TWO FAST MEN

by C. Aubrey Hearn

SAW GUNDER HAGG, of Gaevle,

Sweden, and Gil Dodds, Boston di-
vinity student, shatter the American
mile record. It was one of those once-
in-a-lifetime races, packed with thrills
and suspense.

The place was the Harvard Stadium.
The date, July 24, at 7:30 P. M. It was
a typical New England summer evening.
The track was in perfect condition. The
14,000 spectators were eager and ex-
pectant. It had been predicted that a
new American record for the mile
would be set, and the great audience
confidently expected track history to be
made.

The occasion was colorful. The
American-Scandinavian Athletic Asso-
ciation sponsored the track meet for the
benefit of the U. S. Army Air Forces
Aid Society. A forty-eight piece Coast
Artillery band and two companies of
Wacs paraded. The American and
Swedish anthems were played before
the races got under way. The Wacs sang
the Army Air Corps song. Fighter and
bomber planes gave demonstrations in
the sky overhead.

Five spectacular preliminary races
kept the audience on their toes. One of
these was an 880-yard obstacle race
for service men, in which each runner
carried a 60-pound full pack, helmet,
and rifle, and jumped hurdles.

When the time for the feature race,

the mile, arrived, a hush fell over the -

stadium. Five well-trained milers toed

the mark. Besides Hagg and Dodds,
there were William Hulse, Don Burn-
ham, and Robert Knowles. The latter,
a high school star, took a 25 yard handi-
cap.

For slightly more than four minutes
after the sound of the gun the specta-
tors stood, craning their necks, yelling,
and urging the runners on. Knowles set
the pace for most of the first lap, until
Hagg passed him and held the lead
thereafter. Until the last turn Dodds
and Hulse were right at Hagg’s heels.
Twice Hagg looked back at them. On
the last turn Hagg quickened his gait
and unleashed a stride that put him
eight yards ahead of Dodds at the tape.
Dodds led Hulse by four yards.

Hagg was clocked at 4:05.3, bettering
by 1.4 seconds the American outdoor
mile record of 4:06.7 made by Glenn
Cunningham at Princeton in 1934.
Dodds also lowered Cunningham’s
time, establishing a new mark for an
American miler, 4:06.5. (A week later
in Cleveland Bill Hulse lowered this to
4:06, finishing a yard ahead of Dodds.
Hagg, who finished first, was timed at
4:05.4.)

In the Harvard race Hagg was
clocked at 3:47.8 for 1,500 meters (120
yards short of a mile), a tenth of a
second below Walter Mehl’s American
mark of 3:47.9, established in Califor-
nia in 1940. Thus two American rec-
ords were set by Hagg in one race.

After the epochal race, I went to the

Continued on page 8

 

OXYGEN SENSE

Servicemen—also read feature on
page 4

REATHE right along—easy does

it! Don’t ,be too self-conscious
about this common and useful habit.
But on the other hand, be sure what
you are breathing.

If you are a flyer, you've already
learned that—

Breathing water, illuminating gas,
carbon monoxide, etc., isn’t healthy in
any event.

_ Breathing enough air that contains
enough oxygen is part of the job of fly-
ing—as well as living!

Flyers learn a good many facts about
air and the healthy person’s use of it
from a sprightly booklet named “Oxy-
gen Sense.” It was issued a few months

Page Two

ago by the Training Divisicn, Bureau
of Aeronautics of the U. S. Navy.

How would you like to know just
what the problem of “not enough air
at high altitudes” means? “Oxygen
Sense” puts this in the form of a com-
parison you need never forget; it’s that
simple.

Imagine a huge pile of mixed straws;
half of them black, the others white.
The weight of the straws compresses
those on the bottom more than those on
top. A pitchfork full of straws from the
bottom of that pile contains more
straws in it than a fork full taken at
the peak—though the proportion of
black and white straws always stays the
same.

Now, begin to stoke a fire with that
straw, in which the white straws prove
to be better fuel, and you'll see a dif-
ference in the results of a single fork
full. To get the same results with a

fork full off the top of the big pile,
you’d have to add some more white
straws.

A flyer’s oxygen apparatus feeds
“white straws” of oxygen into the les-
sened quantity of air available at high
altitudes. The flyer has to know and
thoroughly value that equipment. He
must understand it, keep it in running
order, and know enough to use it when
flying for any length of time above
10,000 feet.

The book says that a fellow feels fine
when he is first in need of more
oxygen. He just isn’t paying attention
to the advice of his altimeter, which
tells him he is flying at “thin-air”
height.

“Sure you feel fine,” the text con-
tinues. “So does your drunken friend
when you tell him he’s had too much
of the old stagger-soup and shouldn’t
drive his car. He doesn’t feel so fine
later when they pick him up off the
road. Anoxia—lack of oxygen—like al-
cohol gives a false sense of exhilaration
and _ self-confidence.”

Alcohol gets some other mention in
the Navy flyers’ book.

“T’d like some beer,” it indicates, is
just the wrong thing to say to a wait-
ress when you’re due for a high-altitude
trip within the next day of so. Equally

bad: “Let’s have just one more drink

before we turn in.”

“Bad on two counts,” explains the
Navy. “First of all, it’s cold up there.
Alcohol breaks down your resistance to
cold, even though it may make you feel
warmer. You'll be a lot more subject to
frostbite, chills, numbness, and so on
if you’ve been drinking the night before
than if you haven’t.

“Alcohol of course has a lot of other
effects which don’t help you under
conditions such as you face in high alti-
tude flying:

“Your vision is not as keen.

“Your heart and breathing are ac-
celerated (and remember, you’re on
oxygen).

“Your pores are opened due to raised
skin temperature.

“Your whole general body adjust-
ment is depreciated.

“Alcohol lowers your ‘service ceiling’
anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. War
is no time for that!”

There’s other advice—as common-
sensible as this—leading up to the big
punch sentences that any one of us
might well paste inside his hat:

“You must realize that if you func-
tion below 100 per cent for any of the
reasons given here, you’re not the only
one who suffers. The boys are depend-
ing on you—the squadron is depending
on you—the Fleet is depending on you
—the Nation is depending on you.”

The Allied Youth