonaire, Kralendijk, is named.


title: Bonaire

text: Rincon, Bonaire's second largest city, offers numerous regular festivals, including the annual Simadan (harvest) festivals and Dia di San Juan (St. John's Day).


title: Bonaire

text: Bonaire's educational system is patterned after the Dutch system. Early grades are taught solely in Papiamento, with more and more Dutch being introduced as the grade level progresses.


title: Bonaire

text: As Bonaire is part of the Netherlands, Dutch is the official language, and the sole language for all administration and legal matters. However, as at 2017 it is the main language of only 15% of the population — around two thirds use the creole language of Papiamento as their main language.


title: Bonaire

text: In the 2001 census, Dutch was the main language of only 8.8% of the population. The most widely spoken language was Papiamento, the primary language of 74.7% of the populace and is recognized by the government. Spanish was the main language of 11.8% of the people, English the primary language of 2.8%, and other languages accounted for 1.8%. Bonaire is a polyglot society, with most of Bonaire's population able to converse in at least two of the languages of Papiamento, Dutch, English and Spanish.


title: Bonaire

text: Bonaire residents participate in numerous sporting events, including all the popular sports that attract tourists to the island such as scuba diving, sailing, fishing, boating, windsurfing, kite surfing, biking, baseball, association football, volleyball and tennis. There are multiple dive shops on Bonaire, most of which offer scuba instruction and PADI, NAUI, SSI and CMAS certification. The island's dive shops typically offer scuba tank and dive gear rental, boat diving excursions, snorkeling, kayaking, and naturalist classes. Some dive shops have gas blending stations, and offer tec diving instruction and excursions.


title: Bonaire

text: Bonaire hosted the PWA Bonaire World Cup 2014 and the 10th Prokids IFCA Championship 2014 at Lac Bay in Sorobon on the east side of the island. It is home to several professional windsurfing champions. The island is also home to the annual Bonaire Sailing Regatta, a national sailing competition and celebration that has been held every October in Playa. The event first began in 1967 when Captain Don Stewart challenged Hubert Domacasse to a race, wagering 27 cases of beer that his fishing boat "Sislin" was faster than Domacasse's fishing boat "Velia". The races are run between the leeward side of the island and Klein Bonaire.


title: Bonaire

text: The Bonaire Football Federation is a member of CONCACAF and the Bonaire Volleyball Federation is an associate member of CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) and NORCECA. The Baseball teams play in the Caribbean region of Little league and Pony league. Bonaire was also confirmed as the 218th Table Tennis National association.


title: Bonaire

text: Trans World Radio (TWR) first established its AM broadcasting site on the island of Bonaire in 1964 to broadcast Christian programs into Latin America and the Caribbean. The programs were broadcast in Spanish, Dutch and English. TWR-Bonaire began their operation with three transmitters, including a Brown-Boveri medium wave transmitter (500 kW over 800 kHz) and two shortwave transmitters (200 kW and 50 kW); however, their license to operate the 500 kW transmitter was revoked in 1999 thereby restricting broadcast to 100 kW. The Brown-Boveri medium wave transmitter was sold and removed from the island. It was replaced with another medium wave transmitter (PJB3-AM). In 2012, TWR-Bonaire was permitted to increase its power from 100 kW to 450 kW but in order to do so, they had to raise 38 million euros (US$43,456,610.00). In 2016 they commissioned Kintronic Labs to build a four-mast, parallel-array directional antenna system. On January 31, 2018, they acquired a 450 kW Nautel Broadcast medium wave transmitter for US$3.8 million, and the name changed from Trans World Radio to Shine 800 AM.


title: Bonaire

text: Radio Netherlands Worldwide operated a shortwave relay station at . Because of widespread availability of internet links providing higher audio quality and more flexibility, shortwave broadcasts by RNW-Bonaire were discontinued and at the end of October 2012, the radio station was closed and installations dismantled.


title: Bonaire

text: Bonaire has two island radio stations that broadcast general information: Bon FM and Radiodifucion Boneriano. The language spoken for both is Papiamento.


title: Bonaire

text: There are several internet news sources including "BES Reporter" in English, "Bonaire" in Papiamento and Dutch, "Bonaire Nieuws" in Dutch, and "Info Bonaire" in English. The local newspapers, some of which are also available online, include "The Bonaire Reporter" in English, "Extra and Boneriano" in Papiamento, "Bonaire Times" in English, Spanish and Dutch, and two Dutch newspapers: "Amigoe" and "Antilliaans Dagblad".


title: Bonaire

text: Flamingo Television Bonaire B.V. offers cable programming and internet access via cable connection or fiber optics. Local and regional programming is offered in different languages including Papiamento, Spanish, Dutch and Chinese. English channels are made available through the efforts of a unified group of cable companies comprising the Caribbean Cable Cooperative Ltd.


title: Bonaire

text: Digital television programs and internet access are offered by Telbo N.V., a communication and media provider with an IP based infrastructure. They are the primary telephone service provider, and also offer various packages of high quality digital television programs with 130+ digital channels.


title: Bonaire

text: Residents of Bonaire receive some of Venezuela's main national television channels, all primarily in Spanish.


title: Bonaire

text: The flag, with the six-pointed star, symbolises a compass. The people of Bonaire were and are excellent fishermen and sailors. It is also said that the four points of the ring indicating East, West, South and North are intended to indicate that all people in the world are equal, regardless of where they come from. The red colour refers to the blood and the survivability of the people of Bonaire. Yellow represents the sun, the beach and the flowers of the Kibrahachi and the cactus. White represents peace and internationalisation. Blue represents the sea. The flag has not existed for a long time. It was only on 11 December 1981 that the design was approved, to which the whole population was able to contribute and give its opinion.


title: Dugong

text: The dugong (; Dugong dugon) is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow ("Hydrodamalis gigas"), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century.


title: Dugong

text: The dugong is the only sirenian in its range, which spans the waters of some 40 countries and territories throughout the Indo-West Pacific. The dugong is largely dependent on seagrass communities for subsistence and is thus restricted to the coastal habitats which support seagrass meadows, with the largest dugong concentrations typically occurring in wide, shallow, protected areas such as bays, mangrove channels, the waters of large inshore islands and inter-reefal waters. The northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay are believed to be the dugong's contemporary stronghold.


title: Dugong

text: Like all modern sirenians, the dugong has a body with no dorsal fin or hind limbs. The forelimbs or flippers are paddle-like. The dugong is easily distinguished from the manatees by its fluked, dolphin-like tail, but also possesses a unique skull and teeth. Its snout is sharply downturned, an adaptation for feeding in benthic seagrass communities. The molar teeth are simple and peg-like, unlike the more elaborate molar dentition of manatees.


title: Dugong

text: The dugong has been hunted for thousands of years for its meat and oil. Traditional hunting still has great cultural significance in several countries in its modern range, particularly northern Australia and the Pacific Islands. The dugong's current distribution is fragmented, and many populations are believed to be close to extinction. The IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species limits or bans the trade of derived products. Despite being legally protected in many countries, the main causes of population decline remain anthropogenic and include fishing-related fatalities, habitat degradation and hunting. With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to extinction.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs are part of the Sirenia order of placental mammals which comprises modern "sea cows" (manatees as well as dugongs) and their extinct relatives. Sirenia are the only extant herbivorous marine mammals and the only group of herbivorous mammals to have become completely aquatic. Sirenians are thought to have a 50-million-year-old fossil record (early Eocene-recent). They attained modest diversity during the Oligocene and Miocene, but subsequently declined as a result of climatic cooling, oceanographic changes, and human interference.


title: Dugong

text: The word "dugong" derives from the Visayan (probably Cebuano) "". The name was first adopted and popularized by the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, as ""dugon"" in "Histoire Naturelle" (1765), after descriptions of the animal from the island of Leyte in the Philippines. The name ultimately derives from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *duyuŋ. Despite common misconception, the term does not come from Malay "duyung" and it does not mean "lady of the sea" (Mermaid).


title: Dugong

text: Other common local names include "sea cow", "sea pig" and "sea camel". It is known as the "balguja" by the Wunambal people of the Mitchell Plateau area in the Kimberley, Western Australia.


title: Dugong

text: "Dugong dugon" is the only extant species of the family Dugongidae, and one of only four extant species of the Sirenia order, the others forming the manatee family. It was first classified by Müller in 1776 as "Trichechus dugon", a member of the manatee genus previously defined by Linnaeus. It was later assigned as the type species of "Dugong" by Lacépède and further classified within its own family by Gray and subfamily by Simpson.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs and other sirenians are not closely related to other marine mammals, being more related to elephants. Dugongs and elephants share a monophyletic group with hyraxes and the aardvark, one of the earliest offshoots of eutherians. The fossil record shows sirenians appearing in the Eocene, where they most likely lived in the Tethys Ocean. The two extant families of sirenians are thought to have diverged in the mid-Eocene, after which the dugongs and their closest relative, the Steller's sea cow, split off from a common ancestor in the Miocene. The Steller's sea cow became extinct in the 18th century. No fossils exist of other members of the Dugongidae.


