Does any one know if 12O'Clock High has tapes for rent or sale. Many have asked that question. Any answer General.? That picture has the best beginning shots of any movie. Riding a bike up to old closed Aif Field

The "Twelve O'clock High" television series ran from 1964 to 1967 for 78 episodes (imdb.com). According to George Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal the rights are still owned by 20th Century Fox Television.

This series deserves to be re-released on DVD!

Picture of Robert Lansing as General Frank Savage in "Twelve O'clock High"

the greatest.

After Pearl Harbor, the AAF launched a massive recruiting program to enlist every college student they get for their Aviation Cadet program. They knew that the flight training facilities were not adequate to train all that were recruited and planned to maintain a reserve of 54,000 men in the program at all time. The surplus were placed in the Air Force Enlisted Reserve to be held until needed. By October 1942, there were 50,000 in the reserve and another 20,000 already in the service that had qualified for the cadets waiting to begin flight training. At the beginning of 1943, there were 93,000 men waiting to commence flight training. The War Manpower Commission learned about the men in the reserve and brought pressure upon Hap Arnold to get them into the war effort. As a result, the AAF began calling them into active duty in February and by the end of March all of the cadets in the reserve had been called in.

But, the flight schools were full and Arnold had to have a place to put them. As a result, Arnold set up the College Training Detachments and expanded the basic training program to include the cadets to hold the cadets until training facilities were available. Calling all of the men into active duty at one time created a backlog problem that the AAF was never able to solve. Beginning at the end of 1943, the AAF determined that they had all the pilots that they needed, they had to cut back on pilot training and had to get rid of some of the cadets. Many of these surplus Avaiation Cadets ended up as enlisted men in the technical schools of the AAF such as Scott Field. Even worse, large numbers of them ended up in the Infantry.

From 1 September 1943 to 1 March 1944, 4,931 former cadets were entered into the radio mechanics school at Scott Field alone. In February 88.3 per cent of the students were ex-cadets. The schools student capacity was in excess of 14,000 which meant that something in excess of 12,000 washed out cadets were in the school at this time. This did not include several thousand in Area 4 waiting to be sent to radio operator-mechanics school. Almost all of them wanted to be reclassified. Many complained to the Inspector General's Office. Those with an educational background that qualified them for other duty tried to get reassigned to that work. "To all of these requests, the Army replied with a firm 'No'" The policy of "higher headquarters" to wash out Aviation Cadets and send them to technical schools created a great problem for Scott Field.

When the cadets arrived at Scott Field ,they did so with a lot of resentment and for good reson. The Army Air Force had lied to themto induce their volunteering, was reneging on the promice made to them and was violating their own regulations and procedures for the “exigencies of the serviceâ€

The following are exerpts from “The History of Scott Fieldâ€

When the cadets arrived at Scott Field, they ran into a wall of resentment from the administrative officers ho resented the higher educated college men in the ranks and set out to put them in their places. Most of the officers , well schooled in the chicken-s—t. The cadets came from a program where they were treated with respect into one where they were treated as low-grade scum. “Hey youse guys†now greated the same men who only a short time before had been called “Misterâ€. It appeared that an effort was being made to break them into submission

Many of the fellows had more flight training than required for glider pilot and applied for transfer but were turned down. They applied for reassignment to schoolsto use their talents, a Doctor of Optometry for example ,wanted to go into medical field. But, they were turned downQuotas “out weighed abilities and aptitude in the matter of assignment

One 1st sergeant proposed to assign cadets to a period of general duty immediately upon elimination. This to be effective,must be disagreeable, a combination of moralairuining and fatigue—creating work

One cadet resented not being able to get off base to see his new wife. He told the squadron commander as much and he was sent to China

