The DuPont Cavalcade of America. Starring Lieutenant William Holden in Recon Pilot, a radio adaptation of an Army Air Forces training film on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. The DuPont Cavalcade presents Recon Pilot, starring Lieutenant William Holden in the role he played in the Army Air Forces training film as Lieutenant Packard Cummings. Let's let Mr. Newton, editor of Lieutenant Cummings' hometown newspaper, set the scene. Lieutenant Packard Cummings is town's most honored native son, and one of the Air Force's most heroic fliers returns in triumph tomorrow morning after 22 months of brilliant, deadly combat overseas. What a lead. He will be met at the airport by his justly proud wife and by this reporter who... Oh, Packard, you're here. You're home, darling. Oh, yes, Katherine. I'm home. Packard, my boy. Hey, Packard. Oh, it's Mr. Newton. You're a member of the editor. Oh, sure. How are you, sir? Fine, fine, boy. Gotta be fine. Got a big story to write on the hometown hero. Oh? First off, how's it feel to get back, huh? Feels good. Never were a kid to talk. Let's have it, Packard. How many planes you knocked down? I got one zero, Mr. Newton. You got...one? Oh, well, that's fine, Packard. I just sort of thought you might have... He's really pretty tired right now, Mr. Newton, and I imagine... Well, I mean, I hope he wants to get home. Sure, Katherine. Well, don't you worry. I'll have something in the paper about him anyway. It's sure good to see you back, though, Packy. Drop in any time. Thanks, Mr. Newton. And thank you, darling. Come on, let's go home. Lieutenant Packard Cummings returned home today from overseas. He was met at the airport by his wife. Packy, what did you think about over there? The porch swing. Oh, I didn't mean that. I meant... No, no, that's true. I really did. I used to worry, you know. Quite a lot. But I wouldn't get back, you mean? But you wouldn't want to get back, unless you got back a hero. I just didn't want to get back a failure. Packy, what was it like over there? What was it really like? Oh, it wasn't too bad. I know. I shouldn't ask. You don't feel like talking about it just yet? No, you don't feel like talking about it just yet. But sitting there on the porch with Katherine, you can't stop yourself from thinking about it. Somehow it all flashes through your mind like a P-38. Very sharp and fast. A whole lot faster than that training plane you had back there in primary. Your first solo, and what a cinch. Because your old man practically nursed you on-fly. By the time you reach basic and then advanced, you know you'll soon be set. Not for a trainer, set for a fighter. The kind of baby you were raised to fly. And then it comes. You get your assignment and you're climbing up into that baby. A custom-made job, 75,000 FOB Burbank, twin-tailed, kingpin of the fighters. A P-38. And just as you're ready to taxi off, you look down, and there's your new CO. Glad to have you with us, Packy. Thank you, Colonel. Had a hunch it'd wind up in fighters. What do you hear from your dad? He's in Australia, sir, commanding the 138th Fighter Wing. He just got his star, you know. General Wild Bill Cummings. Well, it's about time. The things that guy could do with a span. 22 Germans he got in the last show. Gives me something to shoot at, sir. Yep. I suppose you want to do that shooting right in his command, huh? Yes, sir. And I suppose you're kind of anxious to try out that plane. Yes, sir. Okay, Packy, she's all yours. And he's right. That plane is yours. And you'll really learn how to fly her. And then... Well, right about then comes that night. It's just after one in the morning when the CQ comes to your room. Lieutenant. Lieutenant Cummings, sir. Oh, yeah. Wake up, sir. Huh? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, yeah. Wake up, sir. There's a long-distance call for you, Lieutenant. From your home, I think. Oh, okay. Boy, you can really sleep. Yeah. There you are, sir. Thanks, Sergeant. Hello? Packy. Is that you, Packy? Yes, Katherine. Everything all right? What is it, dear? What's happened? Get a grip on yourself, Packy. I'm afraid you're gonna need it. Dad. It's Dad, isn't it? One of his friends just found me. It happened ten days ago. He was on a mission leading a fighter squadron over... It was Boona, I think he said, and they ran into a lot of Zeroes. They were hopelessly outnumbered, and... But he was a hero, Packy. Oh, come on, dear. Get a grip on yourself. That's what I asked you to do, wasn't it? Look, Katherine, I... I can get a pass. Do you want me home for a while? If... if it means anything to you, Packy, I've got a grip on myself now. I mean, it's all right for you to do what you think best. Well, thank you, Katherine. I'd better stay. I've got to be good now. I'll write tomorrow. Good night, darling. Bad news, Lieutenant? Yes. To the Japs. You're full of hate now, and you go in for fighter pilot training as though your life depends on it. You practice air-to-air gunnery until you can aim that P-38 like a shotgun. You strafe ground targets the way nobody else in your squadron can strafe them. You're beginning to feel good again. You've learned