The entrance of a color guard wearing authentic Colonial uniforms
tells us it’s time for another salute in honor of Armed Forces Week. Garry’s opening remarks are interrupted by a
routine from the 3rd Infantry Regiment “Old Guard” drill team from
Washington, DC.
Special music is being provided by the Women’s Army Corps Band
from the Women’s Army Center at Fort McClellen, Alabama, under the direction of
Lt. Alice Peters. Noted TV bandleader
Milton DeLugg is credited with “musical supervision” at the end of the program.
Seven members of the US Air Force: “We made
the first bombing raid over Tokyo in World War II” (April 18, 1942)
The seven,
all of whom introduce themselves before the game is played, are Col. Richard
“Nick” Cole, Cpt. Doug Radney, Cpt. Jake Eierman, Col. Joe Manske, Col. Rick
Knobloch, Col. Bob Emmens and Col. Edward “Ski” York. They were part of the “Doolittle Raid,”
eighty men in sixteen planes launched from aircraft carriers.
Commander Donald Francis Mason: “I said –
‘Sighted sub, sank same’” (March 2, 1942)
Commander Mason, piloting a plane out
of
Newfoundland, spotted and attacked a surfaced U-boat on January 28,
1942. (The show’s printed card is wrong,
as even Garry mentions that the event happened in January.) Mason’s triumphant message was considered a
great morale booster in the early part of the US war efforts. Not mentioned on the show is that post-war
analysis of German records suggest that no submarine was destroyed that day.
Garry introduces in the audience Marine
Sergeant Francis H “Timmy” Kelleen, who on November 2, 1950, while serving with
his platoon in a remote Korean village, convinced Japanese soldiers that an
entire regiment of Scottish fighters were approaching by playing his
bagpipes. Though Sgt. Kelleen and his
bagpipes were written about frequently in newspapers of the time, and were
remembered in veteran interviews, that particular story appears to be
apocryphal.
Special (Surprise) Guest Jimmy Durante
Durante and Garry perform a tongue-twisting radio routine they did together on June
2, 1944. Garry and “The Schnoz” were
partners for five years in radio, a period Garry remembers fondly as being
formative in his early career. Garry
introduces the Westover Air Force Choraliers, who perform You Gotta Start Off Each Day With A Song in tribute to Durante. Durante signs off with his signature line,
“Goodnight folks, and goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”
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