Walter Cronkite - Grease Monkey

It's spunky! Water Cronkite of the United Press, reporting to you from a ninth Air Force fighter base somewhere on the western front.

Today I want to tell you about heroes and a guy. Now heroes around air bases wear wings as a rule. But here at this air base there is one hero who never flew a plane.

His name? Art D. Hendrickson, Mr. Cronkite. I come from a poodle town in Missouri. We call it Pleasant Hill. Yes sir, Pleasant Hill. Those were the days. But just call me Art D, mister. Everybody around here.

Yes, everybody around here knows RD and that's what we call him. A 26-year-old kid from Pleasant Hill, Missouri. A grease monkey. A mustang nurse. Take a good look at him. His coveralls are stained with oil.

His fingernails are dirty. His thatch of blonde hair that'll never stay combed. Yeah, yeah, did you say RD? Sure, I know that little toe-headed grease monkey. He wants to be a pilot, stands off and listen to us shoot the breeze after a flight.

Funny little guy. Go easy on a lieutenant, RD's all right. Good mechanic. You may have had an unfortunate brush with a major, but I could have any of us. Ask the major, he'll tell you the same thing.

Uh, hello, side captain. What's that? RD! Do I know him? How can I ever forget that little grease monkey? Of course it was an accident. Could have knew anybody. But why did it have to happen to me?

Sagin? Sagin Mulvaney? Sagin? Well, that should give you a pretty good idea of RD, the Missouri Grease Monkey. One of the best mechanics in the business but a funny little guy, in trouble more often than not.