Author Description

Many years ago Richard Boone starred in a movie and radio series that topped the charts. Named Have Gun Will Travel he, as "Paladin" - a seeker of justice, hired out his gun, "In the name of justice" and traveled the West tracking down the Bad Guys. At the inception of WWII this nation had no means to quickly deliver vital materials and/or personnel to our Allies. Surface vessels' were too vulnerable to Hitler's deadly submarines and being sunk in large numbers, while our helpless Allies were slowly giving way to Hitler's Legions. Aviation was coming into it's own domestically but had no way to accurately span large expanses of water as there were no road signs or high ways to guide them, until one small airline found the solution. They had adapted the sextant (a naval and merchant marine device) to aerial usage, that enabled them via utilizing celestial bodies to accurately position themselves anywhere upon those vast seas. Pan American Airways not only adapted that instrument to aerial usage also began to train, especially chosen, young military men to learn the art of Celestial Navigation. These young men would guide bombers and cargo planes to any points on the globe and while the bomber (combat) navigators remained with their crews the ones on those cargo planes would quickly return to the States to bring more planes and their cargoes to all areas badly in need of supplies and personnel. These young men, ala that famous "Paladin," used their sextant skills to deliver planes and their passengers and supplies around the globe. Working alone they, in effect, "hired out their sextants" to the crews who needed them and were very instrumental in bringing the war to a successful conclusion.