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Journal Entry February 20-New assignment


Feb 20 Got things straightened out. Assigned to B Battery sound survey.

Blades and Cooper to flash survey.

Have a bad case of G.I.s

Lu, in Ray Hight's book: My work was now quite a bit different, as the 285th was a "letter" battery. We were dedicated to direct observations and operating the outposts, rather than a headquarters battery, where the focus was more in helping to set up observation outposts and put in the sound bases. I also now had an opportunity to see how the plotting boards worked and how the information looked when it came back from the observation posts. For the technology we had in those days, it was pretty doggone good!

We did our best work at night when we could see the flash of the guns before we heard any sound. When we saw a flash from a gun firing, we would turn on our equipment to make sure we caught the sound before it hit the microphones. We held it on until after the sound had gone past us, then we would turn it back off again. This way, the gun battalions had all the action on film and knew right where to direct their fire. Once they received all the information, they reported back to us, letting us know if they'd gotten a good mark on it or not.

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