If you stop a think about the Trans-Oceanic was so important for the moral of GI's in remote locations. I have had so many WW2, and the Korean War veterans tell me how important the Trans-Oceanic's where to them. The 1942 Trans-Oceanic Clipper, 35,000 where made but not very many survived because so many of them where donated for the war effort mostly in the Pacific theater. When I was in the Navy down in GITMO Cuba, in 1972, the Naval Station's Chaplin was very interesting a Navy Captain he had a Ford Model "A" for his vehicle, and a tube type Trans-Oceanic radio it must have been a 600. He told me he could get the Model A repaired anywhere in the world he was and the Navy got him batteries for his Trans-Oceanic and he had music anywhere he happened to be.
We are looking at this radio from this side of history where most everything is portable at the time a receiver that could bring in the Home front from no matter where you where was a big deal. I do know they where hooked into PA systems and played music, news, and radio shows in Officer's Clubs, and EM Clubs on Pacific Islands in the middle of nowhere. During the Korean War it was AFRS broadcasts from Japan, and State side broadcasts from high powered SW stations. This is one of the reasons I have developed my interest in the tube type T-O's. It was the Zenith Trans-Oceanic that made the Pentagon realize just how important this radio connection with home was for Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines out in the trackless Pacific on ships, and islands. This was the genesis of first the Armed Forces Radio Service, (AFRS) and later Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. In the 60's I enjoyed listening to AFRTS on Shortwave what I thought was so amusing was Voice Of America complained that AFRTS broadcasts on shortwave where far more popular then their broadcasts.
