WEBVTT - What is the Civil Air Patrol? 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.720 Stuff You Should Know Tour two thousand nineteen, starting in 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:08.840 Chicago July, Yeah, and then Toronto the next night. We're 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:11.640 gonna be at the Harris Theater and then the day 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.600 and fourth, and you can go get tickets, get them, 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.400 get them now because they are going fast, that's right. 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.599 Then August twenty in Boston at the Wilbur August in Portland, 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.639 Maine at the State Theater, the Plaza Live in Orlando 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:26.200 on October nine, the Civic Theater in New Orleans on 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.880 October and then our beloved Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:34.800 October YEP. Head on over s y s K live 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.560 dot com has everything you need and we will see 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.839 you guys live in person. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:50.720 a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.760 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.720 Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and we're 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:02.800 flying high for this for this episode of Stuff you 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:08.640 Should Know. Civil Air Patrol, I've got a different version 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.800 of it. Okay, well, air PU, civil air Patrol, Civil 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:17.760 air about air Patrol. Oh, do you remember when I 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.000 used to put that in your head? Yeah? It's like 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.280 the good old days when used to earworm me. I 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.520 think that's the greatest er worm of all. It's pretty good. 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:33.680 It's in my head now, good hair. I like that Patrol. 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.160 So we're talking about the Civil Air Patrol and we're 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.600 gonna just say what it is right out of the gate. Okay, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.120 go ahead. Now, let's talk first about what I ate 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:48.000 for breakfast? Okay, you have Did you have bacon? No? 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.960 I didn't eat breakfast. Civil Air Patrol is a nonprofit 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:59.200 group that's a civilian group of um, well of playing enthusiasts, 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.520 but the much more than that they are. They have 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.880 sort of a quasi military hierarchy. They are under the 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.120 control of the U. S. Air Force, and what they 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.800 do a lot these days is things like search and rescue. 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:14.800 We talked a little bit about them in in our 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.919 Star episodes. Um but they have a very cool, kind 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:22.480 of rich and colorful, colorful history. And I'm trying to 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:28.079 get John Roderick of the indie rock band The Long 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.200 Winters my pal and from the podcast. While he does 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.440 a lot of podcasts, which one should we say, friendly 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.600 Fire sure his war movie podcast, he was a member 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.600 of the Civil Air Patrol and I texted him and said, 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:43.040 you know, I'd love to get a quote from you 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:47.080 on your experience, and he says, heck, yeah, uh and 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.680 then he never said anything. So if it comes in, 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:51.920 we'll read it. If not, just know that John was 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:55.320 a teenage member of the Civil Air Patrol, which you 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:57.919 still can be. Yeah, you definitely still can be. It's 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.560 still around. There's there's From what I saw, it's something 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:05.919 like sixty strong today. No, not bad at all. Um. 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.000 And I get the impression it's a little bit like 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:13.680 the Eagle Scouts of the Air for like under eighteen people. Yeah, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.639 the Cadet program. It sounded very much like sort of 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:19.680 boy Scouts meets r OTC. Yeah, because there's a lot 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.320 of emphasis on like public service and being like an 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.960 upstanding person and um, you know just just um not 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.119 stealing things. I think there's a big emphasis on that. Yeah. 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.080 But also you get the feeling there's a little bit 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:33.360 of like you want to go on the Air Force, 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.280 right son? Right, Well, I think that is kind of 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.960 either if it's not a stated part of it, um. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:45.320 If it's um, it's still like a definite function of 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.000 the Civil Air Patrols, it's it feeds into the actual 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.720 Air Force cadet program, and you can actually benefit from 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.280 being in the Civil Air Patrol if you do plan 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.400 to go into the Air Force. Apparently you can enter 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.760 the Air Force at a higher pay grade if you 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:01.840 have worked up to a certain rank in the civil 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.400 Air Patrols. So if you're interested in being a good citizen, 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:09.280 if you like to fly, if you want to be 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:13.360 in the Air Force, um, you could do a lot 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.600 worse than joining the Civil Air Patrol. I'll tell you that. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:17.960 If you want to be a part of what they 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.400 say is about a hundred saves a year out in 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.400 the wilderness, or if you just want to be a 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:26.960 part of an organization that had a very cool origin, 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.280 which we'll talk about right now. Okay, let's early on 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.520 in aviation history and like the nineteen twenties and thirties, 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.760 still in its infancy, but it was big enough to 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.880 where people could like own a plane and they could 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.880 buy their own personal plane and get their pilots license. Yeah, 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:47.840 which is that's really fast if you think about I mean, 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:52.080 Brothers flew at Kittie Hawk in Yeah, I mean a 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.120 couple of decades later, people are like, I want to 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.479 own a plane and fly it. That's how everybody talk 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.680 that mid Atlantic accent. That's right, hey, Chuck. By the way, 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:02.719 I want to shout out what I have come to 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:06.960 think is one of the top three facts of stuff 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.760 you should know of all time, that the Brits originally 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.120 sounded like Americans and that the Brits lost their American 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:19.280 accent rather than the other way around. Is that true? Yeah? 