how to kill, and you're ready. You know you are. Then just when you think you can't stand it much longer, you get that important call. Yep, it's from your commanding officer. Sit down, Lieutenant. They tell me you're pretty good, number one in your class, ready to ship. What theater should I be in? Ready to ship. What theater, sir? Well, you're not going to a theater just yet. I don't quite understand, sir. You're going to have a little more school. We're assigning you to an F-5 outfit. F-5? Yes, it's a stripped-down P-38, awfully good plane. Should be pretty fast. I'll do close to 500, straighten the level. Say, what kind of guns she carry? Guns? Yes, her guns. Know what? It's an airplane to do one job, Peggy, fly a camera. Sir, look, you just said I was number one in my class. I've worked my head off here because I wanted to be a good fighter pilot. I want to kill Japs. It's what I've got to do. It's what Dad would want me to do. Sir, why pick me to take pictures? Because you're the best fighter pilot here, and it takes the best to fly reconnaissance. Don't mistake me. I'm all for good fighters myself, but reconnaissance is important. One of the most important jobs in the whole Air Force. But, sir... Look, Peggy, if Wild Bill Cummings were sitting right here at this desk, I know exactly what he'd tell you. Do the job they give you to do the best you know how. Be a good soldier, Peggy. Yes, sir. Good luck to you on the course, Lieutenant. Thank you, sir. I'm gonna fly a Brownie. Recon School. That's a place where a gun means nothing. They're crazy for pictures and aerial cameras. Ordinary aerial cameras. This is no ordinary aerial camera, gentlemen. This is a K-18, and it can take a picture from 30,000 feet that will pick out the eggs in a robin's nest. You hate it. Yes, navigation. When you fly reconnaissance, you're on your own. You've got to know how to get there and back. You hate it. A high-altitude chamber. When you fly reconnaissance, you have to fly high. That's your only protection. You hate all the study and training. Now let us examine the Allison engine. You examine everything but how to fight. Let us study this photograph. You don't want to photograph the Japanese. All you want to do is kill them. But they've got other ideas. And one day, three months later, you're listening to another kind of lecture. You're hearing it in a tent on a South Pacific base. And it's not really a lecture. It's a briefing. A briefing for what the A-2 officer calls a very important mission. I can't tell you how important, Lieutenant. Here. Here on the map is Kuya, just north of us. And we're interested in this airdrome here. It's merely in course of construction right now, but we want to know how they're coming. Got it? You want pictures of the thing. Right. And good pictures. No dead jabs, just pictures. And that trip? Well, it's hardly worth thinking about. You get over your spot and press a button. Not a button that fires a gun. Just a button that starts your camera photographing the airdrome below. And there's not one single plane down there. So you head back to your base with some beautiful shots. Pictures of tractors and jabs with pics. Some mission. Some job. Some war. Well, Photo Joe, what's the news from Kuya? I got four zeros, you spitballs. Very unsanitary. All right, boys, unload his cameras. We'll have some prints pretty soon, Cummings, in case you'd like to see them. Save me two doll and two glossy. You are listening to William Holden as Lieutenant Packard Cummings in Recon Pilot on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living and chemistry. As we come to the second part of our story, Packard Cummings is sitting with his wife on the porch swing, thinking about his 22 months in the Pacific, about the break that had made him a reconnaissance pilot that kept him from killing jabs. Funny how those months seem so close right now. They ought to all seem far away. Worthless months. Months of using a picture film and consuming high octane. You fly over jungles. You photograph beaches. You take pictures of Jap harbors and bases. And then today, you're back on the Kuya run. It's the 15th mission you've made over that drone, and never has there been a plane down there. You're cruising peacefully along about 28,000 feet. You're getting close to Kuya. You're about ready. Then all of a sudden you see trouble. A NIP Patrol, three zeros, and they're bearing right in towards you. It comes to you with a terrific jolt. Those guys have been waiting for you. Their air drone's finished, and they've got their planes down there. They're not going to let you see them. But you are. You are going to see those planes. See them and put them on film. You really open up that job of yours. You duck into some fine cloud cover. And your luck's running good today. You come out and those characters are way out of range. You're ready for the air drone and those planes. Then your luck turns sour. Flak. More than you've ever seen. And you've got to push right through it because you're starting your run on the target. Your cameras are rolling now, and you're looking down. Suddenly you can hardly believe your eyes. No planes down