4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL MAY 10, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: Aircraft warning service
One day, if you’re
lucky, you might stum-
ble across an interesting
little item in the toy sec-
tion while browsing through a thrift shop: a small
hard-rubber toy airplane.
This airplane will have no paint or trim of any
kind, and no details like windows and landing
gear. But if you know your World War II air-
planes, you’ll recognize it right away. It will be
a perfect likeness of a Dornier Do.17, or maybe a
Mitsubishi G4M.
Before you toss it back on the shelf and move
on, take a second look. You’re holding in your
hand an artifact of the Aircraft Warning Service,
the U.S. Army operation staffed with civilian vol-
unteers who watched the skies for enemy aircraft
24 hours a day throughout most of the Second
World War.
The “toy” planes were made to help observ-
ers recognize incoming aircraft from their wing
shapes. Along with such three-dimensional mod-
els, observers had charts and
fl ashcards to bone up on their
aircraft recognition skills —
and, on long shifts spent watch-
ing the skies for enemy bomb-
ers, they had plenty of time to
get good at it.
The Aircraft Warning Service
got started about six months be-
We are your hometown newspaper. What we say matters and fore Pearl Harbor. The idea was
how we say it counts. We want you to trust that what you hear to draw volunteers from the ci-
from us is true. When we make an allegation, we have several vilian population — people who
qualifi ed sources to back it up. We don’t engage in gossip, even were too young, too old, or too
if it means we don’t have the viral story this week. We’ll have the female for combat service in
the Army — and train them to
true and accurate one next week.
No public offi cial in Cottage Grove gets a free pass from us. We watch the sky and recognize the
don’t play favorites and we don’t hold grudges. But the facts have aircraft that fl ew overhead, be
they American or foreign. Army
to be there and when they’re not, we’ll wait.
We’ll dig deeper and ask more questions because we will never offi cials, by that time, were all
give you half an answer or ask you to draw a conclusion without but certain that the U.S. would
presenting you the facts in their entirety. We’ll always give you all end up involved in the war soon.
of the facts and when there’s one to be had, an answer as well. If When that happened, they want-
that means other publications are the fi rst to have a Cottage Grove ed to have some defenses in
place. The Germans, who were
headline on their front page, that’s ok by us.
not much of a naval power, were
We’ll wait to get it right.
And we hope you’ll wait with us because we don’t care if we less worrisome than the Japa-
publish or post fi rst. We care that what we publish and post is nese — who very much were.
It's not much remembered to-
correct, sourced, fair, honest and carries the weight of facts. Not
day what a uniquely alarming
sensationalism.
It’s called journalism. And we hope you continue to subscribe threat the Japanese were at the
outset of the war. Every country
to it.
As always, I’m happy to explain our decisions, hear your con- in the world that used aircraft
cerns and tell your stories. Stop by, call or email through any of carriers, at that time, stocked
the contacts listed below. It is a privilege to serve this community them with second-rate aircraft.
and we will continue to do so by upholding the standards and Every country, that is, except
Japan, whose carriers were
policies of journalism.
crammed with Mitsubishi A6M
Zeroes — arguably the best all-
Cottage Grove Sentinel contacts:
around fi ghter plane in the world
(541) 942-3325
at the time, and certainly the
cmay@cgsentinel.com
most long-legged. Zeroes had a
gmanly@cgsentinel.com
range of nearly 2,000 miles, so
116 N. 6th St. in downtown Cottage Grove
they could accompany bomb-
By Finn JD John
For The Sentinel
A word from the
Editor
ers all the way to any target within a 10-million-
square-mile area around their home carriers. As
late as 1942, no country in the world, not even
Nazi Germany and certainly not the U.S., could
project half as much force half as far afi eld as Im-
perial Japan.
The Army brass might not have been aware of
all this in July of 1941 when it was forming the
AWS. But it certainly became aware of it fi ve
months later, when Japan used that force-projec-
tion capability to come out of nowhere and hit
Pearl Harbor harder than anyone had dreamed
was possible.