One cadet had only two weeks to be commissioned when they washed him out

AVIATION CADETS

SENT TO SCOTT FIELD

When the Army Air Force recruited the college students in 1942 as Aviation Cadets from the colleges and universities across the land, they they told the students that they were needed as officers in the rapidly expanding Army Air Force and would become pilots, navigators, or bombardiers. Furthermore, those that did not choose to fly and had two years of college would become an Aviation Cadet Ground Crew and commissioned in armaments, communication, ,meteorology, photography, or engineering. But, when the AAF discovered at the end of 1943 that their over zealous recruiting and over estimation of loss rate had created a large surplus of pilots, they ignored all of the promises made to the college students and began transfering them to technical schools. This did not create a pleasAnt situation for the schools or the ex-cadets.

AVIATION CADETS

SENT TO SCOTT FIELD

When the Army Air Force recruited the college students in 1942 as Aviation Cadets from the colleges and universities across the land, they they told the students that they were needed as officers in the rapidly expanding Army Air Force and would become pilots, navigators, or bombardiers. Furthermore, those that did not choose to fly and had two years of college would become an Aviation Cadet Ground Crew and commissioned in armaments, communication, ,meteorology, photography, or engineering. But, when the AAF discovered at the end of 1943 that their over zealous recruiting and over estimation of loss rate had created a large surplus of pilots, they ignored all of the promises made to the college students and began transfering them to technical schools. This did not create a pleasAnt situation for the schools or the ex-cadets.

Just finished watching The Thin Red Line a couple of minutes ago. This was the second time I had seen it. In case you haven't seen it yet, it's worth your time. It's a movie about Guadacanal.

Everytime I watch a movie like this, it really gets to me. Kind of shakes your whole body and your senses. Makes you think. Makes you sad. Makes you proud. Makes you mad. Shakes your sensibilities. Hard to imagine what they went through.

I walk into my office and look at all the pictures I have of the 540th and you just sit and stare at the faces. You wish you could say something profound or offer an apology to them for what they had to go through.

Sigh, I don't know what else to say tonight. Had to write something...

The pride in Teddy Draper’s voice is evident as he talks about events that helped America win the war in the Pacific 62 years ago.

Mr. Draper, who was born on a Navajo Indian reservation in Canyon Del Muerto, Ariz., was one of the Marine Corps Code Talkers who mystified the Japanese forces as the Americans battled their way toward the Japanese mainland.

“When we were at the induction station in 1943 taking the entrance tests, I told them I wanted to join the Air Force,†Mr. Draper said. “They said … I was going into the Marines.â€

Mr. Draper said he had been happy on the reservation, learning the ways of his ancestors when he and many of his fellow Navajo decided to fight for their country.

“We did eight weeks of basic training, then they sent us to Camp Pendleton for eight weeks of communications training,†he said. “We had to learn to be radio operators (and) switchboard operators who sit in the command posts, and even how to run cable.â€

“We had a lot to learn in a short time. We developed a code based on our language. It wasn’t just us talking in Navajo. We had to develop code words to make it even more difficult to break,†Mr. Draper said.

After training in Hawaii to learn how to disembark a troop ship and storm a beach, Mr. Draper and the rest of the 5th Marine Division headed west to take on the Japanese.

Then-Private Draper and his fellow Marines hit the beaches of Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, walking into a wall of Japanese gunfire that raked the sand from one end of the beach to another.

“We had nothing to hide behind,†Mr. Draper said. “They hit us with everything they had -- rifle fire, machine gun fire and artillery. It was like hail hitting the sand.â€

The Code Talker vividly recalls those first hours on the beach at the foot of Mount Suribachi. He also recalls the first time he escaped death.

“I was running from crater to crater with four other Navajo, and I felt something smack my pants,†Mr. Draper said. “I looked down and saw a bullet hole in my pants near my shin. I yelled back at the Japanese that they had missed their only chance to kill this Navajo.â€

Mr. Draper jumped into a large bomb crater and began setting up his equipment when he discovered a missing cable which was needed to connect the radios. The radios were connected to Mr. Draper’s switchboard by those cables so that commanders could issue orders to individual outposts and the outposts could report what they were seeing in the battle.

