The Ground Observer Corps (Cont'd.)
All members of the GOC would stop by the front desk to pick up a key to the door that led to the roof. The elevator
operator (remember when they had elevator "operators" dressed in uniforms?) would take you up to the "Grand Ballroom" on
the sixth floor, then we would take the stairs on up to the roof.
As I said earlier, our "Observation Station" was a Fifteen foot square room built on the center of the North Wing's
roof. It had a solid wall structure on all four walls up to about four feet high then, except for the very corners and
the roof, all the rest was glass! The Door also had a glass window in the top half. There was a "shelf" on all sides
except where the door was that served as a desktop and a "fixed" table in the center of the room with a huge "compass
chart" so we could tell what direction any plane we spotted was coming from and it's approximate heading.
There was a telephone on the "desk" with what I suspected was a direct connection to Omaha, Nebraska. The reason I
say that is because we did not have to dial a number... When we picked up the phone receiver, we just waited for the
acknowledgement request, and responded with our "callsign", which was "Lima Foxtrot 32 Black".
There were several sets of binoculars (one pair with very high power) guides, manuals, and aircraft identifying books
similar to the page shown on the right,
charts and "tools" scattered around on the desk for our use. When an airplane was spotted, we would yell out so all could
find it. While one person kept it in sight the rest of us would grab the books and the "high power" binoculars, identify
it, enter it into our log", then pick up the phone, give our "callsign" and report it. We would give the type of aircraft
(obtained from the charts), it's altitude (we used "low, high or very high" since we really didn't have a clue to it's
actual altitude), direction from our station and the aircraft's approximate heading (obtained from the "compass chart"
on the center table). Several times a year the Air Force would send a plane "cross country" as a test of our
ability. It was seldom able to be completely undetected and reported. You must remember that the skies were
much less crowded than they are now, and often we would go hours without spotting a plane.
During those "slow times" it was common for us to make paper airplanes and toss them from the roof. Many times they
would fly for quite a distance. We would "hand launch" them from whichever side of the hotel was "up wind" so the
rising air current would take them high above the hotel before they lost the current and begin to glide. They
made us quit doing that because we were "littering" (some Saturday's we would use a whole ream of paper modifying and
"testing" our designs).
Once you had logged a certain number of hours (I think it was 25) you were awarded a set of "wings" with the Ground
Observer Corps insignia in the center of them.
until next time ...
Ron
All members of the GOC would stop by the front desk to pick up a key to the door that led to the roof. The elevator operator (remember when they had elevator "operators" dressed in uniforms?) would take you up to the "Grand Ballroom" on the sixth floor, then we would take the stairs on up to the roof.
As I said earlier, our "Observation Station" was a Fifteen foot square room built on the center of the North Wing's roof. It had a solid wall structure on all four walls up to about four feet high then, except for the very corners and the roof, all the rest was glass! The Door also had a glass window in the top half. There was a "shelf" on all sides except where the door was that served as a desktop and a "fixed" table in the center of the room with a huge "compass chart" so we could tell what direction any plane we spotted was coming from and it's approximate heading.
There was a telephone on the "desk" with what I suspected was a direct connection to Omaha, Nebraska. The reason I say that is because we did not have to dial a number... When we picked up the phone receiver, we just waited for the acknowledgement request, and responded with our "callsign", which was "Lima Foxtrot 32 Black".
There were several sets of binoculars (one pair with very high power) guides, manuals, and aircraft identifying books similar to the page shown on the right, charts and "tools" scattered around on the desk for our use. When an airplane was spotted, we would yell out so all could find it. While one person kept it in sight the rest of us would grab the books and the "high power" binoculars, identify it, enter it into our log", then pick up the phone, give our "callsign" and report it. We would give the type of aircraft (obtained from the charts), it's altitude (we used "low, high or very high" since we really didn't have a clue to it's actual altitude), direction from our station and the aircraft's approximate heading (obtained from the "compass chart" on the center table). Several times a year the Air Force would send a plane "cross country" as a test of our ability. It was seldom able to be completely undetected and reported. You must remember that the skies were much less crowded than they are now, and often we would go hours without spotting a plane.
During those "slow times" it was common for us to make paper airplanes and toss them from the roof. Many times they would fly for quite a distance. We would "hand launch" them from whichever side of the hotel was "up wind" so the rising air current would take them high above the hotel before they lost the current and begin to glide. They made us quit doing that because we were "littering" (some Saturday's we would use a whole ream of paper modifying and "testing" our designs).
Once you had logged a certain number of hours (I think it was 25) you were awarded a set of "wings" with the Ground Observer Corps insignia in the center of them.
Ron