Immediately after that, the entire West Coast
realized it was on the front lines. Sure, the Nazis
might come up with some new secret weapon that
would make it possible to strike East Coast Amer-
ican cities; that was why AWS watchers were on
the East Coast, just in case. But nothing the Nazis
were fl ying in 1941 could reach American soil,
not even on a one-way mission.
Japan was another matter. If a handful of Jap-
anese carriers should slip up unnoticed to within
750 miles of, say, Astoria, or Newport, or even
San Francisco —
Many people on the West Coast, perhaps most
of them, fully expected something like that to ac-
tually happen. They of course did not know that
the U.S. had cracked the Japanese military code,
which almost totally negated that force-projection
advantage. They only knew that the Japanese had
appeared out of nowhere and left Pearl Harbor a
smoking ruin, and seemed eager to do it again.
The West Coast seemed like a logical next target.
So the AWS volunteers in Oregon and Wash-
ington took their duties particularly seriously as
the Second World War got under way.
Not that it was all grim determination and studi-
ous scanning of the horizon, of course.
“Several instances have recently been called to
our attention where observers have been ‘party-
ing’ while on duty,” the Portland regional AWS
bulletin noted in summer 1942. “The noise and
distraction prevent the effi cient operation of the
post … It is very undesirable to have more than
two people on a post at one time.”
This admonition was probably unnecessary in
1942, when the wolf was still very much at the
door. That was the year when, in early Septem-
ber, AWS volunteers in Curry County became the
only watchers in the country to actually spot an
enemy warplane. A tiny seaplane, launched from
the Imperial Japanese submarine I-25, had come
to the Brookings area to try to start a forest fi re
with a pair of 170-pound bombs. It was the only
air attack on the mainland United States in histo-
ry, before or since.
But by the following year, the thrill was gone
for many of the AWS watchers. It was becom-
ing increasingly clear that Japan was not going
to win, and the U.S. Navy was keeping the little
island country’s remaining aircraft carriers very
busy far away in places like Midway and the
Marshall Islands. No Japanese strike force would
be coming, and with each passing day it seemed
more and more clear that no AWS observer was
going to see another Japanese airplane fl ying over
Oregon soil.
That knowledge was one thing on a fi ne sunny
day, when a person might enjoy sitting out under
the shade of a tree overlooking the sea, idly scan-
ning the horizon for aircraft. It was quite another
on a blustery November night, shivering in an un-
heated shed with the window open to listen for
planes.
Still, the real value of the AWS did not fade
with the fortunes of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
As America’s eyes on the ground, watching the
sky and reporting every sighting with telephones
and radios, the AWS became a lifesaver for doz-
ens, perhaps hundreds, of distressed American
aviators.
Remember, this was before navigation aids like
LORAN. Pilots generally had to rely on land-
marks to guide themselves in fl ight. A pilot caught
in sudden bad weather, or in one of the Central
Oregon Coast’s notoriously fi ckle fog banks,
could get hopelessly lost; and radio communica-
tion was of limited value if Ground Control didn’t
know where the pilot was.
However, if an AWS observer had spotted and
reported the plane and its location and direction of
fl ight earlier in the day, the tower staff could plot
out its likely location on a map and tell the pilot
exactly where to go to fi nd a safe landing.
And then there were the more dramatic cases,
in which an AWS observer saw an aircraft in ob-
vious distress. In one particularly notable case,
an AWS volunteer reported an American bomber
ditching in the ocean off Seaside. The Navy got
there in time to rescue one of the two surviving
crew members (the other swam to shore).
Rather like the Coast Guard “Sand Pounder”
beach patrol, the AWS is not much remembered
today when historians start talking about the Sec-
ond World War. But like the beach patrol, its con-
tribution was more signifi cant than most people
realize.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Unsatisfied with Wyden answer
I didn’t know much about Ron Wyden before I attended his
“Town Hall” in Cottage Grove on May 5th in Cottage Grove. Now
I know that he is one of the reasons that in the 2016 election, the
Democrats lost ground in every area of government.
