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Richard E.
Kaehele wrote:
What a pleasant surprise it was to
happen across the APC website. I was assigned there in 1956,
fresh out of the strenuous six month Audio Engineering Course at
Fort Monmouth, NJ. A t the time I was a 24-year old Sergeant
First Class (SFC, E-6). I lucked out and got the assignment
because I was the second highest scorer at the school. The
highest scorer in the course was a young Private First Class
(PFC E-3), Vic Moore, who was an electronic
genius as well as being my best friend.
At the time APC was properly addressed
as the "Army Pictorial Center (9440th TU)" on all Special Orders
and other formal military correspondence. "TU," of course,
meant Technical Unit.
For quite a while I worked in the film
division's control room, and your two photos of the view of the
sound stage from there brought back some good and interesting
memories. I recall once, while doing a film stirring Phil
Silvers, Gary Crosby threw
a temper tantrum, laying on the floor, screaming and crying
because he thought had been upstaged by another actor. The floor
director (an Army Major) tried to console and calm him down as
Phil Silvers stood quietly by. Finally. Silvers had enough and
grabbed Crosby by the collar and yanked him to his feet, chewed
him out for acting like a baby and threatened to report his
actions to his dad, Bing Crosby. Everyone in the control
room silently cheered Phil Silvers. I noted that young
Crosby was extremely respectful toward Silvers and the rest of
the cast after that incident.
I once traveled with a camera crew to
Huntsville, Alabama, to record a training film for the German
military about the Redstone missile program. I was not too happy
about going there since I had to drive the control room bus to
Huntsville. The day before we left APC I had major dental
surgery and was trying to live on a milkshake and soup diet,
plus painkillers. I was stoned most of the time. The
officer-in-charge was a young, totally bald, 2nd lieutenant just
out of OCS, whose favorite activity was shooting off toy rockets
in the motel parking lot, scaring all the customers.
I started spending my spare time in the
radio room in the basement of the main building, across from the
2nd Signal Photo Platoon's office. There I met William
Randolph Hearst III, who was a quiet, professional hard
working PFC who never once tried to use his connections to avoid
unpleasant duties or to impress his co-workers. In fact, most of
the people there had no idea who he really was.
In the Radio Room I started to learn
about amateur short-wave radio and the Military Amateur Radio
Service (MARS). APC's call sign was AAZWAC, and after I learned
Morse I worked MARS stations up and down the east coast,
sending, receiving and relaying messages even to missionary
stations in various African nations.
An advantage of doing all this voluntary
work as Chief Operator of K2WAC and AAZWAC was that for each
hour of such work I received X number of "points," and I would
take my certificate of "points" out to the military surplus
warehouse at Mitchell Air Force Base and use the points to pay
for equipment. I bet I was the only SFC in the army to have my
own private ticker tape teletype and photo-fax machine, a couple
of 16mm sound projectors and a radio-telephone in my car, not to
mention several Signal Corps typewriters.
It wasn't mentioned in the website, but
APC was also involved in a lot of commercial films (the client
was the DoD, I guess). I remember doing audio work on a
half-hour entertainment series "The Johnny Applewhite Show". APC
was a great place to meet the famous, the near famous and the
wannabees of the stage, screen and television.
A good friend of mine was fellow worker, Staff
Sergeant Tom Mears. Through him I met many actors (such as
the great Mary Martin and her
son "Book'em Dano" Charles McArthur) at the
many parties Tom was invited to. He always tried to finagle an
invitation for me to these parties.
I could ramble on for hours about my
time at APC, but the day came when I had to leave. I finished my
military career at another great place, the American Forces
Korea Network in Seoul, Korea. I had heard their station (Radio
Vagabond) in 1950-51 when I was a combat infantryman (5th RCT)
in the Korean War, and it was a plum assignment in a peace time
Korea.
(Posted July 27, 2009;
updated September 14, 2020.)
Richard E. Kaehele
Now using the last name Whitman)
1070 Cypress Court
Los Lunas, New Mexico 87031
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