May 1, 1944
Probably no one at Biggs Field hear as many secrets as attendants at the base’s long distance pay station are told by men waiting for their phone calls to go through.
The long distance attended pay station is a service provided by the Biggs Field Signal Office and the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company. The eight phone booths are located in the Main Post Exchange building, and an attendant is on hand to get the calls through from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. “plus.”
The “plus” is for the hours before 8 a.m. and after 11 p.m. which the attendants put in on their own time in trying to accommodate the soldiers who are anxious to talk to the folks at home.
Every Sunday morning the pay station is opened an hour early to give the men a better chance to get their calls through on the crowded lines. The operator in the evening always will work overtime if the soldier wants to stay up and complete the call. On Christmas Eve the operator and the men kept “open house” until 4 a.m. and until all the calls were made. The telephone company and the attendants provided homemade fudge, cookies, and cigarettes for this occasion.
The attendants never listen to a conversation, but frequently the men who wait hours for their calls initiate talk with the attendants.
One young navigator on a Liberator bomber crew was waiting to talk to his fiancée, who was coming to El Paso so they could be married. Completion of the call took considerable time. The navigator started chatting with the attendant. He was new in El Paso. He didn’t know where to be married, what minister to select for the ceremony or where to live. The attendant said she would help him. To make a long story short, the navigator, with the aid of the attendant, was able to locate a room and select a church and minister for the wedding. The attendant arranged for the flowers. And shortly after the wedding he stopped in with his wife on a Sunday afternoon at the pay station and invited the attendant to come with them to dinner and church.
The attendants in time become a combination of a mother, chaplain and flight surgeon. The only difference is that they rarely advise a soldier in the solution of his problems. They usually just listen. And they won’t talk about what they hear.
Sometimes, however, a soldier doesn’t need an excuse of a phone call to talk. One man had been overseas. His buddy had been killed, and although the War Department had made the official notification, he wanted to write to the mother. He didn’t know what to say in that letter, and finally he came to the attendant and asked her to help him with it.
Another soldier had a torn blouse and was unable to keep a date in town. The attendant sent out for thread and needle, and in a few minutes the soldier was on his way to town.
One solider announced, “Twins!” as, bewildered and perspiring, he opened the booth after talking to the hospital in his home town.
The long distance phone service, with its official and unofficial accommodations, is only one of the services worked out by the Base Signal Office. Another is the handling of money orders at the Base Telegraph Office.
Weather officers use these telephone facilities to hit in on a daily long distance phone conversation with other bases in this section of the country on the subject of weather. Its radio station also provides weather reports and acts as a relay station for heavy bombardment aircraft.
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