'Like a huge table with a map of the Pacific Northwest'

Enid (Laspa) Grabill

During 1942 and 1943, I volunteered at the old Armory in the Filter Center, which was being manned by an Army Signal Corps company.

Capt. Wanlass was in charge of the center, and we worked at a plotting board that was like a huge table with a map of the Pacific Northwest. We had long "pushers" that we used to plot the aircraft flying near the coast.

There were "spotters" positioned all over the coast and the mountains who would call in when they spotted an aircraft and would give us a description of the plane. We then had small disc markers that we would use to plot the direction the plane was travelling.

I think that there were about four or five of us on duty at a time. The calls came in from the spotters to the shift supervisor seated on a platform, and they would then relay the positions to us.

I was working at the Thurston County Auditors Office at that time, and they would send military vehicles to pick up the volunteers and take them to the Armory. If I remember right, they also took us home after the shift was over.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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