His sergeant ordered him to go back to the landing craft and get it. So, Mr. Draper had to make a mad dash 150 yards back to the water and then run back to the temporary command post.

“My sergeant told me I had earned a medal for that. I told him I wasn’t interested in a medal; I wanted to be promoted. A couple of days later, I was a corporal,†he said.

The Japanese almost made the Code Talker eat his words the second day on the beach.

“A mortar hit about 20 yards to my right and killed two men I was with,†Mr. Draper said. “It made me blind and deaf for a little while, but I went to the aid station, and they fixed me up, and I went back to work. By that time, there were only a couple of Navajo left alive to run the radios for the entire division, so I wasn’t allowed to be wounded.â€

In the explosion, a piece of shrapnel had smacked Mr. Draper on the bridge of his nose. He considers himself very lucky to be alive.

Today, Mr. Draper and the rest of the remaining Code Talkers speak to the public, educating Americans about the American Indian contribution to the war.

“When we came home, they told us we couldn’t talk about what we did because it was still secret. Everyone else got celebrations and parades, and we stood on the side and watched,†he said.

So, the Navajo formed the Code Talkers Association and began traveling around the country to let people know about their formerly secret mission. They began their public tour by marching in the Rose Bowl Parade in 1977.

“The television announcers didn’t even know who we were,†Mr. Draper said. “The announcer said we were from Arkansas, not Arizona.â€

Since that march, Mr. Draper said much of the nation, including Hollywood, has embraced his group. Though, he said, Hollywood changed the Navajo Code Talker story some to make it look better on the big screen.

Mr. Draper was finally awarded the Purple Heart in 2003 for the wounds he received in 1945.

Because of the secrecy surrounding their part in the war, many of the Code Talkers, including Mr. Draper, never received military benefits.

That was rectified in 2003 when Mr. Draper and other Code Talkers were awarded full benefits, retroactive to their time in service. He was also awarded the Silver Star at the same time.

Mr. Draper makes several speaking engagements a year on behalf of the association. Otherwise, he said he is tending to the corn, peaches, watermelon and other vegetables on his land in Chinle, Ariz.

“My 12 children and 52 grandchildren also keep me busy,†he said.

My two years in the service --- From UP in the blue, to down ON the blue

I enlisted in the Air Corps in 1944, thinking I would go into cadet training, but Uncle Sam had other ideas.Off to Truax Field,Wisc.

for airborne radio --- Chanute Field for electronics---and Boca Raton for Airborne

radar. But just as our training came to an end, so did the war in Europe .So, off to

Fort Monmouth, N.J. for shipboard radar. On completion of our traning there, we were (loaned) out to the Transportation Corps and sent down to New Orleans to be shipped out as three man crews aboard merchant ships taking supplies to Europe and bringing backG.I.s for discharge

I made four crossings, each time with a different crew. The first trip was to Marsailles,France, Which was beyond a doubt the scariest port ive ever been to.

Next, was to Le Havre, France. The third was to Bremerhaven,Germany, positively

The cleanest. We were allowed a few hours in town while the ship was loading up.

We saw shopkeepers sweeping the sidewalks AND the gutters before they were to open their shops. My last crossing was to Southhampton, England to pick up returning GI’s,AND a few hundred “English war bridesâ€. This would take a couple of days to get loaded properly, so we were granted passes to go to London. Oh Man !!!

What a city. I don’t think I will ever lose the images that were imprinted on my mind that day. Here was this big beautiful city with litteraly block on block of total ruin, and in the midst of all the destruction around them, were these people, with their heads up, carrying on with their lives. I don’t know how, after all those , dark,bleak years, you Brits could come up smiling. Don’t mean to sound Maudlin, but that is how I feel. Really your finest hour.

Chucktoo1926