title: Dugong

text: Molecular studies have been made on dugong populations using mitochondrial DNA. The results have suggested that the population of Southeast Asia is distinct from the others. Australia has two distinct maternal lineages, one of which also contains the dugongs from Africa and Arabia. Limited genetic mixing has taken place between those in Southeast Asia and those in Australia, mostly around Timor. One of the lineages stretches all the way from Moreton Bay to Western Australia, while the other only stretches from Moreton Bay to the Northern Territory. There is not yet sufficient genetic data to make clear boundaries between distinct groups.


title: Dugong

text: The dugong's body is large with a cylindrical shape that tapers at both ends. It has thick, smooth skin that is a pale cream colour at birth, but darkens dorsally and laterally to brownish-to-dark-grey with age. The colour of a dugong can change due to the growth of algae on the skin. The body is sparsely covered in short hair, a common feature among sirenians which may allow for tactile interpretation of their environment. These hairs are most developed around the mouth, which has a large horseshoe-shaped upper lip forming a highly mobile muzzle. This muscular upper lip aids the dugong in foraging.


title: Dugong

text: The dugong's tail flukes and flippers are similar to those of dolphins. These flukes are raised up and down in long strokes to move the animal forward, and can be twisted to turn. The forelimbs are paddle-like flippers which aid in turning and slowing. The dugong lacks nails on its flippers, which are only 15% of a dugong's body length. The tail has deep notches.


title: Dugong

text: A dugong's brain weighs a maximum of , about 0.1% of the animal's body weight. With very small eyes, dugongs have limited vision, but acute hearing within narrow sound thresholds. Their ears, which lack pinnae, are located on the sides of their head. The nostrils are located on top of the head and can be closed using valves. Dugongs have two teats, one located behind each flipper. There are few differences between sexes; the body structures are almost the same. A male's testes are not externally located, and the main difference between males and females is the location of the genital aperture in relation to the umbilicus and the anus. The lungs in a dugong are very long, extending almost as far as the kidneys, which are also highly elongated in order to cope with the saltwater environment. If the dugong is wounded, its blood will clot rapidly.


title: Dugong

text: The skull of a dugong is unique. The skull is enlarged with sharply down-turned premaxilla, which are stronger in males. The spine has between 57 and 60 vertebrae. Unlike in manatees, the dugong's teeth do not continually grow back via horizontal tooth replacement. The dugong has two incisors (tusks) which emerge in males during puberty. The female's tusks continue to grow without emerging during puberty, sometimes erupting later in life after reaching the base of the premaxilla. The number of growth layer groups in a tusk indicates the age of a dugong, and the cheekteeth move forward with age. The full dental formula of dugongs is , meaning they have two incisors, three premolars, and three molars on each side of their upper jaw, and three incisors, one canine, three premolars, and three molars on each side of their lower jaw. Like other sirenians, the dugong experiences pachyostosis, a condition in which the ribs and other long bones are unusually solid and contain little or no marrow. These heavy bones, which are among the densest in the animal kingdom, may act as a ballast to help keep sirenians suspended slightly below the water's surface.


title: Dugong

text: An adult's length rarely exceeds . An individual this long is expected to weigh around . Weight in adults is typically more than and less than . The largest individual recorded was long and weighed , and was found off the Saurashtra coast of west India. Females tend to be larger than males.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs are found in warm coastal waters from the western Pacific Ocean to the eastern coast of Africa, along an estimated of coastline between 26° and 27° to the north and south of the equator. Their historic range is believed to correspond to that of seagrasses from the Potamogetonaceae and Hydrocharitaceae families. The full size of the former range is unknown, although it is believed that the current populations represent the historical limits of the range, which is highly fractured. Their distributions during warmer periods of Holocene might have been broader than today. Today populations of dugongs are found in the waters of 37 countries and territories. Recorded numbers of dugongs are generally believed to be lower than actual numbers, due to a lack of accurate surveys. Despite this, the dugong population is thought to be shrinking, with a worldwide decline of 20 percent in the last 90 years. They have disappeared from the waters of Hong Kong, Mauritius, and Taiwan, as well as parts of Cambodia, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. Further disappearances are likely.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs are generally found in warm waters around the coast with large numbers concentrated in wide and shallow protected bays. The dugong is the only strictly marine herbivorous mammal, as all species of manatee utilise fresh water to some degree. Nonetheless, they can tolerate the brackish waters found in coastal wetlands, and large numbers are also found in wide and shallow mangrove channels and around leeward sides of large inshore islands, where seagrass beds are common. They are usually located at a depth of around , although in areas where the continental shelf remains shallow dugongs have been known to travel more than from the shore, descending to as far as , where deepwater seagrasses such as "Halophila spinulosa" are found. Special habitats are used for different activities. It has been observed that shallow waters are used as sites for calving, minimizing the risk of predation. Deep waters may provide a thermal refuge from cooler waters closer to the shore during winter.


title: Dugong

text: Australia is home to the largest population, stretching from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Moreton Bay in Queensland. The population of Shark Bay is thought to be stable with over 10,000 dugongs. Smaller populations exist up the coast, including one in Ashmore reef. Large numbers of dugongs live to the north of the Northern Territory, with a population of over 20,000 in the gulf of Carpentaria alone. A population of over 25,000 exists in the Torres Strait such as off Thursday Island, although there is significant migration between the strait and the waters of New Guinea. The Great Barrier Reef provides important feeding areas for the species; this reef area houses a stable population of around 10,000, although the population concentration has shifted over time. Large bays facing north on the Queensland coast provide significant habitats for dugong, with the southernmost of these being Hervey Bay and Moreton Bay. Dugongs had been occasional visitors along the Gold Coast where a re-establishment of a local population through range expansions has started recently.


title: Dugong

text: The Persian Gulf has the second-largest dugong population in the world, inhabiting most of the southern coast, and the current population is believed to range from 5,800 to 7,300. In the course of a study being carried out in 1986 and 1999 on the Persian Gulf, the largest reported group sighting was made of more than 600 individuals to the west of Qatar. However, recent studies revealed severe declines both in population size and distributions among the region. A 2017 study, for instance, found a nearly 25% drop in population since 1950. Reasons for this drastic population loss include illegal poaching, oil spills and net entanglement.


title: Dugong

text: In the late 1960s, herds of up to 500 dugongs were observed off the coast of East Africa and nearby islands. Current populations in this area are extremely small, numbering 50 and below, and it is thought likely they will become extinct. The eastern side of the Red Sea is home to large populations numbering in the hundreds, and similar populations are thought to exist on the western side. In the 1980s, it was estimated there could be as many as 4,000 dugongs in the Red Sea. Dugong populations in Madagascar are poorly studied, but due to widespread exploitation it is thought they may have severely declined, with few surviving individuals. The resident population around Mayotte is thought to number just 10 individuals. In Mozambique, most of the remaining local populations are very small and the largest (about 120 individuals) occurs at Bazaruto Island, but they have become rare in historical habitats such as in Maputo Bay and on Inhaca Island. The Bazaruto Island population is possibly the last long-term viable population in East Africa, with only some of its core territory lying within protected waters. The East Afircan population that is genetically distinct from those of the Red Sea and those off Madagascar. In Tanzania, observations have recently increased around the Mafia Island Marine Park where a hunt was intended by fishermen but failed in 2009. In the Seychelles, dugongs had been regarded as extinct in 18th century until a small number was discovered around the Aldabra Atoll. This population may belong to a different group than that distributed among the inner isles. Dugongs once thrived among the Chagos Archipelago and Sea Cow Island was named after the species, although the species no longer occurs in the region.


title: Dugong

text: There are less than 250 individuals scattered throughout Indian waters. A highly isolated breeding population exists in the Marine National Park, Gulf of Kutch, the only remaining population in western India. It is from the population in the Persian Gulf, and from the nearest population in India. Former populations in this area, centered on the Maldives and the Laccadive Islands, are presumed to be extinct. A population exists in the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park and the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, but it is seriously depleted. Recoveries of seagrass beds along former ranges of dugongs, such as the Chilika Lake have been confirmed in recent years, raising hopes for re-colorizations of the species. The population around the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are known only from a few records, and although the population was large during British rule, it is now believed to be small and scattered. Once distributed throughout the coastal belt in Sri Lanka, the dugong numbers have declined in last two decades.


title: Dugong

text: A small population existed along the southern coast of China, particularly Gulf of Tonkin (Beibu Gulf), where efforts were made to protect it, including the establishment of ranging in Guangxi. Despite these efforts, numbers continued to decrease, and in 2007 it was reported that no more dugong could be found on the west coast of the island of Hainan. Historically, dugongs were also present in the southern parts of the Yellow Sea. The last confirmed record of dugongs in Chinese waters was documented in 2008. In August 2022, an article published on Royal Society Open Science concluded that dugongs were functionally extinct in China, which was based on a large-scale interview survey conducted across four southern Chinese maritime provinces (Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian) in the summer of 2019.


