Vignette 11: December 8, 1941

Eleven—December 8, 1941



The flight radio officer of the Pan American DC-3 enroute from Miami to Panama City, was busy checking his radio bearings and dead-reckoning data, preparatory to sending a position report back to Miami.

He could hear the ground operator at Kingston, Jamaica impatiently calling him. The signals were so loud they were blocking the receiver, indicating that Kingston was very close. When his report was ready, he would answer. These English operators took themselves very seriously: the problems of the world rested on their shoulders.

Nothing was wrong today. The motors synchronized reassuringly; the sun was high; they had a twenty-mile tail wind and not a cloud in the sky. The pilot held the airplane steady at 270 degrees without a quiver as Sparks completed radio bearing on Camaguez and Kingston. He checked the compass deviation, made his calculations; and as he had thought, they were abeam of Kingston.

He set the transmitter on the Kingston communication frequency in order to send the position report there to be relayed to Miami. Kingston was still calling him; his keying was so excited now that he could hardly be called intelligible. Sparks flipped the transmitter switch and tapped the Morse key in answer to the Kingston call.

The response was devastating. Kingston fell all over himself, unburdening the important communication he had to make. The DC-3 operator had no time for light conversation and instructed Kingston to stop his nonsense and relay the position report.

He thought to himself that this particular Limey must have heard that the British were reputed to be devoid of a sense of humor and was trying to remedy the reputation. So Pearl Harbor had been bombed by Japs!

What a sense of humor!