Limited Service

LIMITED SERVICE – Many people think control tower operators laze about in an ivory tower on their shifts, listening to Glen Miller Band radio broadcasts and drinking coffee all the time. They are right about drinking the coffee, my stomach attests to that, but there was no lazing about, and I never did hear a Glen Miller Band broadcast when on duty. Radio contact was from and to pilots, co-pilots, aircraft flight radiomen, and crew chiefs.

Like all inductees, my initial service time was spent in basic Army training. In my case, this was followed by radio operators’ mechanic school, then control tower operators’ school, and then waiting for an assignment to a field operation.

In between the waiting and travel, time is described from railways to troopships, to riverboats, to airplanes, to trucks. The reader is taken on a ‘round the world cruise and given insight into the control tower operations of the U.S. Air Force during World War II campaigns in China, Burma, and India. In a few hours of reading, the reader will also discover just why it took the author three years of active Army duty to find out what “limited service” meant, and he or she will experience the kindness to a complete stranger from America as displayed by other Americans, by the Brits, by the Indians, and by the Chinese.