there. Not one single plane in sight. Doesn't make sense, and you can't figure it out. But you're having time for them now. You've got to head for the barn. The skies are clear. Those zeros have dropped out of... Uh-oh. Except for one, that is. A smart one, too, that guy. He's really been laying for you. He's got plenty of altitude, and his dive gives him the edge on speed. Then he's right on top of you. He lets go with his guns and... Ow! Ah, gets you. Catches you right in the arm. And then you see red. You're going to get that bandy-legged little squirt if it's the last thing you ever do. You jam the throttle to the board and nose over into a dive. You're going straight down with the jet breathing on your neck. And you hope he doesn't weaken because you know you can out-dive him. Then, then when you reach 550 miles an hour, you pull out hard with all your might and pray your wings will stay on. And it works. In order to hold onto his wings, the jet has to pull out slower. He goes tearing on down below you. That puts you on his tail then, and you hang on like a leech. You can't stand the ache anymore of wanting to blast him. And your finger presses down on the button. You fire. You fire all right, and all you fire is a camera. Just the same, you keep riding him. Right on down toward the sea. He squirms and he threshes. But you've got him. And then he makes a vertical turn. The Japs' last mistake. He loses six feet of altitude. His wing catches a wave and his zero plows right in. And you're the first recon pilot in history to down an enemy fighter without guns. As you head for home, you feel pretty good. Your old man would really be proud. As for the guys around the base, well, they seem to go for it too. You find that out when you go to the officer's club and set yourself up to a beer. I'll tell you, he really got their zero. Hey, there he is now, boys. Hey, Packy. Oh, brother, what you could have done with a slingshot. Great job, Packy. Now, look, I don't know how you guys found out about that. I haven't been back very long and I haven't opened my trap. You're a recon pilot, aren't you? You've got pictures of that guy on a zero. Holy smoke, I forgot. Cummings? Lieutenant Cummings over there? A-2 coming over to give you a kiss. Well, I hear you caught some lead on that trip, Cummings. How's the arm? Oh, much better, thanks. Nothing to worry about. Good. That would have been too much. Oh, I'm sorry about the confinement, Packy. The confinement? What do you mean? Well, I thought the CO had told you. You're confined to quarters and grounded. What? What did you say? That's right, Packy, you're grounded. Oh, but why, sir? For going after that zero and for endangering the success of your mission. I imagine he'll tell you in detail later. As for me, I... Well, it was really a swell piece of flying. You get out of there in a hurry, because another beer isn't going to cure what you've got. You're grounded, not even able to fly, not even able to do as much as you've been doing right along. And just to make it worse, while you're standing out there on the field, the whole sky seems to fill up with what looks like every liberator on the island. And the sight of them up there heading off toward the north is like a kick in the stomach to you. I guess you'll feel that way from now on whenever you see a plane. I'm coming. Yes, sir. The colonel wants to see you now. Lieutenant, I never liked to discipline a man without explaining why I'm doing it. Yes, sir. I understand you had quite a time getting to your target. I'm sorry, sir. I understand you had quite a time getting to your target, intercepted by Jap patrol, particularly heavy flak. It was pretty heavy, sir. And all that just to photograph some tractors and bulldozers. Must have seemed senseless to you. Well, I feel it. Here, I want to show you some pictures. These are the ones you took of that drone. You couldn't see anything, but that camera of yours certainly could. Look, all through here. Camouflaged airplanes, lieutenant. Not just a few, but 200. 200? We hope there's a lot less by now. We sent almost every available bomber over right after we got these pictures. Cummings, how could you dare risk not getting those pictures back by going into a circus act with that fighter? Do you realize those 200 Jap planes in a surprise attack could have wiped out all the air installations we have in this area? That's real responsibility, Cummings. It's responsibility that can't be handled by men who try to fight Zeroes without guns. It's the kind of... General Cummings speaking. Yes. Are you sure? Right, I'll wait for the complete report. How long have you been grounded, lieutenant? How long, sir? Why, only about three hours. Very well, that's long enough. That'll be all, lieutenant. Oh, that's wonderful, sir. And by the way, those 200 Jap planes at Kawea, well, there are none there now. None that are able to fly. Let that be a lesson to you, Cummings. Then along comes that day you'll never forget. You're out on the field, standing straight as a rod, while someone with three stars pins something on your blouse. The distinguished service cross. