Because she had always been interested in radio, had built receiving and sending sets with her father’s help, she had taken up the radio branch of the service.
When her primary training was over at Fort Des Moines she had gone to a special school for further radio training. There she had learned to operate and repair all manner of army sets.
She had entertained fond dreams of soaring away in a flying fortress as its radio engineer.
And then the magic of radar had come breaking into her little world. Radar had charmed and intrigued her. She was allowed to remain for a special course in radar.
She had gotten this far in her bittersweet meditations there on the shady porch at the “Club” in India when a slight stir at her right caught her attention. Someone had taken a chair close to hers. On looking up she was surprised to see that it was the native girl nurse, Than Shwe. She favored her with her best smile.
“Pardon,” the girl hesitated. “Just now I hear that something, they say radar, helped bring down a Jap bomber. This is splendid. But what is radar?”
Gale started. So there it was, so soon! Did Than Shwe suspect that she was the one who had helped with radar? She doubted that.
“Radar,” she replied quietly, “is like radio.”
“But you do not shoot with radio,” the native girl stared.
“Nor with radar, either.” Gale laughed softly.