The vast majority of the questions at the event revolved around
C ottage G rove
S entinel
Administration
John Bartlett, Regional Publisher
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Tammy Sayre, Marketing Specialist ......................................... Ext. 213
tsayre@cgsentinel.com
Editorial
Caitlyn May, Editor. ................................................................. Ext. 212
cmay@cgsentinel.com
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sports@cgsentinel.com
Customer Service
Carla Williams, Offi ce Manager .............................................. Ext. 200
Legals, Classifi eds .......................................... Ext. 200
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Production
Ron Annis, Production Supervisor ............................................. Ext.215
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(USP 133880)
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health care. And even when questions weren’t around health care,
Senator Wyden’s answers were around health care. Alright, fi ne.
Let’s talk about health care.
A huge number of people support the United States joining the
rest of the civilized world in creating a single payer health care sys-
tem. One of the fi rst questions asked of Senator Wyden was whether
he supported that idea. His answer dodged the question, and boiled
down to the fact that he supports state’s rights in creating their own
single payer systems, and that it was hopeless to get such a system
past the Republican controlled Federal government. Fair enough,
but the question was whether he supported the idea. Following this,
another questioner expressed disappointment in the Senator’s an-
swer and asked again if he supports a single payer system. Again,
the Senator dodged the question, and the young person who asked
was left muttering to himself, dissatisfi ed.
If we want solutions to the looming problems of our times, this
dodgy, mealy-mouthed politics has got to stop. It gets us nowhere,
and it makes people disinclined to be involved in our democracy.
Not only that, people see through it. The Senator was obviously
speaking to a crowd that wanted to hear him say that he supports
a single payer system. His repeated dodging of the issue made it
pretty clear to everyone that he doesn’t.
Attention, politicians. People want to hear more than just “I’m
going to fi ght the other team.” They want to know that you under-
stand the problems we face and that you’re not afraid to talk about
the real solutions.
Ivan DelSol
Cottage Grove
Support for Yoncalla school bond
Yoncalla voters are being asked to support a local bond in the
amount of $3.95m for much needed repairs to Yoncalla High
School. If approved the district is in a very favorable position to
receive a state matching grant ranging from $2.9m to $3.95m. Ad-
ditionally, the Yoncalla School District has just been awarded a
$2.84m seismic grant. Combining the grant funds with our local
bond could give Yoncalla School District as much as $10.74m for
high school repairs....ensuring a viable and healthy high school for
decades to come. I can't stress strongly enough the importance of
passing this bond. The long term future of our high school and com-
munity depends on it. The potential of turning a $3.95m investment
into $10.74m is an opportunity I hope we will not pass up as it does
not appear that the state will be making matching funds available
after 2017. But what happens if not enough funds come together to
extend the life of the high school beyond the bond? Will the bonds
still be sold? The answer is no! Oregon law does not allow it. Your
current administration and school board believes this is the best and
least expensive plan going forward. Even less expensive than merg-
ing. They have worked very hard to piece together different funding
sources so they could ask local citizens for as little as possible. If
approved this bond comes in at 83cents/$1,000 of assessed value
on district property. That's $83 per year on a $100,000 property, or
$6.92/month. When you consider the decline of economic activity
and property values that would surely take place should we one day
lose our high school, I truly believe passing this bond will cost less.
Carl R. Van Loon
Yoncalla School Board Chair.
Thanks for lunch
On April 8 my friend and I had dinner at Stacy's Covered Bridge
restaurant in Cottage Grove. At the end of our meal, we asked
for the check and were informed that a group of 4 young people,
who had already left the restaurant, had paid for our meals!
They were all dressed up, perhaps for a prom, and looked
splendid. We didn't get a chance to thank them, and would like
to do so through your newspaper. That was very thoughtful!
We hope they had a wonderful evening, and wish them all
the best for their futures. By way of showing our appreciation,
we are paying forward their generosity.
Antonia Lewis
Eugene
Affordable housing in Cottage Grove?
We have a far worse housing problem Right Now than we under-
stand. What are we to do when people get old and cannot take care
of themselves anymore? Both Magnolia Gardens and Middlefi eld
Oaks cost about USA$5000/month.
We cannot seem to house able bodied adults Right Now, never
mind take out a long-term insurance policy for a retirement home.
Do we even have a future?
Charles Ames
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