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. I'm glad you're here, sir. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. You can say, and rightfully so, that you were virtually responsible for the destruction of 200 enemy aircraft. How many missions do you credit, lieutenant? I finished the 51 second one yesterday, sir. I see. Tell me, what would you rather have, that DSC on your chest or a trip back home to your wife? Do I have to answer that, sir? I don't think so, lieutenant. You might be able to have both. She wants to know what it was like. You'll tell her sometime, but not now. Still, you can't stop it from running through your mind like a P-38. Very sharp and fast. Packy. Yes, Katherine? It really wasn't too bad, was it? Oh, no, dear. Of course we had to do without this. Otherwise it wasn't too bad at all. Lieutenant Packard Cummings returned home today from overseas. He was met at the airport by his wife. Our thanks to you, lieutenant William Holden, and to all members of tonight's DuPont Cavalcade cast. William Holden will return in just a moment. Now, here is King Whitman. A German officer, General von Fritsch, said before the outbreak of the war, The country with the best photographic reconnaissance will win the next war. And he was right. The American Army Air Forces are now the world's largest users of photographic film, paper, and equipment. More than 20 million photographs a month are made for military purposes. The Allies have something like 80,000 aerial cameras, some of them with lenses bigger than your hand, able to take a detailed picture of the ground from a plane flying six miles high. Allied cameramen of the air photographed the coast of Normandy again and again before the invasion. Something like 200 million pictures were used in reconnoitering and planning. When the Germans showered England with an especially cruel and vicious delayed action bomb designed to kill and wound civilians, the other cameras, movie cameras, made pictures showing how to deal with it. Cameras with special color films locate Japanese camouflage in the jungles of the South Pacific. Stereoscope cameras show enemy factories and airfields in three dimensions, just as you would see them if you were flying over them. Aerial maps of islands and shoals help our Navy find out where the water is deep enough for ships to move in on the Japs without running aground. X-ray examinations made almost in the front lines without moving wounded men from their stretchers save many lives. The Army teaches engineers to build bridges, teaches aerial gunners to shoot with moving pictures. The gunner in training fires at photographs of enemy planes which come roaring at him from all angles out of a cloud-filled, moving picture sky. Photographs are chemical images. That is true whether you have a giant aerial camera or one of the little box cameras with which American youngsters learn to take their first snapshots. The film itself is sensitized by other chemicals. DuPont photographic films have long been known for their excellence. And now comes news that the Defender Photo Supply Company, an honored name wherever pictures are taken or exhibited, has become a division of the DuPont Photo Products Department. From their combined efforts will come not only a continuance of the fine photographic products for which each name stands, but also new photographic developments. Today, DuPont and Defender film and paper products serve vital war needs. Tomorrow, they will again help DuPont to bring you better things for better living through chemistry. And here is the star of tonight's cavalcade, Lieutenant William Holden. I'd just like to remind you of one or two little facts, if you don't mind, about the Seventh War Loan. First, when you do your buying, remember that this one is the mighty seventh. And when you buy your bonds this time, try to buy twice as many as you ever did in any earlier drive. For the mighty seventh is taking the place of two war bond drives. The other thing is this. There'll be somebody ringing your doorbell in the next week or so, a victory volunteer. When the victory volunteer gets to your house, think of the guy still fighting on Okinawa. And then dig down really deep from final victory. Thanks, everybody. Next week, the DuPont cavalcade will bring you a story that will bring a smile to your lips and a lump to your throat at one and the same time. In other days, this story would have been a love story and nothing more. But this time, the love story is complicated by the difficulties of both parties getting a 24-hour pass. Marjorie Reynolds and Bob Bailey, two rising young Hollywood stars, will be on hand as an Army nurse and a Marine. Next week, when cavalcade brings you, the lieutenants come home. The music for tonight's DuPont cavalcade was composed and conducted by Robert Armbruster. Our cavalcade play was written by Technical Sergeant Harold Medford based on the Army Forces training film Reconnaissance Pilot by Staff Sergeant Guy Trosper. This is Frank Graham inviting you to listen next week to Marjorie Reynolds and Bob Bailey in the Lieutenants Come Home on the Cavalcade of America brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