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:23.120 Don't you remember in our accent when podcast? When did 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.960 they sound like Americans? It started up to about the 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.240 twenties or thirties, and then the BBC came along on 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.640 the radio and they made a conscious decision to sound 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:38.840 like Oxford types who had basically affected an accent um 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.240 in order to separate themselves and sound classier. So you're saying, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.960 with the BBC adopted, if there was audio recording from 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.919 nineteen then a guy from central London would sound like 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.839 me right now, basically. Yeah, So they're getting it wrong 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.479 in all those movies too, then yes, but these are 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.640 also the same movies where like Nazis sound like British 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.320 people on the BBC. So it's all kinds of messed up, 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.400 all right. I love that you just bring out a 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.160 random effect from an old show is the fact of 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:12.200 stuff you should know all time history. But let's go 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:14.040 back in time. Let's hop in the way back machine 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:24.599 and go back to the Great War, the Second World War, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.200 when there were people in this country that love their 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.840 flying civilians, and they saw the beginning of the war 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:37.000 in the late nineteen thirties when europe European fascist basically 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:42.000 said nine no more civilian flying, it's all shut down. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.360 And so the aviators over here, civilian aviators were like, WHOA, 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.640 that's not cool. We like flying our planes. Maybe we 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:54.960 should get organized and see if we can actually add 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.960 value to the military as civilians. Because that was back 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.800 when all Americans wanted to pitch in a little bit 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.279 to help out the war effort. Right. There was um 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:09.200 one guy in particular, guy named gil Rob Wilson, but 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.160 he was not the only one. There's another dude named 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.920 Milton Knight, and both are credited with founding basically civilian 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:22.680 Air Force auxiliary programs to say, hey, military, we're not military. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.080 It's cool, but there's other stuff we can do to 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.640 help you guys out. And let's also not forget that 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:35.960 if we can use our collective clout to popularize flying 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.880 and aviation and just get more Americans interested in it 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.760 and showing that that, hey, you can actually learn to fly, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.560 come hang out with us and will show you how. 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:50.120 We'll we'll be generating a pool of pre trained uh 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.040 UM pilots who can transfer over to the military if 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:56.440 the US ends up going into World War two. Yeah. 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.440 Almost like a reserve unit, even though it is not that. No, 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.720 it's an auxiliary union, which means it it's it's an auxiliary. 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:06.000 It's on the side. It's in addition to it's not 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.880 it's not like a reserve unit that can be called 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.880 up to active duty military like the reserves. It's a 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:18.080 civilian volunteer force. Right. So gil Rob Wilson was working 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.800 on this and kind of concurrently there were some some 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:27.400 state based aviation groups for civilian civil uh civil defense 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:29.000 units that were kind of cropping up here and there 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.560 on the East coast uh and so he kind of 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:34.920 saw the writing on the wall and wanted to make 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:39.559 things official. So he developed a plan for the Civil 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.760 Air Patrol, got support very importantly, got support from a 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:49.920 gentleman named Fiorello LaGuardia. You don't put any mustard on LaGuardia. 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:55.320 It's just a cruddy airport. Okay. Actually, like LaGuardia. It's 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.160 six coming along, but it's still kind of creutzy. It's fine, 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.440 not None of the New York airports are great. Have 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.360 you have you ever seen the uh the pictures of 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.040 the abandoned t W A terminal at LaGuardia from like 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.800 the jet age of the sixties. It's amazing. It's like 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:13.760 a time capsule, frozen in time. And I think they 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:17.959 converted it into a hotel recently. But like goes, somebody 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.040 did a really good photo spread, like back in two dozen, 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:24.200 twelve or whatever. Um, just look up t W A terminal. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.760 Maybe it's JFK and not Laguire. I think it is JFK. Um. 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.640 Either way, it's still worth checking out. I'll check it out. Okay. 