Vol. 1—No. 29
U. S. Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill, N. C.
Saturday, April 10, 1943
Synthetic Devices Building Opens Sunday
^
Officers, Cadets
Overcome Fire
At Local Airport
Pre-Flight School personnel,
■vvell trained for emergencies,
turned fire fighters last Monday
evening and in short order extin
guished forest flames that threat
ened to destroy University owned
property in the vicinity of Horace
Williams Airport.
What might have developed in
to a destructive blaze of major pro
portions was nipped early by Pre-
Flight officers, cadets and enlisted
men who responded promptly to
the emergency.
Word that there was a forest
fire near the Chapel Hill Airport
^"^as received by Comdr. John P.
Graff, USN (Ret.), Commanding
Officer, from the Officer of the
I^ay, Lieut. J. R. Kimbriel, USNR,
at approximately 2045.
Proceeding to the scene, Comdr.
Oraff noted that the forest and
brush fix’e had spread over an area
of about one and one-half square
ittiles, and was seriously threaten
ing University of North Carolina
property in which valuable equip-
inent is stored. There were two
farm houses within a quarter mile
of the fire, and due to a moderate
'vind, there was a possibility of the
airport hangars being endangered.
Phoning from the airport,
Oomdr. Graff ordered the duty bat
talion, the 18th, out to fight the
fire. This was at 2110.
Lieut, (jg) Warren H. Chi vers,
USNR, Head of Labor Engineer-
was designated as officer-in-
<^‘harge of the fire fighting bat
talion, and he and Lieut. James P.
^oran, USNR, took the first two
busloads of cadets, equipped with
^hovels, rakes, and axes, to the
Scene of the fire. A third busload
cadets, together with trucks,
station wagons and ambulance, fol
lowed in 15 minutes.
See FIRE, j)age U
Former Senator Lee
Speaks in Memorial
Hall Tonight
Former Senator Josh Lee of
Oklahoma, now a member of the
Civil Aeronautics Board in Wash
ington, will speak tonight at 2030
from the stage of Memorial Hall,
as part of the University’s Insti
tute of Human Relations program.
The meeting is open to the pub
lic without charge, and Pre-Flight
School personnel have been par
ticularly invited to attend.
Mr. Lee figured prominently in
aviation legislation during his
term in the Senate, and as a sup
porter of aviation believes that the
increased use of airplanes holds
for the future “the greatest age of
commerce and travel ever yet
dreamed.”
Visual Aids for Pilot Training On
Display for Pre-Flight Personnel
A remodeled building located behind Caldwell Hall and arranged to
house the Synthetic Devices of this station is being opened to the
Cadets and personnel of this station for the first time this Sunday,
it was announced Thursday by Comdr. John P. Graff, USN (Ret.),
Commanding Officer.
Broadly, Synthetic Devices include all of the visual aids used in the
teaching of the vast variety of"®"
subject matter taught by the mili
tary services. Specifically, they
consist of models, mock-ups, tur
rets, maps, cards, globes, motion
picture and slide film material and
a variety of gadgets to facilitate
the teaching of gunnery, recogni
tion, radio, navigation, aerology,
celestial navigation, blind flying,
communications and seamanship.
Some of the devices cost more
than a modern combat aircraft.
The design, construction, distribu
tion and sometimes even invention
of these devices for all of the
American military services are
handled by the Navy’s Synthetic
Devices Department in Washing
ton.
As different subjects are taught
at different naval stations, differ
ent devices are used. No station
has all of the hundreds of devices,
See DEVICES, page U
I
SHIPS PLANES AND TANKS that line a wall of the new Synthetic Devices Building are shown in
the main picture above. In the inset on the left, Lieut. Richard King, USNR, officer in charg’e of the
building, explains to Cadet W. R. Webster the workings of one of the new training devices—a super
slot machine known as the Automatic Rater, which visitors to the building will enjoy.