Imperial Valley press., 1943-03-10


forces
Hour after hour and month aft
er month. faithful members of the
Grornd Observation corps in I'M
perial county maintain their con-
Stant vigil against invasion by enc
mics of the United States.
Eyes scan the skies day and
night. Ears strain for the fainteSt
sound of a plane high above the
earth. If they fail to spot an enc
my plane disaster will follow
They have pledged themselves nev-
er TO fail.
NOT HONORED
Unhonored and unSung are the
men, women and children who man
the observation posts. Theirs is
not the spectacular service with
flags and other fighters to spur
them on. The observers serve out
their lonely watches. with little
COmpanionShip They are anxious
and worried for fear they will not
discharge their duties faithfully.
They fully realize the responsible
ties that rest upon them. The
safety of the nation depends upon
them The armed forces have Civ
en- the Ground Observation corps
the responsibility of maintaining
watch "a hours every day. The
corps members are the only watch
erS. They stand alone in carrying
this great burden. No duty to
America is any greater No task
any more important.
VALLEY IMPORTANT
Long before Pearl Harbor's great
disaster shocked the nation, Off
GERS of the armed forces realized
the strategic Importance of I'M
perial county as a possible point
of entry by enemy planes. Off
GERS visited the area, studied it
carefully. gathered information,
and went away to make their plans
They returned later and with the
assistance of residents of Imperial
county located places they thought
should have observation posts.
While getting the public used to
the idea of manning such posts
officials established 38 of them.
Each post was given a test opera
ton in December, 1941, as part of
the training course for observers.
There were to be trial airplane
flights SO the observers could learn
to distinguish one plane from an
other. These test flights were
/ scheduled for December II or IA,
194l. Pearl Harbors tragedy came
before the tests could be staged
and the observers on the posts in
\ Imperial county, as we'll as on
those throughout the nation. were
plunged into the grim business of
watching for real planes of a real
/ enemy.
ALL MANNED
/ All 33 posts were manned De-
cember 8, 194l, and the observers
were working under the direct su-
pervision of the Fourth Fighter
| Command.
In January of 1912 the rubber
shortage began to hinder the ac-
tivities of the observers. 1t was
impossible to get observers to man
all the 80 posts % hours every day.
Some of the posts were in isolated
places and observers did not have
the gasoline to get there for their
shifts. So a reorganization took
! place. The Fourth Fighter Com
mand sent officers into the area
and the number of posts was re-
duced from 38 to 13. Two more
were added later and that num-
Der still comprise the total. That
Is, there are 20 posts known to the
observers. There are several secret
ones known only to officers of the
Ground Observation corps. They
will BE- used lin case and their
locations are military secret.
SET-UP COMPLETED
The new Set-up was completed
and placed in operation February
8, 1912, and has been in effect
since that time.
At present there are 1900 OBJ
/ servers manning the observation
/ posts.
Every observer is sworn into the
army and takes this oath:
Il do hereby volunteer for service
in the Ground Observation corps,
/ United States Army Air Forces.
and to the mission with which it is
charged-the protection of the Pa
cific coast and of the nation from
invasion by enemy aircraft
All observers are volunteers. They
give their time to their nation for
nothing but the satisfaction Of do
ing their patriotic duty to help win
the war by protecting our boun-
daries from enemy invasion. They
track planes across the skies and
save our own fighting men and
planes by helping lost fliers find
their way to port.
FIND PLANES
The vigilance of the civilian OBJ
servers have found many lost
| planes. For instance, a plane was
/ lost IN fog. No one knew where
[ the plane was and the pilot had
| lost his bearings. Finally, an OBJ
server telephoned the Army that
an unidentified plane was in the
air. Then another reported the
same thing. Headquarters contacted
the plane ana led the pilot TO safe
landing. When he landed he had
only five gallons of gasoline left.
The ground observers in the ma
tion in this manner have saved
millions of dollars worth of planes,
TO say nothing of the hundreds of
men they have guided to safe land
ings.
If it were not for the activities of
the around nhenrVerS this area