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.920 So LaGuardia. He was a director of the Office of 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.680 Civilian Defense at the time. Uh he. Of course the 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:41.320 airport was named after him. He was mayor of New 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.839 York City at one point. He was an aviator in 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.280 World War One, so it was really a big deal 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:50.560 to get him on board. UM. And they designed their 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.760 little logo, which is a blue circle with a propeller, 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:58.880 three propellers in a white triangle, and initially they were 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.000 handled by is. This was pre Air Force, before the 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.360 Air Force was officially established after World War Two. It 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.000 was part of the U. S. Army Air Corps What 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.040 was the U. S. Army Air Corps, which I think 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:14.960 we made the distinction in the Tuskegee Airman. So everyone 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:17.920 kind of gets on board and LaGuardia signs the Civil 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.200 Air Corps as it was known, originally into existence on 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:26.560 December one, ninety one. And as you will note that date, Uh, 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.880 it was very relevant because just six days later is 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.439 when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, and all of 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.160 a sudden, we could use this help. Yeah, and I 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.800 mean remember this is like a surprise attack by the 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.640 Japanese on Pearl Harbor. So it was pretty prescient of 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:45.960 Gil Rob Wilson and Fiorello LaGuardia to to get this 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:49.559 thing organized and together, because yeah, within a week they 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.880 were like, okay, we probably can use you guys. The 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.560 problem is that the Air Corps initially was like, what 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.080 are we gonna do with these like these civilians? You know, 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.880 super gun? How civilians do I imagine? Right? Exactly which 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.200 which is like even worse to have to deal with 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.680 in like just regular old civilians who don't know what 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.240 they're doing. Um. In some cases it turned out that 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.880 it was actually the Civil Air Patrol was really helpful, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:21.280 um because one of the really overlooked things about World 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:25.240 War Two is that German U boats, you know, like 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:27.720 a variation of a submarine, but they just couldn't stay 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:34.640 under quite as long. They wreaked absolute havoc on um 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:39.679 the United States coasts um during World War Two. Basically 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.560 within a month of Pearl Harbor, four to six weeks 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.920 after Pearl Harbor, the first US freight or the city 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.960 of Atlanta was sunk by a U boat off the 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.920 coast of North Carolina. And that was the first of 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:58.160 I think three hundred and nineties seven ships that were 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.200 either um sunk damaged by U boats in six months 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.320 off the coast of America. Yeah. So at this point, 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:08.640 the Civil Air Patrol has one wing is what they 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.400 called it, per state. Uh. I have no idea how 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.760 many states there were. I think it was forty eight, 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.960 just kidding, uh. And each one of those wings was 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.640 divided into squadrons and they were operating out of civilian 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.720 airports mostly, but then in nineteen forty two they were, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.160 um they started opening up some dedicated civil air patrol 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.559 bases in certain states around the country. So all of 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:35.640 a sudden, there are uh in ninety people enrolled in 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:40.120 the civil Air Patrol, and these German U boats are 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.080 doing damage off the coast, and all of a sudden 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.120 they were like, well, listen, we weren't sure quite what 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.600 to do with you guys. You've been helping us out. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.760 You've been delivering some things and even some personnel at 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.600 times and munitions, but we think, what, you know, we 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.960 don't have the resources in our what will soon be 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.280 called the Air Force to just patrol all up and 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.560 down the East coast all the time. So that's where 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.679 you're going to really uh be valuable to us. And 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:09.319 that was really the first big, kind of important use 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.720 of the civil air Patrol in World War Two. Yeah, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:14.920 and it was effective too because with U boats, part 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:20.000 of the doctrine of um of U boat warfare sub 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:25.240 Commander Nous was that if you saw a plane overhead, 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.800 you dove um to get away from that plane because 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.880 they were very vulnerable from an aerial attack. So um, 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.800 just seeing a civil air patrol plane overhead meant that 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:41.679 the sub had to break off from pursuit of whatever tanker, freighter, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.360 troop transport it was about to sink, um and and 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:49.080 dive in and evade that plane, just even an unarmed 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.760 civil air patrol plane because they didn't know they're unarmed 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.200 at the time. I don't think exactly exactly. Um, So 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.120 this actually started working out pretty well. But there was 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.800 one incident in particular off the coast of right at 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.880 Cape Canaveral. From what I understand, a U boat got 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.240 caught on a sandbar and was just laying there exposed, 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.440 trying to get free for about thirty minutes, and a 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.680 civil air patrol plane was circling it had spotted it 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.440 had called in for reinforcements I think, for an aerial 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.920 strike from the Air Corps UM for the sitting duck 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.400 of a U boat, and before the air strike could 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.520 get there to blow the U boat up, it got 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.680 itself free and made its escape got away. Um. And 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.360 this was enough. It was a frustrating enough if the 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.960 pilot was just like, I want a bomb so bad. Well, 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.320 in very short order, the air UM, the Air Corps 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.680 commander hap what was his name, Henry hap Arnold. Hap 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.520 Arnold said give him those bombs, and the Civil Air Patrol, 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:55.120 not in any way a military organization, a civilian auxiliary 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.720 group was given depth charges and bombs to drop on 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:00.840 U boats from that point none for the rest of 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.480 World War two. Yeah, so here's the deal with that. 