title: Dugong

text: In Vietnam, dugongs have been restricted mostly to the provinces of Kiên Giang and Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu, including Phu Quoc Island and Con Dao Island, which hosted large populations in the past. Con Dao is now the only site in Vietnam where dugong are regularly seen, protected within the Côn Đảo National Park. Nonetheless, dangerously low levels of attention to conservation of marine organisms in Vietnam and Cambodia may result in increased intentional or unintentional catches, and illegal trade is a potential danger for local dugongs. On Phu Quoc, the first 'Dugong Festival' was held in 2014, aiming to raise awareness of these issues.


title: Dugong

text: In Thailand, the present distribution of dugongs is restricted to six provinces along the Andaman Sea, and very few dugongs are present in the Gulf of Thailand. The Gulf of Thailand was historically home to large number of the animals, but none have been sighted in the west of the gulf in recent years, and the remaining population in the east is thought to be very small and possibly declining. Dugongs are believed to exist in the Straits of Johor in very small numbers. The waters around Borneo support a small population, with more scattered throughout the Malay archipelago.


title: Dugong

text: All the islands of the Philippines once provided habitats for sizeable herds of dugongs. They were common until the 1970s, when their numbers declined sharply due to accidental drownings in fishing gear and habitat destruction of seagrass meadows. Today, only isolated populations survive, most notably in the waters off the Calamian Islands in Palawan, Isabela in Luzon, Guimaras, and Mindanao. The dugong became the first marine animal protected by Philippine law, with harsh penalties for harming them. Recently, local marine trash problem in the archipelago remained unabated and became the biggest threat to the already dwindling population of Dugongs in the country. Litters of plastic waste (single-use sachets, plastic bottles, fast food to-go containers etc.) and other non-biodegradable materials abound in the coastal areas. As these materials may be mistaken as food by dugongs, these may lead to death due to plastic ingestion. Overpopulation and lack of education of all coastal fisherfolk in the Philippines regarding marine trash are clearly harming the coastal environment not only in Palawan but also across the islands of the Philippines.


title: Dugong

text: Populations also exist around the Solomon Islands archipelago and New Caledonia, stretching to an easternmost population in Vanuatu. A highly isolated population lives around the islands of Palau.


title: Dugong

text: Today, possibly the smallest and northernmost population of dugongs exists around the Ryukyu islands, and a population formerly existed off Taiwan. An endangered population of 50 or fewer dugongs, possibly as few as three individuals, survives around Okinawa. New sightings of a cow and calf have been reported in 2017, indicating a possible breeding had occurred in these waters. A single individual was recorded at Amami Ōshima, at the northernmost edge of the dugong's historic range, more than 40 years after the last previous recorded sighting. A vagrant strayed into port near Ushibuka, Kumamoto, and died due to poor health. Historically, the Yaeyama Islands held a large concentration of dugongs, with more than 300 individuals. On the Aragusuku Islands, large quantities of skulls are preserved at an utaki that outsiders are strictly forbidden to enter. Dugong populations in these areas were reduced by historical hunts as payments to the Ryukyu Kingdom, before being wiped out because of large-scale illegal hunting and fishing using destructive methods such as dynamite fishing after the Second World War.


title: Dugong

text: In a research published in August 2022, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported that the Dugong appears to be functionally extinct in Chinese coastal waters.


title: Dugong

text: Populations around Taiwan appear to be almost extinct, although remnant individuals may visit areas with rich seagrass beds such as Dongsha Atoll. Some of the last reported sightings were made in Kenting National Park in the 1950s and 60s. There had been occasional records of vagrants at the Northern Mariana Islands prior to 1985. It is unknown how much mixing there was between these populations historically. Some theorize that populations existed independently, for example, that the Okinawan population were isolated members derived from the migration of a Philippine subspecies. Others postulate that the populations formed part of a super-population where migration between Ryukyu, Taiwan, and the Philippines was common.


title: Dugong

text: It has been confirmed that dugongs once inhabited the water of the Mediterranean possibly until after the rise of civilizations along the inland sea. This population possibly shared ancestry with the Red Sea population, and the Mediterranean population had never been large due to geographical factors and climate changes. The Mediterranean is the region where the Dugongidae originated in the mid-late Eocene, along with Caribbean Sea.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs are long-lived, and the oldest recorded specimen reached age 73. They have few natural predators, although animals such as crocodiles, killer whales, and sharks pose a threat to the young, and a dugong has also been recorded to have died from trauma after being impaled by a stingray barb. A large number of infections and parasitic diseases affect dugongs. Detected pathogens include helminths, cryptosporidium, different types of bacterial infections, and other unidentified parasites. 30% of dugong deaths in Queensland since 1996 are thought to be because of disease.


title: Dugong

text: Although they are social animals, they are usually solitary or found in pairs due to the inability of seagrass beds to support large populations. Gatherings of hundreds of dugongs sometimes happen, but they last only for a short time. Because they are shy, and do not approach humans, little is known about dugong behavior. They can go six minutes without breathing (though about two and a half minutes is more typical), and have been known to rest on their tail to breathe with their heads above water. They can dive to a maximum depth of ; they spend most of their lives no deeper than . Communication between individuals is through chirps, whistles, barks, and other sounds that echo underwater. Different sounds have been observed with different amplitudes and frequencies, implying different purposes. Visual communication is limited due to poor eyesight, and is mainly used for activities such as lekking for courtship purposes. Mothers and calves are in almost constant physical contact, and calves have been known to reach out and touch their mothers with their flippers for reassurance.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs are semi-nomadic, often traveling long distances in search of food, but staying within a certain range their entire life. Large numbers often move together from one area to another. It is thought that these movements are caused by changes in seagrass availability. Their memory allows them to return to specific points after long travels. Dugong movements mostly occur within a localized area of seagrass beds, and animals in the same region show individualistic patterns of movement. Daily movement is affected by the tides. In areas where there is a large tidal range, dugongs travel with the tide in order to access shallower feeding areas. In Moreton Bay, dugongs often travel between foraging grounds inside the bay and warmer oceanic waters. At higher latitudes dugongs make seasonal travels to reach warmer water during the winter. Occasionally individual dugongs make long-distance travels over many days, and can travel over deep ocean waters. One animal was seen as far south as Sydney. Although they are marine creatures, dugongs have been known to travel up creeks, and in one case a dugong was caught up a creek near Cooktown.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs, along with other sirenians, are referred to as "sea cows" because their diet consists mainly of seagrass. When eating they ingest the whole plant, including the roots, although when this is impossible they will feed on just the leaves. A wide variety of seagrass has been found in dugong stomach contents, and evidence exists they will eat algae when seagrass is scarce. Although almost completely herbivorous, they will occasionally eat invertebrates such as jellyfish, sea squirts, and shellfish. Dugongs in Moreton Bay, Australia, are omnivorous, feeding on invertebrates such as polychaetes or marine algae when the supply of their choice grasses decreases. In other southern areas of both western and eastern Australia, there is evidence that dugongs actively seek out large invertebrates. This does not apply to dugongs in tropical areas, in which fecal evidence indicates that invertebrates are not eaten.


title: Dugong

text: Most dugongs do not feed on lush areas, but where the seagrass is more sparse. Additional factors such as protein concentration and regenerative ability also affect the value of a seagrass bed. The chemical structure and composition of the seagrass is important, and the grass species most often eaten are low in fiber, high in nitrogen, and easily digestible. In the Great Barrier Reef, dugongs feed on low-fiber high-nitrogen seagrass such as "Halophila" and "Halodule", so as to maximize nutrient intake instead of bulk eating. Seagrasses of a lower seral are preferred, where the area has not fully vegetated. Only certain seagrass meadows are suitable for dugong consumption, due to the dugong's highly specialized diet. There is evidence that dugongs actively alter seagrass species compositions at local levels. Dugongs may search out deeper seagrass. Feeding trails have been observed as deep as , and dugongs have been seen feeding as deep as . Dugongs are relatively slow-moving, swimming at around . When moving along the seabed to feed they walk on their pectoral fins.


title: Dugong

text: Dugong feeding may favor the subsequent growth low-fibre, high-nitrogen seagrasses such as "Halophilia" and "Halodule." Species such as "Zosteria capricorni" are more dominant in established seagrass beds, but grow slowly, while "Halophilia" and "Halodule" grow quickly in the open space left by dugong feeding. This behavior is known as cultivation grazing, and favors the rapidly growing, higher nutrient seagrasses that dugongs prefer. Dugongs may also prefer to feed on younger, less fibrous strands of seagrasses, and cycles of cultivation feeding at different seagrass meadows may provide them with a greater number of younger plants.


title: Dugong

text: Due to their poor eyesight, dugongs often use smell to locate edible plants. They also have a strong tactile sense, and feel their surroundings with their long sensitive bristles. They will dig up an entire plant and then shake it to remove the sand before eating it. They have been known to collect a pile of plants in one area before eating them. The flexible and muscular upper lip is used to dig out the plants. This leaves furrows in the sand in their path.


