The "Eyes Aloft" Story

This is a pre-radar listening device to hear enemy planes.

It was an ordinary day.  Looking for a few old photographs online when I came across a pre-radar listening device.  Rather interesting black and white photo that showed a young man listening for enemy airplanes by means of an unusual contraption that had curved metal units on either side of his head that I suppose were used to detect noise from airplane engines.  To think that people used items such as this to help defend our country was astonishing.  

A Spotter's Shack for the Army Air Forces
Ground Observation Corps.

A few years ago Carol and I made our third visit to Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.  We met a native Hawaiian by the name of Jimmy who as an 11 year old child lived on a farm close to Pearl Harbor.  He told us about the day that the harbor was bombed; December 7, 1941.  They had no warning until they heard the bombs dropping.  He and a few of his friends sat on the railroad tracks near Pearl Harbor and watched the Japanese planes dropping bombs on the harbor.  Someone reported that the Japanese had landed so his family went into the nearby hills and found refuge in a mountain cave.  

Signing up to be tested to be an airplane spotter.

They stayed there for three days before they returned home to find Martial Law had been declared.  Perhaps if they had some type of warning system in place it may not have been as scary or may have been prevented.  I also recently read about a system that was developed to prevent the exact same thing from happening.  It involved as many as 1,500,000 Americans who became part of the Army Air Forces Ground Observation Corps.  

Book titled "Know Your War Planes."

By July of 1940 the town of Mayfield, New York had organized volunteers and set up regular schedules by December 10, 1941.  Citizens of Kent, Connecticut also began the same observation schedule with many observation points that were manned by citizens of every age from high school students to senior citizens working in pairs.  The observers were meant to serve as an early warning system to avoid another surprise attack like the one at Pearl Harbor.  They had to stay current on all military planes and therefore studied sketches and photos of current military aircraft.  People all over the United States prepared and trained to be plane spotters.  For all the preparation, only one German airplane ever entered American air space during the war.  Just so happened that the plane had been captured by American airmen who flew the captured plane to Florida.  

A chart showing shapes of enemy aircraft.

Local plane spotters in the area were informed of the arrival, but they still reported the plane to test their effectiveness.  They reported the model and make of the plane before it ever reached land.  Plane spotters were trained to look at planes on the horizon and ask "How Many?", "Where are they headed?" and "Are they ours or the enemy's?"  These plane spotters were part of the Army Air Forces Ground Observer Corps (aka GOC) who manned observation posts along both east and west coast locations.  The posts were staffed around the clock and were anything from a specially built structure to family's posts in their upstair's bedrooms.  All that was needed was a telephone, binoculars, an official identification book with photographs and silhouette drawings of warplanes from Allied and Foreign countries.  

Patches and pins were issued to plane spotters.

When a plane was seen or heard they recorded as much information as possible and then called the information into an Army Center.  It was reported that Boy Scouts to little old ladies manned the posts.  The only requirement was that they pass a training course.  Many had models of the planes with them to help with the ID.  So many models were needed that the government put out a call for children and hobbyists to build half a million models for official use.  Our entire country was involved in the war.  

There was even music written titled "Eyes Aloft."

Even blind men were plane spotters.  They distinguished the different planes by the noise of their engines.  Coca-Cola even offered a popular manual to plane spotters called "Know Your Planes" for ten cents while Wonder Bread offered an Aircraft Spotter Dial.  By 1943 the Aircraft Warning Service was put in reserve due to the nation's new radar technology.  Posts in Hawaii remained active until the end of the war.  I visited a few websites that talked about plane spotters and many wrote about being one.  All these people are in their late 80s to 90s at this time.  Tough to imagine a time in history when the entire population of the United States pitched in to help save our nation.  I'm sure they were all proud to be Americans.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.