Having witnessed a demonstration of early equipment at Fort Monmouth NJ in May Arnold Arnold then the Asst. Chief of the Army Army Force sent the third endorsement (June 3, 1937) of a letter that a LC Davis stationed in Panama (Then referred to as the Canal Zone or CZ.) to the U. S. Army's Chief Signal Officer requesting a mobile device capable of detection an aircraft at a distance of 50 miles.

Davis had earlier requested a device to detect aircraft using radio means to the Army,s Chief of the Signal Corps. Why this letter was sent outside of the normal chain of command is a mystery. LC Davis could have been severely reprimanded by such an action if there wasn't some behind of the stairs communication with a higher up in the Army Air Force (AAF).

These actions of Arnold are not mentioned in the standard biographies him.

Much later in December of 1941 he was said to say with much sadness I can't believe what happened on December 7th we had given them the best equipment that we had and they did not heed its warning in a meaningful way. The early radar equipment SCR-268 and SCR-270 called detectors made up the major portion of the Signal Corps budget in 1941.

Thank You for reading this, Don Helgeson