title: Dugong

text: A dugong reaches sexual maturity between the ages of eight and eighteen, older than in most other mammals. The way that females know how a male has reached sexual maturity is by the eruption of tusks in the male since tusks erupt in males when testosterone levels reach a high enough level. The age when a female first gives birth is disputed, with some studies placing the age between ten and seventeen years, while others place it as early as six years. There is evidence that male dugongs lose fertility at older ages. Despite the longevity of the dugong, which may live for 50 years or more, females give birth only a few times during their life, and invest considerable parental care in their young. The time between births is unclear, with estimates ranging from 2.4 to 7 years.


title: Dugong

text: Mating behaviour varies between populations located in different areas. In some populations, males will establish a territory which females in estrus will visit. In these areas a male will try to impress the females while defending the area from other males, a practice known as lekking. In other areas many males will attempt to mate with the same female, sometimes inflicting injuries to the female or each other. During this the female will have copulated with multiple males, who will have fought to mount her from below. This greatly increases the chances of conception.


title: Dugong

text: Females give birth after a 13- to 15-month gestation, usually to just one calf. Birth occurs in very shallow water, with occasions known where the mothers were almost on the shore. As soon as the young is born the mother pushes it to the surface to take a breath. Newborns are already long and weigh around . Once born, they stay close to their mothers, possibly to make swimming easier. The calf nurses for 14–18 months, although it begins to eat seagrasses soon after birth. A calf will only leave its mother once it has matured. Calves in captivity have been observed sucking on their flippers as a way of asking to be fed.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs have historically provided easy targets for hunters, who killed them for their meat, oil, skin, and bones. As the anthropologist A. Asbjørn Jøn has noted, they are often considered as the inspiration for mermaids, and people around the world developed cultures around dugong hunting. In some areas it remains an animal of great significance, and a growing ecotourism industry around dugongs has had an economic benefit in some countries.


title: Dugong

text: There is a 5,000-year-old wall painting of a dugong, apparently drawn by neolithic peoples, in Tambun Cave, Ipoh, Malaysia. This was discovered by Lieutenant R.L Rawlings in 1959 while on a routine patrol.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs feature in Southeast Asian, especially Austronesian, folklore. In languages like Ilocano, Mapun, Yakan, Tausug, and Kadazan Dusun of the Philippines and Sabah, the name for dugongs is a synonym for "mermaid". In Malay, they are sometimes referred to as "perempoen laut" ("woman of the sea") or "putri duyong" ("dugong princess"), leading to the misconception that the word "dugong" itself means "lady of the sea". A common belief found in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, is that dugongs were originally human or part-human (usually women), and that they cry when they are butchered or beached. Because of this, it is considered bad luck if a dugong is killed or accidentally dies in nets or fish corrals in the Philippines, some parts of Sabah (Malaysia), and northern Sulawesi and the Lesser Sunda Islands (Indonesia). Dugongs are predominantly not traditionally hunted for food in these regions and they remained plentiful until around the 1970s.


title: Dugong

text: Conversely, dugong "tears" are considered aphrodisiacs in other parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Dugong meat is considered luxury food and is also believed to have aphrodisiac properties. They are actively hunted in these regions, in some places to near-extinction.


title: Dugong

text: In Palau, dugongs were traditionally hunted with heavy spears from canoes. Although it is illegal and there is widespread disapproval at killing dugongs, poaching remains a major problem. Dugongs are also widely hunted in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia; where their meat and ornaments made from bones and tusks are highly prized in feasts and traditional rituals. However, hunting dugongs is considered taboo in some areas of Vanuatu. Dugong meat and oil have traditionally been some of the most valuable foods of Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. Some Aboriginals regard dugongs as part of their Aboriginality.


title: Dugong

text: Local fishermen in Southern China traditionally revered dugongs and regarded them as "miraculous fish". They believed it was bad luck to catch them and they were plentiful in the region prior to the 1960s. Beginning in the 1950s, a wave of immigrants from other regions that do not hold these beliefs resulted in dugongs being hunted for food and traditional Chinese medicine. This led to a steep decline in dugong populations in the Gulf of Tonkin and the sea around Hainan Island. In Japan, dugongs were traditionally hunted in the Ryukyu Islands since prehistoric times. Carved ribs of dugongs in the shape of butterflies (a psychopomp) are found throughout Okinawa. They were commonly hunted throughout Japan up until around the 1970s.


title: Dugong

text: Dugongs have also played a role in legends in Kenya, and the animal is known there as the "Queen of the Sea". Body parts are used as food, medicine, and decorations. In the Gulf states, dugongs served not only as a source of food, but their tusks were used as sword handles. Dugong oil is important as a preservative and conditioner for wooden boats to people around the Gulf of Kutch in India, who also believe the meat to be an aphrodisiac.


title: Dugong

text: During the Renaissance and the Baroque eras, dugongs were often exhibited in wunderkammers. They were also presented as Fiji mermaids in sideshows.


title: Dugong

text: Dugong numbers have decreased in recent times. For a population to remain stable, 95 percent of adults must survive the span of one year. The estimated percentage of females humans can kill without depleting the population is 1–2%. This number is reduced in areas where calving is minimal due to food shortages. Even in the best conditions, a population is unlikely to increase more than 5% a year, leaving dugongs vulnerable to over-exploitation. The fact that they live in shallow waters puts them under great pressure from human activity. Research on dugongs and the effects of human activity on them has been limited, mostly taking place in Australia. In many countries, dugong numbers have never been surveyed. As such, trends are uncertain, with more data needed for comprehensive management. The only data stretching back far enough to mention population trends comes from the urban coast of Queensland, Australia. The last major worldwide study, made in 2002, concluded that the dugong was declining and possibly extinct in a third of its range, with unknown status in another half.


title: Dugong

text: The IUCN Red List lists the dugong as vulnerable, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora regulates and in some areas has banned international trade. Most dugong habitats fall within proposed important marine mammal areas. Regional cooperation is important due to the widespread distribution of the animal, and in 1998 there was strong support for Southeast Asian cooperation to protect dugongs. Kenya has passed legislation banning the hunting of dugongs and restricting trawling, but the dugong is not yet listed under Kenya's Wildlife Act for endangered species. Mozambique has had legislation to protect dugongs since 1955, but this has not been effectively enforced. France has a National Action Plan covering the species, implemented within the Mayotte Marine Natural Park. Many marine parks have been established on the African coast of the Red Sea, and the Egyptian Gulf of Aqaba is fully protected. The United Arab Emirates has banned all hunting of dugongs within its waters, as has Bahrain. The UAE has additionally banned drift net fishing, and has declared an intention to restore coastal ecosystems dugongs rely on. India and Sri Lanka ban the hunting and selling of dugongs and their products. Japan has listed dugongs as endangered and has banned intentional kills and harassment. Hunting, catching, and harassment are banned by the People's Republic of China. The first marine mammal to be protected in the Philippines was the dugong, although monitoring this is difficult. Palau has legislated to protect dugongs, although this is not well enforced and poaching persists. Indonesia lists dugongs as a protected species; however, protection is not always enforced and souvenir products made from dugong parts can be openly found in markets in Bali. The dugong is a national animal of Papua New Guinea, which bans all except traditional hunting. Vanuatu and New Caledonia ban hunting of dugongs. Dugongs are protected throughout Australia, although the rules vary by state; in some areas, indigenous hunting is allowed. Dugongs are listed under the Nature Conservation Act in the Australian state of Queensland as vulnerable. Most currently live in established marine parks, where boats must travel at a restricted speed and mesh net fishing is restricted. The World Wide Fund for Nature has purchased gillnet licences in northern Queensland to reduce the impact of fishing. In Vietnam, an illegal network targeting dugongs had been detected and was shut down in 2012. Potential hunts along Tanzanian coasts by fishermen have raised concerns as well.


title: Dugong

text: Despite being legally protected in many countries, the main causes of population decline remain anthropogenic and include hunting, habitat degradation, and fishing-related fatalities. Entanglement in fishing nets has caused many deaths, although there are no precise statistics. Most issues with industrial fishing occur in deeper waters where dugong populations are low, with local fishing being the main risk in shallower waters. As dugongs cannot stay underwater for a very long period, they are highly prone to deaths due to entanglement. The use of shark nets has historically caused large numbers of deaths, and they have been eliminated in most areas and replaced with baited hooks. Hunting has historically been a problem too, although in most areas they are no longer hunted, with the exception of certain indigenous communities. In areas such as northern Australia, hunting remains the greatest impact on the dugong population.


