THE DAY THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE

e [Music] [Music] a weekend in two different towns New Orleans and San Francisco two very different towns life is good there and the people know how to live it especially when the weekend comes and so tonight the lights are burning bright in San Francisco's Chinatown and up at the top of the [Music] mark tomorrow's for sleeping late a time for sightseeing or fishing or family picnics but to a few hundred people in each of these towns tomorrow means work not play for tomorrow will be a special day [Applause] [Music] early Sunday morning the Bay Bridge to Oakland for most of San Francisco and Oakland Sunday morning is a time for Rising late but not today for John mnat nor quite a few others like him the reason lies at the end of the bridge the great Oakland Naval Supply Center Navy men call it the supermarket of the Pacific Fleet you can find anything you need here to supply by a fighting ship or a community fallout shelter for the naval Center serves the nation's defense in more than one way it's also one of the key distribution points for civil defense supplies and that's just one stack of empty water drums waiting for someone to come and pick them up before today is over a few hundred someone's will have to pick up 20,000 of them and then put them down somewhere else [Music] there will be a few other things to pick up too emergency food rations medical and sanitation kits radiological detection equipment the defense department supplies them Mall the towns and cities everywhere as part of its program to expand and strengthen local civil defense and since the community Fallout shelters are considered essential to overall National Defense the supplies are turned over free of charge they cost the local community nothing but they still have to be moved out of defense department warehouses and into your neighborhood shelters and that's the local civil defense director's headache it's his responsibility under the authority of the mayor and the city council to do that job and do it as quickly and cheaply as possible so it all begins with a man like Bill Conroy a man who has a load on his mind and the load was is near nearly a million pounds that's how much he's planning to move today to start the job of stocking San Francisco shelters he's leading off with a massive opening day drive he's going to fill the first 100,000 shelter spaces all in a single day but that takes trucks and Manpower and money three things a civil defense director is always short of but a good one doesn't waste time worrying about what he lacks he makes the most of what's at hand first thing needed of course was wheels so weeks ago Conroy had started free wheeling he went out to Redway drage to ask for advice from a friend Ken [Music] rut he told Ken what the problem was asked for suggestions on how to approach it and how to organize an appeal to other leading truckers and shippers [Music] then the request went out the replies came back and the response more generous than even Conroy had hoped before long he had rounded up 95 large tractor trailers plus 35 lighter panel jobs for Distributing the smaller loads and turned down an extra 40 trucks that were offered but wouldn't be needed [Music] next problem drivers to move the trucks Conroy went to the Teamsters Union Local 85 recording secretary Tommy Burke introduced him around let him put it up to the members pay attention to him please well fellas we have another problem and it seems like every time we have any kind of a problem we're back to local 85 asking for something for nothing we're back again and we talked to Tom O'Donnell I talked to Tommy Burke this morning Joe div he says okay go if you fellas say yes now we have a lot of fallout shelter supplies over in Oakland we have to get them into San Francisco we don't have any money to do it this is going to be a purely volunteer operation the truck owners have given us the trucks they'll pay for the gas they'll pay for the bridge what we need are teos to drive those trucks again we've called upon local 85 in the past you've always help Tommy assures me that if I could talk to you fellas that you'd help us again John mnat doesn't even live in San Francisco his home is in Cupertino good 40 miles down the peninsula but he earns his living driving for Redway and he's one of the 95 union members who offer to work the holiday for no pay whatsoever other workers will be needed too by the hundreds to unload trucks and move supplies into shelters a letters go out to Civic and fraternal groups and the replies come back from the police and fire reserves who volunteer almost to a man from kaanis Alliance Club Army Reserve University of San Francisco Veterans of Foreign Wars American Legion and from people like Joe Herbert Manuel labor isn't much in Joe's line these days actually he's branch manager of a bank but he's been assigned to round up a crew from his veterans group and he decides to give up his golf for the weekend the same with Ed Lynch who works for the Army Corps of Engineers they helped make the National Shelter survey turned up more than 2 million potential shelter spaces here in San Francisco normally had spend Sundays with his grandchildren maybe taking them out to the zoo or to Golden Gate Park but this weekend that date will have to wait he's offered to help stock the shelters [Music] across the country in other towns much the same thing taking place in New Orleans 2,000 M away they're meeting at the new Emergency Operating Center making final plans to open their own shelter stocking Drive [Music] and the man with the problem here is the New Orleans civil defense director Charlie Herdman gentlemen this is the final meeting of operations big play we're dealing with 117,000 sheltered spaces and we're dealing with better than a million pounds of supplies are you ready with Herman 2 the need was the same for volunteers who' serve without pay and give up a precious weekend holiday trucks will be at the Port of embarcation tonight at 8:00 the drivers that are donating their services will be at the port at 6:00 a.m. we've got about 60 or 65 units isn't that right Vince that's right Charlie we have some the trucks and truckers were all lined up but other helpers were needed too to do the weary work of unloading and where did he find them well some from a unit of the Air Force Reserve he picked up others by calling the young men's Business Club of New Orleans and some popped up in the least expected places [Music] Charlie Erdman turned to the schools for help he called Alfred ferment the principal at John McDon High School some of the youngsters there are interested in hot rod cars they formed a club called the asphalt Angels but actually it's a service Club too and not all their service is confined to their cars [Music] Redman called a junior high school next the Samuel J Peters School his own Al marata many years ago he talked to the principal Joe Abraham and told of the need for [Music] help student may I have your attention please for a very important announcement attention please