Louisiana - "The Old South"

Destroyer returns to duty as beacon for radio signals

The stream of messages crackling across the airwaves to the USS Kidd on Saturday was as steady as a drum beat.

Radio communications came in from Maryland, Italy, Spain, Brazil, New Zealand and on and on. Many of the calls came in simultaneously, garbling the words.

Ham radio operators like Lee Bowman and David Assaf crooked their ears to the receivers and tried to make sense of the static.