title: Dugong

text: Vessel strikes have proved a problem for manatees, but the relevance of this to dugongs is unknown. Increasing boat traffic has increased danger, especially in shallow waters. Ecotourism has increased in some countries, although the effects remain undocumented. It has been seen to cause issues in areas such as Hainan due to environmental degradation. Modern farming practices and increased land clearing have also had an impact, and much of the coastline of dugong habitats are undergoing industrialization, with increasing human populations. Dugongs accumulate heavy metal ions in their tissues throughout their lives, more so than other marine mammals. The effects are unknown. While international cooperation to form a conservative unit has been undertaken, socio-political needs are an impediment to dugong conservation in many developing countries. The shallow waters are often used as a source of food and income, problems exacerbated by aid used to improve fishing. In many countries, the legislation does not exist to protect dugongs, and if it does it is not enforced.


title: Dugong

text: Oil spills are a danger to dugongs in some areas, as is land reclamation. In Okinawa the small dugong population is threatened by United States military activity. Plans exist to build a military base close to the Henoko reef, and military activity also adds the threats of noise pollution, chemical pollution, soil erosion, and exposure to depleted uranium. The military base plans have been fought in US courts by some Okinawans, whose concerns include the impact on the local environment and dugong habitats. It was later revealed that the government of Japan was hiding evidence of the negative effects of ship lanes and human activities on dugongs observed during surveys carried out off Henoko reef. One of the three individuals has not been observed since June 2015, corresponding to the start of the excavation operations.


title: Dugong

text: If dugongs do not get enough to eat they may calve later and produce fewer young. Food shortages can be caused by many factors, such as a loss of habitat, death and decline in quality of seagrass, and a disturbance of feeding caused by human activity. Sewage, detergents, heavy metal, hypersaline water, herbicides, and other waste products all negatively affect seagrass meadows. Human activity such as mining, trawling, dredging, land reclamation, and boat propeller scarring also cause an increase in sedimentation which smothers seagrass and prevents light from reaching it. This is the most significant negative factor affecting seagrass.


title: Dugong

text: "Halophila ovalis"—one of the dugong's preferred species of seagrass—declines rapidly due to lack of light, dying completely after 30 days. Extreme weather such as cyclones and floods can destroy hundreds of square kilometres of seagrass meadows, as well as washing dugongs ashore. The recovery of seagrass meadows and the spread of seagrass into new areas, or areas where it has been destroyed, can take over a decade. Most measures for protection involve restricting activities such as trawling in areas containing seagrass meadows, with little to no action on pollutants originating from land. In some areas, water salinity is increased due to wastewater, and it is unknown how much salinity seagrass can withstand.


title: Dugong

text: Dugong habitat in the Oura Bay area of Henoko, Okinawa, Japan, is currently under threat from land reclamation conducted by Japanese Government in order to build a US Marine base in the area. In August 2014, preliminary drilling surveys were conducted around the seagrass beds there. The construction is expected to seriously damage the dugong population's habitat, possibly leading to local extinction.


title: Dugong

text: The Australian state of Queensland has sixteen dugong protection parks, and some preservation zones have been established where even Aboriginal Peoples are not allowed to hunt. Capturing animals for research has caused only one or two deaths; dugongs are expensive to keep in captivity due to the long time mothers and calves spend together, and the inability to grow the seagrass that dugongs eat in an aquarium. Only one orphaned calf has ever been successfully kept in captivity.


title: Dugong

text: Worldwide, only three dugongs are held in captivity. A female from the Philippines lives at Toba Aquarium in Toba, Mie, Japan. A male also lived there until he died on 10 February 2011. The second resides in Sea World Indonesia, after having been rescued from a fisherman's net and treated. The last one, a male, is kept at Sydney Aquarium, where he has resided since he was a juvenile. Sydney Aquarium had a second dugong for many years, until she died in 2018.


title: Dugong

text: Gracie, a captive dugong at Underwater World, Singapore, was reported to have died in 2014 at the age of 19, from complications arising from an acute digestive disorder.


title: Rod Serling

text: Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series "The Twilight Zone". Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues, including censorship, racism, and war.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling was born on December 25, 1924, in Syracuse, New York, to a Jewish family. He was the second of two sons born to Esther (née Cooper, 1893–1958), a homemaker, and Samuel Lawrence Serling (1892–1945). Serling's father had worked as a secretary and amateur inventor before his children were born but took on his father-in-law's profession as a grocer to earn a steady income. Sam Serling later became a butcher after the Great Depression forced the store to close. Rod had an older brother, novelist and aviation writer Robert J. Serling.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling spent most of his youth south of Syracuse in Binghamton, New York after his family moved there in 1926. His parents encouraged his talents as a performer. Sam Serling built a small stage in the basement, where Rod often put on plays (with or without neighborhood children). His older brother, writer Robert, recalled that, at the age of six or seven, Rod entertained himself for hours by acting out dialogue from pulp magazines or movies he had seen. Rod would often ask questions without waiting for their answers. On a two-hour trip from Binghamton to Syracuse, the rest of the family remained silent to see if Rod would notice their lack of participation. He did not, and he talked nonstop through the entire car ride.


title: Rod Serling

text: In elementary school, Serling was seen as the class clown and dismissed by many of his teachers as a lost cause. However, his seventh-grade English teacher, Helen Foley, encouraged him to enter the school's public speaking extracurriculars. He joined the debate team and was a speaker at his high school graduation. He began writing for the school newspaper, in which, according to the journalist Gordon Sander, he "established a reputation as a social activist".


title: Rod Serling

text: He was interested in sports, and excelled at tennis and table tennis. When he attempted to join the varsity football team, he was told he was too small at tall.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling was interested in radio and writing at an early age. He was an avid radio listener, especially interested in thrillers, fantasy, and horror shows. Arch Oboler and Norman Corwin were two of his favorite writers. He also "did some staff work at a Binghamton radio station ... tried to write ... but never had anything published." He was accepted into college during his senior year of high school. However, the United States was involved in World War II at the time, and Serling decided to enlist rather than start college immediately after he graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1943.


title: Rod Serling

text: As editor of his high school newspaper, Serling encouraged his fellow students to support the war effort. He wanted to leave school before graduation to join the fight, but his civics teacher talked him into waiting for graduation. "War is a temporary thing," Gus Youngstrom told him. "It ends. Education doesn't. Without your degree, where will you be after the war?"


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling enlisted in the US Army the morning after high school graduation, following his brother Robert.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling began his military career in 1943 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, under General Joseph May "Joe" Swing and Col. Orin D. "Hard Rock" Haugen and served in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division. He eventually reached the rank of Technician Fourth Grade (T/4).


title: Rod Serling

text: Over the next year of paratrooper training, Serling and others began boxing to vent aggression. He competed as a flyweight and had 17 bouts, rising to the second round of the division finals before being knocked out. He was remembered for Berserker style and for "getting his nose broken in his first bout and again in the last bout." He tried his hand at the Golden Gloves, with little success.


title: Rod Serling

text: On April 25, 1944, Serling received his orders and saw that he was being sent west to California. He knew that he would be fighting against the Japanese rather than the Germans. This disappointed him because he had hoped to help fight Hitler. In May, he was assigned to the Pacific Theater in New Guinea and the Philippines.


title: Rod Serling

text: In November 1944, his division first saw combat, landing in the Philippines. The 11th Airborne Division would not be used as paratroopers, however, but as light infantry during the Battle of Leyte. The division helped secure the area after the five divisions that had gone ashore earlier.


title: Rod Serling

text: For a variety of reasons, Serling was transferred to the 511th's demolition platoon, nicknamed "The Death Squad" for its high casualty rate. According to Sergeant Frank Lewis, leader of the demolitions squad, "He screwed up somewhere along the line. Apparently he got on someone's nerves." Lewis also judged that Serling was not suited to be a field soldier: "he didn't have the wits or aggressiveness required for combat." At one point, Lewis, Serling, and others were in a firefight, trapped in a foxhole. As they waited for darkness, Lewis noticed that Serling had not reloaded any of his extra magazines. Serling sometimes went exploring on his own, against orders, and got lost.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling's time in Leyte shaped his writing and political views for the rest of his life. He saw death every day while in the Philippines, at the hands of his enemies and his allies, and through freak accidents such as that which killed another Jewish private, Melvin Levy. Levy was delivering a comic monologue for the platoon as they rested under a palm tree when a food crate was dropped from a plane above, decapitating him. Serling led the funeral services for Levy and placed a Star of David over his grave. Serling later set several of his scripts in the Philippines and used the unpredictability of death as a theme in much of his writing. In the 1960 Twilight Zone The Purple Testament prolong written by Serling: "Infantry platoon, U.S. Army, Philippine Islands, 1945. These are the faces of the young men who fight, as if some omniscient painter had mixed a tube of oils that were at one time earth brown, dust gray, blood red, beard black, and fear—yellow white, and these men were the models. For this is the province of combat, and these are the faces of war."