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:08.680 They they had to bomb from very very high up. Um. 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.840 They had to use improvised bomb sites because you know this, 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.120 they didn't just have this stuff lying around, and they 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.480 needed this stuff for the real I was about to say, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.600 the real planes for the military. So they weren't like, 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.440 here's the best bomb sites we have. So there's really 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.280 no like um. I think the Civil Air Patrol probably 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.520 likes to claim that they actually bombed you boats, but 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:36.640 there aren't any official on record bombings that were carried 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.520 out by Civil Air Patrol that like sank you boats 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.160 at you talked to. Germany was like that never happened, 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:47.000 didn't affect us. Civil Air Patrol was like, no, it's 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:53.000 more like yah, right. So it is in dispute. In particular, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:57.560 one sub that some uh Civil Air Patrol guys dropped 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.800 depth charges over in New Jersey and they said a 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:06.240 geyser of oil and water erupted from the water, which 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.360 would indicate that they had sunk this this U boat. 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.440 But like you're saying, the Germans don't have any record 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.600 of anything like that, so they probably they probably didn't 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.520 at the very least, though they did harass the German 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.600 U boats. And whether it was directly because of civil 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:27.240 Air patrol UM patrols over the coastline or not. By July, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.520 about six months after the first attack, German U boats 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:35.280 like pulled off of American coastal waters and stopped attacking. 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:40.440 So it probably wasn't entirely coincidence. It probably wasn't entirely 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.600 because of the civil air patrol, but they almost certainly 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.480 played a prominent role in in Germany's discontinuation of their 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.520 sub attacks in American waters. Yeah, so here's what we'll do. 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.480 We'll do a stat cliffhanger. Okay, we'll take a little 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.080 break and come back with a little bit of statistical 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:28.320 evidence to support your claims are right for this? All right, 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.480 So you said they made a difference, and the numbers 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.280 kind of back it up. First of all, they were 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:37.239 only supposed to do this for ninety days, while they 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.400 kind of got the real plan together for the military. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.480 They ended up doing this coastal patrol for eighteen months, 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.399 so that alone kind of says it was working, or 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.400 at the very least, they weren't quick enough to get 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:51.520 there the real plan going. But here's the stats. A 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:56.160 hundred and seventy three subs spotted and ostensibly brady out 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.399 in You know, they weren't just spotted and then forgotten 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.800 about right there, Like I don't feel like calling it 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.960 in this time. Eighty two depth charge bomb attacks against 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.440 those subs impressive, pretty impressive. And again, let's say they're 0:18:10.440 --> 0:18:12.520 not actually bombing them out of the water. It's got 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.639 to be disconcerting to have civilians up there dropping bombs 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.480 on you. Sure, it's like the North Avenue irregulars put 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:21.359 in the air. Uh they you know, there were mines 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.040 out there. They found seventeen floating mines and rescued three 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.560 hundred and sixty three people and ships. Uh that had 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.840 trouble reported, which I don't think we mentioned. Like America 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:35.600 likes to think that, like, oh well, yeah, the fighting 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:37.840 didn't happen over here in the United States. But if 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.960 you looked on the East coast, uh, like on the water. 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.000 Chances are you might have pulled a service person out 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.679 of the water from one of these bombings. Yeah, like 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.200 it happened. There were people in the water that needed rescue, 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:52.879 and the civil Air Patrol was there. I read an 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.640 account of a family that lived on the coast off 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.440 of Hatteras. Apparently Cape Hatteras the waters off had were 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.840 called torpedo junction. This happened so frequently. Um, but they 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:07.920 like they're the windows would rattle in your house when 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.520 uh a torpedo struck like a tanker something, you know, 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.080 eight miles away off the coast like it was. You 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.120 just do not get raised with that in history. It's 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:21.479 just not talked about. But it was a pretty big 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:23.960 for six months. It was a big problem for the 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.600 United States. Yeah, and this was, um. There was a 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.400 lot of bravery involved because these little planes. They were stretching, 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.800 