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The original AFRS, Guadalcanal crew prior to departure from
the USA. The photo is dated 12th January, 1944. It was taken at the Tafts Building
in Hollywood where training was undertaken. The officers and men are: Standing (l
to r): Cpl Allen Botzer, Pfc Richard Sinclair, Pfc Ivan Saddler, Pfc Rudolph Luukinen,
Cpl Alfred Taylor. Sitting (l to r): Staff Sgt. George Dvorak, T-5 Rudolph Rubin,
T-5 Hy Averback, Captain Spencer Allen, Captain Wilford Kennedy.
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The pre-war South-West Pacific was, to all intents and purposes,
a backwater of Empire…an ocean of remote exotic islands scattered over a huge area
of the globe. For Britain, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate and the Condominium
of the New Hebrides (which it jointly ruled with France) were almost, literally,
at the end of the earth. In these parts, a few Colonial administrators held sway
over the indigenous populations and life was quiet and peaceful. Then came 1939
and, for the second time in the same century, Europe was again at war. But, essentially,
it still all seemed far away to those in the Pacific. December, 1941 and the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor changed the whole equation. America mobilized and, by 1942,
had military personnel in significant numbers and materiel in major quantities moving
towards Australia and New Zealand. Along with the troops came their cultural supports,
Coca Cola, ice cream and entertainment. The need for big band music, news and information
for soldiers brought about the establishment of several military radio broadcasting
stations in the South-West Pacific. This was The Mosquito Network. (Associate Professor
Martin Hadlow, The University of Queensland, Brisbane. Australia)
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