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling returned from the successful mission in Leyte with two wounds, including one to his kneecap, but neither kept him from combat when General Douglas MacArthur deployed the paratroopers for their usual purpose on February 3, 1945. Colonel Haugen led the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment as it landed on Tagaytay Ridge, met the 188th Glider Infantry Regiment and marched into Manila. It met minimal resistance until it reached the city, where Vice Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi had arranged his 17,000 troops behind a maze of traps and guns and ordered them to fight to the death. During the next month, Serling's unit battled block by block for control of Manila.


title: Rod Serling

text: When portions of the city were taken from Japanese control, local civilians sometimes showed their gratitude by throwing parties and hosting banquets. During one of these parties, Serling and his comrades were fired upon, resulting in many soldier and civilian deaths. Serling, still a private after three years, caught the attention of Sergeant Lewis when he ran into the line of fire to rescue a performer who had been on stage when the artillery started firing.


title: Rod Serling

text: As it moved in on Iwabuchi's stronghold, Serling's regiment had a 50% casualty rate, with over 400 men killed or wounded. Serling was wounded and three comrades were killed by shrapnel from rounds fired at his roving demolition team by an antiaircraft gun. He was sent to New Guinea to recover but soon returned to Manila to finish "cleaning up".


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling's final assignment was as part of the occupation force in Japan. During his military service, Private Serling was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Philippine Liberation Medal.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling's combat experience affected him deeply and influenced much of his writing. It left him with nightmares and flashbacks for the rest of his life. He said, "I was bitter about everything and at loose ends when I got out of the service. I think I turned to writing to get it off my chest."


title: Rod Serling

text: After being discharged from the Army in 1946, Serling worked at a rehabilitation hospital while recovering from his wounds. His knee troubled him for years. Later, his wife, Carol, became accustomed to the sound of him falling on the stairs when his knee would buckle.


title: Rod Serling

text: When he was fit enough, he used the federal G.I. bill's educational benefits and disability payments to enroll in the physical education program at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He had been accepted to Antioch (his brother's "alma mater") while in high school. His interests led him to the theater department and then to broadcasting. He changed his major to Literature and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950. "I was kind of mixed up and restless, and I kind of liked their work-for-a-term, go-to-school-for-a-term set-up," he recounted.


title: Rod Serling

text: As part of his studies, Serling became active in the campus radio station, an experience that proved useful in his future career. He wrote, directed, and acted in many radio programs on campus, then around the state, as part of his work study. Here he met Carolyn Louise "Carol" Kramer, a fellow student, who later became his wife. At first, she refused to date him because of his campus reputation as a "ladies' man", but she eventually changed her mind. He joined the Unitarian church in college, which allowed him to marry Kramer on July 31, 1948. They had two daughters, Jodi and Anne.


title: Rod Serling

text: Carol Serling's maternal grandmother, Louise Taft Orton Caldwell, had a summer home on Cayuga Lake in Interlaken, New York, which was the honeymoon destination for the newlyweds. The Serling family continued to use this house annually throughout Rod's life, missing only two summers in the years when his daughters were born.


title: Rod Serling

text: For extra money in his college years, Serling worked part-time testing parachutes for the United States Army Air Forces. According to his radio station coworkers, he received $50 for each successful jump and had once been paid $500 (half before and half if he survived) for a hazardous test. His last test jump was a few weeks before his wedding. In one instance, he earned $1,000 for testing a jet ejection seat that had killed the previous three testers.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling volunteered at WNYC in New York as an actor and writer in the summer of 1946. The next year, he worked at that station as a paid intern in his Antioch work-study program. He then took odd jobs in other radio stations in New York and Ohio. "I learned 'time', writing for a medium that is measured in seconds," Serling later said of his early experiences.


title: Rod Serling

text: While attending college, Serling worked at the Antioch Broadcasting System's radio workshop and was managing the station within a couple of years. He then took charge of full-scale radio productions at Antioch which were broadcast on WJEM, in Springfield. He wrote and directed the programs and acted in them when needed. He created the entire output for the 1948–1949 school year. With one exception (an adaptation), all the writing that year was his original work.


title: Rod Serling

text: While in college, Serling won his first accolade as a writer. The radio program, "Dr. Christian", had started an annual scriptwriting contest eight years earlier. Thousands of scripts were sent in annually, but very few could be produced. Serling won a trip to New York City and $500 for his radio script "To Live a Dream". He and his new wife, Carol, attended the awards broadcast on May 18, 1949, where he and the other winners were interviewed by the star of "Dr. Christian", Jean Hersholt. One of the other winners that day was Earl Hamner, Jr., who had also earned prizes in previous years.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling’s first job out of college was with WLW radio as copy writer. The position had just been vacated by Hamner who left to concentrate on his writing.


title: Rod Serling

text: In addition to earning $45 to $50 a week at the college radio station, Serling attempted to make a living selling freelance scripts of radio programs, but the industry at that time was involved in many lawsuits, which affected willingness to take on new writers (some whose scripts were rejected would often hear a similar plot produced, claim their work had been stolen, and sue for recompense). Serling was rejected for reasons such as "heavy competition", "this script lacks professional quality", and "not what our audience prefers to listen to".


title: Rod Serling

text: In the autumn of 1949, Martin Horrell of "Grand Central Station" (a radio program known for romances and light dramas) rejected one of Serling's scripts about boxing, because his mostly female listeners "have told us in no uncertain terms that prize fight stories aren't what they like most". Horrell advised that "the script would be far better for sight than for sound only, because in any radio presentation, the fights are not seen. Perhaps this is a baby you should try on some of the producers of television shows."


title: Rod Serling

text: Realizing the boxing story was not right for "Grand Central Station", Serling submitted a lighter piece called "Hop Off the Express and Grab a Local", which became his first nationally broadcast piece on September 10, 1949. His "Dr. Christian" script aired on November 30 of that year.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling began his professional writing career in 1950, when he earned $75 a week as a network continuity writer for WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. While at WLW, he continued to freelance. He sold several radio and television scripts to WLW's parent company, Crosley Broadcasting Corporation. After selling the scripts, Serling had no further involvement with them. They were sold by Crosley to local stations across the United States.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling submitted an idea for a weekly radio show in which the ghosts of a young boy and girl killed in World War II would look through train windows and comment on day-to-day human life as it moved around the country. This idea was changed significantly but was produced from October 1950 to February 1951 as "Adventure Express", a drama about a girl and boy who travel by train with their uncle. Each week they found adventure in a new town and got involved with the local residents.


title: Rod Serling

text: Other radio programs for which Serling wrote scripts include "Leave It to Kathy", "Our America", and "Builders of Destiny". During the production of these, he became acquainted with a voice actor, Jay Overholts, who later became a regular on "The Twilight Zone".


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling believed radio was not living up to its potential, later saying, "Radio, in terms of ... drama, dug its own grave. It had aimed downward, had become cheap and unbelievable, and had willingly settled for second best." He opined that there were very few radio writers who would be remembered for their literary contributions.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling moved from radio to television, as a writer for WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. His duties included writing testimonial advertisements for dubious medical remedies and scripts for a comedy duo. He continued at WKRC after graduation and, amidst the mostly dreary day-to-day work, also created a series of scripts for a live television program, "The Storm", as well as for other anthology dramas (a format which was in demand by networks based in New York). Following a full day of classes (or, in later years, work), he spent evenings on his own, writing. He sent manuscripts to publishers and received forty rejection slips during these early years.


title: Rod Serling

text: In 1950, Serling hired Blanche Gaines as an agent. His radio scripts received more rejections, so he began rewriting them for television. Whenever a script was rejected by one program, he would resubmit it to another, eventually finding a home for many in either radio or television.


title: Rod Serling

text: As Serling's college years ended, his scripts began to sell. He continued to write for television and eventually left WKRC to become a full-time freelance writer. He recalled, "Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn't embrace it. I succumbed to it."


title: Rod Serling

text: According to his wife, Serling "just up and quit one day, during the winter of 1952, about six months before our first daughter Jody was born—though he was also doing some freelancing and working on a weekly dramatic show for another Cincinnati station." He and his family moved to Connecticut in early 1953. Here he made a living by writing for the live dramatic anthology shows that were prevalent at the time, including "Kraft Television Theatre", "Appointment with Adventure" and "Hallmark Hall of Fame". By the end of 1954, his agent convinced him he needed to move to New York, "where the action is."


title: Rod Serling

text: The writer Marc Scott Zicree, who spent years researching his book "The Twilight Zone Companion", noted, "Sometimes the situations were clichéd, the characters two-dimensional, but always there was at least some search for an emotional truth, some attempt to make a statement on the human condition."


title: Rod Serling

text: In 1955, the nationwide "Kraft Television Theatre" televised a program based on Serling's 72nd script. To Serling, it was just another script, and he missed the first live broadcast. He and his wife hired a babysitter for the night and told her, "no one would call because we had just moved to town. And the phone just started ringing and didn't stop for years!" The title of this episode was "Patterns", and it soon changed his life.


