Military Letters, WWII

As found in old newsletters.
Transcribed by barbara stallman-speck

    PFC Carl A. Lester, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ancil Lester of Reliance, is one of the few men in the service working on the new device that has just been made public by the Army and Navy. Lester was inducted from Lyman County Nov. 20th of last year and since then has been located at Drew Field, Tampa, Fla., where he but recently received his diploma in Radar work.
    Until about a month ago, nobody in the army of navy has talked about the radar. So secret has this amazing device been that the word radar itself is almost unknown outside the services, and not very well in them, according to a British scientist.
    Radar is a coined word meaning radio-detecting-and-ranging. It describes a devise operated by radio which not only detects distant objects, but determines the range and the distance to them. It is being developed in this country and Great Britain.
    A radar, said one enthusiastic navy man, can pick up a tomato can floating on the surface of the ocean 100 mils away, and give you the distance within a couple of inches.
    Radar is one of the marvels made possible by the electro tube. Its principal has been known to physicists for many years ... the focusing of high frequency radio waves into beams which are reflected when they strike an interrupting surface ... but war spurned its development.
    This beam of radio waves traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second scans the sky and sea to warn of the approach of the enemy on many fronts. It provides data for anti-aircraft guns. Fog, storm or darkness do not blind it. It is as valuable on offense as on defense.