this among those listening you kin chin born 13 years ago in Canton communist China but his parents fled to America long ago now his father has a business down on gravier Street kin is Just 4 and 1/2 ft tall weighs in at only 59 lb it's kind of little for throwing big boxes around but if the size seems small still the spirit's willing and so Erdman learns he has another [Music] volunteer Erdman used to be a college football star and he still referees a lot of the local high school games so his next call goes to the coach at Warren Easton high he whistles the youngsters in from the field and fills them in on the score you all remember Mr Herdman he's a good referee even when he calls one against us well now he's calling on us for something else they're starting the shelter stocking drive and he needs a few strong backs in the lineup the kickoff this weekend in New Orleans the big day begins with rain fine weather for ducks but not so good for what Erdman has in [Music] mind but the trucks have been pre-loaded the night before and soon the rain starts letting up the trucks begin to move out [Music] [Music] [Music] at South Rampart Street the big parade breaks up the trucks scatter toward different parts of the city each heading for its own assigned shelter [Music] and the day is turning brighter now in Cathedral Square the sidewalk artists are already out you can buy a picture or have one painted and bask in the warm morning sunshine [Music] but behind the scenes at unloading docks in dark back alleys like this the heavy Works already [Music] begun the youngsters unload the trucks stack the supplies up at hotel and office receiving entrances and there the regular building service workers take over start rolling them into the shelters [Music] in San Francisco it's California weather a fine day for feeding the pigeons or enjoying the view from a park bench but across the bay at Oakland Naval Center John mcnett's day is well underway his truck and nearly hundred others have already checked in past the Sentry Gate the supplies have all been prepositioned for Rapid loading and the forklifts are biting into the stacks [Music] [Music] [Music] no the water drums aren't leaking they had a little rain in Oakland too last night actually the drums won't be filled with drinking water until they're safely inside the shelters which is just as well for the volunteers will have to tote 20,000 of them today or a civil defense water drum weighs only 10 lb empty 156 lb after it's [Music] full the trucks load up move out through to the Sentry Gate and then line up outside there the civil defense dispatcher checks each one off gives each driver his destination and final instructions and then the trucks roll out down the highway toward the Long Bay Bridge leading back to San Francisco [Music] I [Music] [Music] [Music] in Chinatown it's tourists as usual and along Fisherman's Warf aboard the old sailing ship Bal cluther the sightseers are already out in force but few even see the big rigs as they roll by [Music] some trucks head directly for the larger shelters like the crown zabok building in an emergency there'll be Fallout protection here for nearly 5,000 people Joe Herbert and his crew are waiting here a good many of them coming straight from church till wearing their Sunday G to meet and clothes and hardly expecting to be buried under this big a load [Music] others head for a central redistribution port in downtown San Francisco here's where supplies for the smaller shelters will be transferred from the tractor trailers on two lighter trucks the small panel jobs contributed by Private Industry and the Red emergency trucks of the volunteer fire [Music] reserve they'll make final delivery to the smallest shelters to be stock today capacity 50 people and up here it takes only a few men to do the job in others it takes a few more and so they form an assembly line to try and speed up the [Music] job in New Orleans the football players from Eastern High are using similar [Music] methods and outside another shelter located in a big big hotel the asphalt angels have formed their own chain aided and abetted by the smallest volunteer here the hotel manager pitched in to help and so did several of the passes by by noon they had all worked up quite an appetite and the hotels and restaurants set up free lunch lines for the volunteers then it's back to the salt mines again sometimes in Fairly hot and Dusty Corners it takes a lot of room to stock a large community shelter with enough Provisions to cover a two-e emergency period so you save the decent shelter space for the people and stuff supplies in wherever you can across the continent in San Francisco some of the crews are working in roomier and more pleasant surroundings but working just as hard Ed Lynch and other members of the police Reserve are doing the unloading here and the Metropolitan building is one of the largest shelters to be stocked today there's room for 3500 people which means the owners of the building have made quite a contribution too in licensing this place for a community shelter they've given up a lot of valuable space and done it purely as a public [Music] service the Metropolitan calls for one of the largest Crews while in other places there may be only one man to Tote The Weary load or a couple of old vets who forgot the ancient army rule of never volunteer but one way or another the supplies roll in as the afternoon rolls on the hours go slowly but the work goes fast [Music] and finally the end the long day is over the job all done next weekend Ed Lynch can keep that postponed date to take his grandchildren out to Golden Gate Park on Monday Joe Herbert will be back at his desk in the bank providing security of a slightly different sort and probably feeling a few sore muscles in unaccustomed places John mcnet climbs down from from his cab after a hard day driving and faces another 40 Mi on the road before he'll be back home in [Music] copertino in New Orleans Yu kin chin heads for his home too probably nursing some small tired muscles himself and wondering if they've grown any during his day's work and the asphalt Angels well they'll go their merry way [Music] again while older people watch them pass and Grumble about the younger generation these hot rod kids with nothing better to do than just ride around town all day oh well you can't blame anyone too much for not noticing what's [Music] [Applause] happened what both New Orleans and San Francisco the hometowners have been busy enjoying another fine lazy [Music] weekend and the tourists have been seeing other sites after all holidays are meant to be spent in the enjoyment of living not on more sober [Music] thoughts and so denied in both towns sounds the lights will be burning bright again while the great Supply depos will lie deserted in quiet but New Orleans has stocked 117,000 Community fallout shelter spaces this day San Francisco nearly a 100,000 only the beginning of a very big job but still a good beginning the two cities will sleep a little more safely tonight it's it's been a day that made a difference [Music] n