Ricsi,
I am not old enough to remember the "big war" (WW1), but I do remember WW2.
I remember that *all* amateur radio transmitters and receivers "went to
war." ("Hallicrafters has Gone to War.") I remember that *all* private
aircraft "went to war." There was no private flying, private aircraft or
private air fields during the war.
Media during WW2 were provided with classified information and asked not to
publish it until it was released, and they did not! (There goes the $$$
hypothesis.) The alternative would have been censorship. Letters from
troops were always censored and information that could provide intelligence
were cut out with a razor blade.
We were admonished that, "Loose lips sink ships," and other reminders that
however innocuous the information that we have may seem to be, when put
together with other innocuous information can provide important security
information to the enemy.
I remember the ration books that limited meat, butter, shoes, tires,
gasoline, etc., that could be purchased each week/month. (3 gallons of gas a
week if you had an "A" sticker, 5 gallons if you had a "B" sticker, 7 gallons
if you had a "C" sticker.)
I remember rendered fat being saved and turned in to the butcher so that it
could be recycled into grease for use in ammunition production. I remember
the paper and tin drives that collected paper and tin for recycling for the
war effort.
Should we have another war, and I'm not talking about the skirmishes we have
had since the Korean War, all of our computers, amateur radios, cellular
phones, etc., will be going to support the war effort.
Roger Turk
Tucson, Arizona
