DEFENSE: Vigil’s End

For nine years, on rooftops, balconies, towers and mountaintops, manning more than 16,000 observation posts scattered around the U.S., civilian volunteers of the U.S. Air Force’s Ground Observer Corps have spent millions of lonely hours, day and night, scanning the skies for enemy aircraft. Last week the Air Force told its 280,000 unpaid watchers, already moved back to a ready-reserve status, that on Jan. 31 the G.O.C.’s dedicated vigil will end completely. The Defense Department’s radar and electronic-brain warning systems, said Air Force Secretary James H. Douglas, are now so effective that the G.O.C. is no longer needed. Besides, he added, the supersonic speeds of missiles and late-model military planes have outpaced the G.O.C., limited as it is by the keenness of human sight and the speed of human action.

By disbanding the G.O.C., the Air Force will make available for other duties the 200 officers and 1,000 enlisted men now assigned to the corps—and contribute a saving of $8,000,000 a year to the Administration’s economy drive.