title: Rod Serling

text: "Patterns" dramatized the power struggle between a veteran corporate boss running out of ideas and energy and the bright, young executive being groomed to take his place. Instead of firing the loyal employee and risk tarnishing his own reputation, the boss enlists him into a campaign to push aside his competition. Serling modeled the character of the boss on his former commander, Colonel Orin Haugen.


title: Rod Serling

text: "The New York Times" critic Jack Gould called the show "one of the high points in the TV medium's evolution" and said, "[f]or sheer power of narrative, forcefulness of characterization and brilliant climax, Mr. Serling's work is a creative triumph." Robert Lewis Shayon stated in "Saturday Review", "in the years I have been watching television I do not recall being so engaged by a drama, nor so stimulated to challenge the haunting conclusions of an hour's entertainment." The episode was a hit with the audience as well, and a second live show was staged by popular demand one month later. During the time between the two shows, Kraft executives negotiated with people from Hollywood over the rights to "Patterns". Kraft said they were considering rebroadcasting "Patterns", unless the play or motion picture rights were sold first.


title: Rod Serling

text: Immediately following the original broadcast of "Patterns", Serling was inundated with offers of permanent jobs, congratulations, and requests for novels, plays, and television or radio scripts. He quickly sold many of his earlier, lower-quality works and watched in dismay as they were published. Critics expressed concern that he was not living up to his promise and began to doubt he was able to recreate the quality of writing that "Patterns" had shown.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling then wrote "Requiem for a Heavyweight" for the television series "Playhouse 90" in 1956, again gaining praise from critics.


title: Rod Serling

text: In the autumn of 1957, the Serling family moved to California. When television was new, shows aired live, but as studios began to tape their shows, the business moved from the East Coast to the West Coast. The Serlings would live in California for much of his life, but they kept property in Binghamton and Cayuga Lake as retreats for when he needed time alone.


title: Rod Serling

text: The early years of television often saw sponsors working as editors and censors. Serling was often forced to change his scripts after corporate sponsors read them and found something they felt was too controversial. They were wary of anything they thought might make them look bad to consumers, so references to many contemporary social issues were omitted, as were references to anything that might compete commercially with a sponsor. For instance, the line "Got a match?" was deleted because one of the sponsors of "Requiem for a Heavyweight" was Ronson lighters.


title: Rod Serling

text: The initial story-line of his teleplay "Noon on Doomsday" (aired April 25, 1956) was set in the Southern United States about the lynching of a Jewish pawnbroker. However, when Serling mentioned in a radio interview that it was inspired by the events and racism that led to the murder of Emmett Till, censorship by advertisers and the TV network resulted in significant changes. The program as shown was set in New England and concerned the killing of an unknown foreigner. He subsequently returned to the Till events when writing "A Town Has Turned to Dust" for 'Playhouse 90' but had to set it a century in the past and remove any inter-racial dynamics before it would be produced by CBS TV.


title: Rod Serling

text: Gould, "The New York Times" reviewer, added this editorial note at the end of a glowing review for "A Town Has Turned to Dust", a show about racism and bigotry in a small Southwestern town: "'Playhouse 90' and Mr. Serling had to fight executive interference ... before getting their play on the air last night. The theater people of Hollywood have reason to be proud of their stand in the viewers' behalf."


title: Rod Serling

text: Frustrated by seeing his scripts divested of political statements and ethnic identities (and having a reference to the Chrysler Building removed from a script sponsored by Ford), Serling decided the only way to avoid such artistic interference was to create his own show. In an interview with Mike Wallace, he said, "I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to have to battle sponsors and agencies. I don't want to have to push for something that I want and have to settle for second best. I don't want to have to compromise all the time, which in essence is what a television writer does if he wants to put on controversial themes."


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling submitted "The Time Element" to CBS, intending it to be a pilot for his new weekly show, "The Twilight Zone". Instead, CBS used the science fiction script for a new show produced by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse," in 1958. The story concerns a man who has vivid nightmares of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The man goes to a psychiatrist and, after the session, the twist ending (a device which Serling became known for) reveals the "patient" had died at Pearl Harbor, and the "psychiatrist" was the one actually having the vivid dreams. The episode received so much positive fan response that CBS agreed to let Serling go ahead with his pilot for "The Twilight Zone".


title: Rod Serling

text: Before "The Twilight Zone", Serling created a local television show in Cincinnati on WKRC-TV, "The Storm", in the early 1950s. Several of these scripts were rewritten for later use on national network TV. A copy of an episode is located in the Cincinnati Museum Center Historical Cincinnati Library on videotape.


title: Rod Serling

text: For this series, Serling fought hard to get and maintain creative control. He hired scriptwriters he respected, such as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. In an interview, Serling said the show's science fiction format would not be controversial with sponsors, network executives, or the general public and would escape censorship, unlike the earlier script for "Playhouse 90".


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling drew on his own experience for many episodes, frequently about boxing, military life, and airplane pilots. "The Twilight Zone" incorporated his social views on racial relations, somewhat veiled in the science fiction and fantasy elements of the shows. Occasionally, the point was quite blunt, such as in the episode "I Am the Night—Color Me Black", in which hatred caused a dark cloud to form in a small town in the American Midwest and spread across the world. Many "Twilight Zone" stories reflected his views on gender roles, featuring quick-thinking, resilient women as well as shrewish, nagging wives.


title: Rod Serling

text: "The Twilight Zone" aired for five seasons (the first three presented half-hour episodes, the fourth had hour-long episodes, and the fifth returned to the half-hour format). It won many television and drama awards and drew critical acclaim for Serling and his co-workers. Although it had loyal fans, "The Twilight Zone" had only moderate ratings and was twice canceled and revived. After five years and 156 episodes (92 written by Serling), he grew weary of the series. In 1964, he decided not to oppose its third and final cancellation.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling sold the rights to "The Twilight Zone" to CBS. His wife later claimed he did this partly because he believed that his own production company, Cayuga Productions, would never recoup the production costs of the programs, which frequently went over budget.


title: Rod Serling

text: "The Twilight Zone" eventually resurfaced in the form of a 1983 film by Warner Bros. Former "Twilight Zone" actor Burgess Meredith was cast as the film's narrator, but does not appear on screen. There have been three attempts to revive the television series with mostly new scripts. In 1985, CBS used Charles Aidman (and later Robin Ward) as the narrator. In 2002, UPN featured Forest Whitaker in the role of narrator. In 2019, CBS made a third attempt at a successful revival, with Jordan Peele taking on producing duties as well as being host and narrator.


title: Rod Serling

text: "A Carol for Another Christmas" was a 1964 American television movie, scripted by Rod Serling as a modernization of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and a plea for global cooperation between nations. It was telecast only once, on December 28, 1964. The only television movie directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, this was the film in which Peter Sellers gave his first performance after a series of near-fatal heart attacks in the wake of his marriage to Britt Ekland. Sellers portrayed a demagogue in an apocalyptic Christmas.


title: Rod Serling

text: In 1969, NBC aired a television film pilot for a new series, "Night Gallery", written by Serling. Set in a dimly lit museum after hours, the pilot film featured Serling (as on-camera host) playing the curator, who introduced three tales of the macabre, unveiling canvases that would appear in the subsequent story segments. Its brief first season (consisting of only six episodes) was rotated with three other shows airing in the same time slot; this wheel show was entitled "Four in One". The series generally focused more on horror and suspense than "The Twilight Zone" did. On the insistence of the producer Jack Laird, "Night Gallery" also began including brief comedic "blackout" sketches during its second season, which Serling greatly disdained. He stated "I thought they [the blackout sketches] distorted the thread of what we were trying to do on "Night Gallery". I don't think one can show Edgar Allan Poe and then come back with Flip Wilson for 34 seconds. I just don't think they fit."


title: Rod Serling

text: No longer wanting the burden of an executive position, Serling sidestepped an offer to retain creative control of content, a decision he would come to regret. Although discontented with some of the scripts and creative choices of Jack Laird, Serling continued to submit his work and ultimately wrote over a third of the series' scripts. By season three, however, many of his contributions were being rejected or heavily altered. "Night Gallery" was cancelled in 1973. NBC later combined episodes of the short-lived paranormal series "The Sixth Sense" with "Night Gallery", in order to increase the number of episodes available in syndication. Serling was reportedly paid $100,000 to film introductions for these repackaged episodes.


title: Rod Serling

text: After "The Twilight Zone" was canceled, Serling wrote an unsuccessful western television series called "The Loner," which ran from the fall of 1965 to April 1966. CBS asked Serling to have more action and less character interaction. He refused to comply, even though the show had received poor reviews and low ratings.


title: Rod Serling

text: In a stylistic departure from his earlier work, Serling briefly hosted the first version of the game show "Liar's Club" in 1969.


