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pg.24

resumed by prowling about. (I later learned that those cans actually contained jellied gasoline for fire bombs.)

A few days later we moved to our designated site and set to work setting up our tent. Gen. Mickey Moore, head of the 7th Fighter Command on Iwo Jima came around to see this here GCA and shoot the breeze a bit. The large truck and trailer combination which comprised a Ground Control Approach unit was moved to a revetment alongside Motoyama, airfield # 1, Iwo Jima and we settled down ready to go to work. We learned we were primarily sent out here to work with the night fighters - landing them at night during islands blackouts.

Our first big problem was to acquaint those higher-ups with GCA which no one of them had ever heard of, seen or even thought about. Major Alford of the 7th Fighter Command was the first to become interested andit was largely through his aid, cooperation and enthusiasm that we were given an opportunity to place it into operation.

For the benefit of those readers who are not familiar with the way GCA works, here is a quick capsule explaination: Gca is a radar and radio trailer which contacts an airplane over the radio, espys it on a radar "scope" or picture not unlike a television tube. By following the "picture" of the plane on the six scopes within the trailer and through radio directions to the pilot, theplane is brought through the air and guided safely down onto the landing strip even though, because of fog or for almost any other reason, the pilot is