I was a member of the Ground Observer Corp for years. After they did away with the GOC our post all became weather observers.
Now I lived in Kansas City (Missouri) and KC is right in the middle of the United States so I am not sure it made much sense having us watch for Soviet bombers. Smile
But I found the following on the Gizmodo site:
“…Here's a transcript of a panel about SAGE that occurred at the Computer History Museum in 1998. I found this passage, about why they couldn't use human spotters to warn of invasions, fascinating:
"And they saw lots of things! [Laughter] They saw airplanes — many of them were civilian; they saw birds; they saw all kinds of things, and most of them they thought were Soviet bombers. I mean, this was a scary period. They would then telephone the nearest air base, which would then have to figure out if this information was worth anything. And pretty much none of it was worth anything. So, it very rapidly became obvious that despite the huge size of this program — there were 8,000 observation posts, and at the peak of the program 305,000 volunteers staffing these things 24 hours a day — the information was pretty much useless. So, commanders just ignored it. For one thing, by the time it had been verified, the bombers would already be there. So, what was the point?
The reason I'm telling you this story is that the purpose of this program was not really air defense. It was public relations. It was saying to the public, "We are doing something about this problem — we see it." At the same time, the Air Force started looking everywhere for ideas from scientists and engineers, and [referring to the slide presentation] now we're restarting, and I'm not sure what's going on.
What's the modern equivalent system that we'd use to defend ourselves against North Korean nukes? I don't know. I just hope its more than just a PR stunt…”
I do not know who was making that statement but I guess it was very funny. I wonder if there was anyone there to tell the speaker that he was full of shit and did not know what he was talking about. I wish I had been at the meeting to show everyone that the clown did not know his ass from a hole in the ground.
We did NOT report Soviet bombers. We reported ALL airplanes. We did not call the nearest air base. We dialed the operator and said “Aircraft FLASH – Aircraft FLASH” and the operator connected us with Air Defense Command.
I remember when the USAF did away with Operation Skywatch (GOC) in 1959. We had a great bunch of volunteers and we all became trained weather observers. I think they did not have trained weather observers at that time in Kansas City. The way it worked back in 1959, I think, that if a police officer called in from his car on the police radio that he saw a tornado they would sound the alarms. The police officers had no weather spotting training. You have to remember there were no cell phone at that time. Things were a lot different at that time.
Now if some of you are doing some math…YES..I was in high school when I was in the Ground Observer Corp, Civil Defense and then I became one of the first trained weather observers in 1959. That was my last year of hight school. If you are wondering how I found all the time to study and do home work …Well I did not not do home work. I did not study. That explains why I went to summer school for four years and why I ended up like I am right now. Smile
I was an observer at Juliet Metro Two Zero Green, Akron, Ohio 1954-1956...
JJ
Posted by: bigredlancer | Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 15:59