title: Rod Serling

text: In the 1970s, Serling appeared in television commercials for Ford, Radio Shack, Ziebart and the Japanese automaker Mazda. He also made occasional acting appearances, all in material he didn't write. Serling appears as a version of himself (but named "Mr. Zone") in a comedic bit on "The Jack Benny Program"; he appears in a 1962 episode of the short-lived sitcom "Ichabod and Me" in the role of Eugene Hollinfield; and in a 1972 episode of the crime drama "Ironside" entitled "Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Murder" (which also featured a young Jodie Foster), in which he plays a small role as the proprietor of an occult magic shop.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling returned to radio late in his career with "The Zero Hour" (also known as "Hollywood Radio Theater") in 1973. The drama anthology series featured tales of mystery, adventure, and suspense, airing in stereo for two seasons. Serling hosted the program but did not write any of the scripts. The series ended on July 26, 1974.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling's final radio performance was even more unusual: "Fantasy Park" was a 48-hour-long rock concert aired by nearly 200 stations in 1974 and 1975. The program, written and produced by McLendon National Productions Director Steve Blackson, featured performances by dozens of rock stars of the day, and even reunited the Beatles. It was also completely "imaginary"—as KNUS Program Director Beau Weaver put it, a "theatre-of-the-mind for the '70s". The concert used record albums, many recorded live in concert, plus crowd noise, interviews, schedule updates by host Fred Kennedy, and other sound effects. (Stations that aired the special were reportedly inundated by callers demanding to know how to get to the nonexistent concert.) KNUS general manager Bart McLendon recruited Serling to record the host segments, bumpers, custom promos, and television spots.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling wrote the disclaimers, which aired each hour: "Hello, this is Rod Serling and welcome back to "Fantasy Park"—the crowds here today are unreal." "This is "Fantasy Park"—the greatest live concert—"never" held."


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling kept his schedule full. When he was not writing, promoting, or producing his work, he often spoke on college campuses around the country. He taught week-long seminars in which students would watch and critique films. In the political climate of the 1960s, he often felt a stronger connection to the older students in his evening classes. Serling's critique of high school student writing was a pivotal experience for writer J. Michael Straczynski.


title: Rod Serling

text: By the fourth season of "Twilight Zone," Serling was exhausted and turned much of the writing over to a trusted stable of screenwriters, authoring only seven episodes. Desiring to take a break and clear his mind, he took a one-year teaching job as writer in residence at Antioch College, Ohio. He taught classes in the 1962–63 school year on writing and drama and a survey course covering the "social and historical implications of the media." He used this time to teach as well as work on a new screenplay, "Seven Days in May".


title: Rod Serling

text: Later he taught at Ithaca College, from the late 1960s until his death in 1975. He was one of the first guest teachers at the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in Hollywood, California. Audio recordings of his lectures there are included as bonus features on some "Twilight Zone" home video editions.


title: Rod Serling

text: According to his wife, Carol, Serling often said that "the ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in, becoming narcissistic." This philosophy can be seen in his writing. Some themes appear again and again in his writing, many of which are concerned with war and politics. Another common theme is equality among all people.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling's experiences as a soldier left him with strong opinions about the use of military force. He was an outspoken antiwar activist, especially during the Vietnam War. He supported antiwar politicians, notably Eugene McCarthy in his presidential campaign in 1968.


title: Rod Serling

text: "The Rack" is an example of Serling's use of television to speak his mind on political issues. This script for "The United States Steel Hour" tells the story of an army captain charged with collaborating with the North Koreans. "The New York Times" reviewer J. P. Shanley called it "controversial and compelling". Serling tackled a question that was much in the media at the time: should veterans be charged with a crime if they cooperated with the enemy while under duress? In this courtroom drama, the accused is put on trial for helping the enemy by urging fellow prisoners of war to cooperate with their captors. Serling offers many valid arguments on behalf of both the defense and the prosecution. Each has a strong case, but in the end, the captain is found guilty. There is no Serling narration to conclude the drama, as he had become famous for in "The Twilight Zone"—instead, the audience is left to make their own conclusions after the verdict has been rendered.


title: Rod Serling

text: "No Christmas This Year" was a script written early in Serling's career, around 1950, but was never produced. It told of a place that no longer celebrated Christmas, although none of the residents know why it has been canceled. Meanwhile, at the North Pole, the audience sees Santa Claus dealing with striking elves. Rather than creating toys and candy, the North Pole manufactures a diversity of bombs and offensive gases. Santa has been shot at on his route, and an elf was hit by shrapnel.


title: Rod Serling

text: "24 Men to a Plane" recounts Serling's first combat jump into the area around Manila in 1945. The combat jump became a fiasco after the jumpmaster in the first plane dropped his men too early, causing every subsequent plane to drop in synchronization with the mistake.


title: Rod Serling

text: "A Town Has Turned to Dust" received a positive review from the critic Jack Gould, who was known for being straightforward to the point of being harsh in his reviews. He called "A Town Has Turned to Dust," "a raw, tough and at the same time deeply moving outcry against prejudice." Set in a Southwestern town in a deep drought, it sees poverty and despair turn racial tensions deadly when the ineffectual sheriff is unable to stand against the town. A young Mexican boy is lynched, and the town as a whole is to blame. A second lynching is in the works after a series of events leads again to the town turning against the Mexicans. This time, the sheriff stands strong, and the first boy's brother is saved, even as the town is not. "Mr. Serling incorporated his protest against prejudice in vivid dialogue and sound situations. He made his point that hate for a fellow being leads only to the ultimate destruction of the bigoted."


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling took his 1972 screenplay for the film, "The Man", from the Irving Wallace novel of the same title. The black senator from New Hampshire and president "pro tempore" of the Senate, played by James Earl Jones, assumes the U.S. presidency by succession.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling was said to smoke three to four packs of cigarettes a day. On May 3, 1975, he had a heart attack and was hospitalized. He spent two weeks at Tompkins County Community Hospital before being released. A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to agree that open-heart surgery, though considered risky at the time, was required. The ten-hour-long procedure was performed on June 26, but Serling had a third heart attack on the operating table and died two days later at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. He was 50 years old. His funeral and burial took place on July 2 at Lake View Cemetery, Interlaken, (Seneca County), New York.


title: Rod Serling

text: A memorial was held at Cornell University's Sage Chapel on July 7, 1975. Speakers at the Memorial included his daughter Anne and the Reverend John F. Hayward. On January 9, 2020, Carolyn Louise "Carol" Kramer Serling died at age 90 and was buried next to her husband.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling began his career when television was a new medium. The first public viewing of an all-electronic television was presented by inventor Philo Farnsworth at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934, when Serling was nine years old. Commercial television officially started on July 1, 1941. At the time, there were fewer than seven thousand television sets in the United States, and very few of those were in private homes. Only five months later, the U.S. entered World War II, and the television business was put on hold until the war's end, as many of the sets were confiscated by the government and repurposed to train air-raid wardens. After World War II ended, money began flowing toward the new medium of television, coinciding with the beginning of Serling's writing career. Early programming consisted of newsreels, sporting events and what would be called public-access television today. It was not until 1948 that filmed dramas were first shown, beginning with a show called "Public Prosecutor". Serling began having serious dramas produced in 1950 and is given credit as one of the first to write scripts specifically for television. As such, he is said to have helped legitimize television drama.


title: Rod Serling

text: Serling worried that television was on the verge of suffering the same decline as radio. He encouraged sponsors to see television as a platform for the kind of dramatic entertainment that could address important social matters through subtle meanings, instead of being "an animated billboard."


title: Rod Serling

text: The format of writing for television was changing rapidly in the early years, but eventually, it settled into a pattern of commercial breaks on each quarter-hour. Writers were forced to work these breaks into their scripts. Serling's response to this convention was, "How can you put out a meaningful drama when every fifteen minutes proceedings are interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits with toilet paper? No dramatic art form should be dictated and controlled by men whose training and instincts are cut of an entirely different cloth. The fact remains that these gentlemen sell consumer goods, not an art form." Throughout his career, Serling helped to mold the future of television.


title: Rod Serling

text: As early as 1955, Jack Gould, of the "New York Times", commented on the close ties that were then being created between television and movies. Serling was among the first to use both forms, turning his early television successes, "Patterns" and "The Rack", into full-length movies. Up to that time, many established writers were unwilling to write for television because the programs were viewed only once and then stored in a vault, never to be seen again.


title: Rod Serling

text: After the first showing of "Patterns", the studio received such positive feedback that it produced a repeat performance, the first time a television program had been replayed at the request of the audience. Although successful shows had sometimes been recreated after two years or more, this was the first time a show was recreated exactly—with the same cast and crew—as it had been originally broadcast. The second live performance, only a month later, was equally successful and inspired "New York Times" critic Jack Gould to write an essay on the use of replays on television. He stated that "Patterns" was a prime example of a drama that should be seen more than once, whereas a single broadcast was the norm for television shows of the day. Sponsors believed that creating new shows every week would assure them the largest possible audience, so they purchased a new script for each night. Gould suggested that as new networks were opened and the viewers were given more choices, the percentage of viewers would spread among the offerings. "Patterns" was proof that a second showing could gain more viewers because those who missed the first showing could see the second, thus increasing the audience for sponsors.