these pilots and their experience and these planes and their 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:39.160 mechanical capabilities to the utmost degree to fly these things 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:41.679 that far off shore to do these patrols. And they 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.480 still did it. Um. They flew five hundred about five 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.960 hundred thousand hours during the war combined. And they were 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.240 not getting rich doing it. Uh. They were reimbursed for fuel, 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.440 but they were paid eight dollars a day, which even 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.639 back then was not a lot of money. Now I 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:02.680 calculate it's about a hundred dollars today. It's not bad. Actually, yeah, 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:04.840 come nothing of it if you're not doing anything else 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.840 but take it dropping bombs on Nazis, that's kind of 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:11.280 fun and getting a bucks for it, right. Uh. And 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.840 in the end, thirty pilots of the civil and the 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:18.240 Civil Air Patrol died flying in accidents. Um. And that's 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.600 in addition to the ones in the Coastal Patrol. That's 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.320 just total. I think there were twenty six on the 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.439 actual coastal Patrol that died. I thought it was like 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.160 sixty five. This is twenty six deaths and they lost 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.240 ninety planes. Got so um like this was a really 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.560 big deal. I mean like it was. It was saying 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:39.840 like you you and you you know you, you the 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.199 guy who owns the TV rishpair shop, and um, you 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.919 the guy who owns the barbershop next door getting these 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.720 planes and start dropping bombs on these U boats. That 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.560 was a big deal to to do to civilians and um. 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:56.479 In two thousand and fourteen, Obama posthumously in a lot 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.119 of cases awarded the UM the Medal of Honor, the 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.520 highest citizen honor. UH that anybody in the US can 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:08.080 get to. Everyone who was in the Civil Air Patrol 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.439 during World War Two, all two thousand people. And you 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:14.760 know what fun fact that you're gonna love. That barber 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.040 dropped his scissors and ran out of the barbershop to 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:20.840 go get in his plane halfway through a haircut. And 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.880 that's how the mullet was born. Nice was it? Floyd 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:27.639 was Griffith was the first one with the mullet. And 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:29.320 I bet you didn't know that the mullet was born 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:33.520 in the midnight. I suspected as much business in the 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:38.960 Front war in the rear right exactly. Man William was 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:44.080 the first mullet created. Do you know, I remember, very 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:47.280 very distinctly the first time I heard that term. I 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.440 was on set of a TV commercial. Um And this 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.320 was many, many years after the mullet. But when I 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.639 was in high school, it wasn't called the mullet. It 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.480 was just sort of kind of the cool hairstyle for 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.680 a little while, called the burnout. But I remember when 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:04.720 I heard them the mullet, I was on set and 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:07.040 one of my friends said, I said, who is this 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.600 guy who's Lee? And he said he. I don't know 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:12.359 why this stuck with me. He said, he is that 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:18.560 wedge of grossness over there with the mullet head. I 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:20.560 can see this sticking with you. It's pretty good. Yeah, 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:24.320 Lea's who he is. Poorly. What else did the Civil 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.040 Air Patrol do? Though? They did some other weird things. Yeah, 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.760 the the thing during World War Two that they're definitely 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:34.600 remembered for was the UM the bombing sorties and spotting 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:38.080 U boats, but they did plenty of other stuff. Basically, UM. 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:42.240 They did anything the Air Corps needed of them, which 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:45.359 is things like we need to get this commander from 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:50.320 you know St. Louis to uh Louisiana, can you give 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:53.160 him a ride St. Louis de baton Rouge. They did 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:57.119 that like pretty much constantly. They ferried UM supplies around, 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.159 they ferried people around. That was a huge part of 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:02.800 the war for here at home by the c a P. 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.480 Here's a cool thing that they did that also sounds frightening. 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:11.800 They would tow what's called target gliders for anti aircraft guns. 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:15.800 So you're a plane, you're in your little uh, single 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:19.800 engine plane, your civilian you were pulling behind you a 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:25.000 glider that big guns on the ground are taking target 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.720 practice at. Yeah, hopefully with a really long toe line. 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:31.360 I wonder how long that could be though, I don't know, 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:36.600 but it almost seems mean spirited that assignment. Who did 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:38.600 that fall to? You know, the guy who drove the 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.680 uh the driving range of golf ball pick up Volkswagen. Oh, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:45.200 they yeah, he'd be prepared for that kind That's exactly 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:48.480 who did it. I'll bet you're right. So that was 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.320 a huge one. Um. Apparently an equal amount to the 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:55.119 danger of being shot out of the sky accidentally. Um 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:59.440 in that assignment was also accidentally looking into the searchlights 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:01.800 that they used in these training exercises, because at least 0:24:01.800 --> 0:24:05.440 one pilot was blinded by them and crashed from being 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:11.560