Evening star., 1952-10-06
By ChorIes J. Yarbrouah

Patriotic duty. in these days Of
undeclared war, is as obvious as
a new hill at Sandy Spring, Md.
It gets Fred s. Gilpin up In the
middle of the night: 1t sends
Charles Disharoon to work with
two hours sleep just when the
sleeping's good, and it cranes the
neckS Of a hundred more.
The project is one of Mont
gomery County's eight ground
observation posts, manned strictly
by civilian volunteers who tele-
phone reports of aircraft move
mentS in the area to the Air Force
filter center in Baltimore.
Planes Friendly, So Far.
Thus far, the planes have been
friendly. Some day. they may not
he. It is against that "some day.
that some member Of half the
families in Sandy Spring takes
four-hour shifts of sky-watching.
All over the country. particularly
the seaboards, civilians are doing
the same.
Yet the National supply of
ground observers is short 135, 200
volunteers. Gen. Hoyt Vanden-
berg, Air Force chief Of staff, told
a national television program only
last night that the country has
only 10000 volunteer workers
and needs 1876, 900 more TO bolster
the radar control fighter defense
system.
Near Sandy Spring the spotting
brings visitors" to the fine, old,
tree-hidden home Of the A.. B.
FarquharS on the Olney-Sandy
Spring road at all hours of the
day and night. The station has
been unnamed only 81 hours
since it went into operation-and
seven of those were caused by q
downed telephone line during last
months freak cyclone.
Sometimes it is manned by Mrs.
Farquhar. working out Of turn be-
cause the scheduled spotter may
be home with i'll children or de-
layed in reporting. And Mrs. Far
quhar has 20-room house and
no maid.
+ Aunt, 7S, Takes Turn
But she has q 78-year-old aunt,
Mrs. F. M. Hallowell. who has
stepped in to take her turn at
Sky-watching when q scheduled
observer is delayed. -a
MIR. Farquhar. president of the
Mutual Fire Insurance Co., q
World War I pilot with New
York's late Mayor LaGuardia, and
a charter member of the fire
department is post supervisor. Yet
he stands his own four-hour
watches, usually on week ends.
The Gilpins virtually have q
team on duty. He Is superintend-
ent Of the Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commissions Brighton
dam and another member Of the
volunteer fire department. Mrs.
Gilpin stands her watch on FRI
days, 8 am. to noon, and a daugh-
ter. Rose Ann, is almost a regular
since high school graduation last
June.
Blows Dog Whistle.
The Herbert Stablers-each ad-
mitting to over 10 years-make
another team. Standing on the
crest Of q low hill at the edge of
the Farquhar garden, Mr.. Stabler
blows o dog whistle to attract his
wife. who makes the phone call
to the filter center. "One blast is
to alert her." Mr.. Stabler smiled.
1.-TWO blasts mean its q twin
engine; four means it is four
engine. We're probably the only
ones out here using the whistle
system.
Maybe none Of the others have
dog whistles" Mrs. Stabler
quipped.
MIR. Disharoon, 90. telephone
engineer and Air Force
Pacific veteran, is another regu-
lar and another volunteer fire.
man.
E. H. Richardson. 81, Of Ednor,
q right Of way representative Of
the electric company and Signal
Corps veteran Of the EuropeanI
theater, handles the 8 pm. tol
midnight shift each Friday.
Francis A. Thomas, assistant
Of the Sandy Spring bank
IS the chief observer. another fire-l