[Ocd News Letter. No. 17]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

Fire Watchers
Urgently Needed
Calling for the immediate expansion of Fire Watchers’ services, OCD Director James M. Landis recently warned defense councils throughout the country that English experience has proved the conflagrations started by fire bombs more destructive than the effects of high-explosive bombs. “Study of the effect of bombing raids made upon Britain shows that a major portion of all property destruction is caused by fire and that prevention of fire is the most important single step which can be taken to reduce damage,” he said. “This is one of the most urgent problems to be faced by Civilian Defense.”
A heavy bomber will carry as many as 2,000 incendiary bombs. Dropped in a concentrated area, they can set hundreds of fires simultaneously. Once a conflagration has been started, British experience shows the most that organized fire departments can do is to confine the destruction within firestops or natural barriers. Often their efforts to do even this are handicapped by disruption of water mains by high explosives.
Use of the Jet
Method of Fighting Fire Bombs Revised
Yes—it’s true—OCD did reverse its advice on fighting fire bombs. Why?
Victory in this war will go to the side which never accepts present methods as “good enough.” That’s the reason OCD is conducting constant research—to bring home-defense techniques as near as possible to perfection.
Technicians of OCD and the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army conducted exhaustive experiments on the problem. Their results pointed toward the jet as a more effective extinguisher than the spray. British and New Zealand trials bore out their conclusions. Final research by the American experts conclusively established the jet method as the most effective for general civilian use.
Unfortunately, the extensive tests necessary to make sure that the jet method was the most effective for general civilian use resulted in premature reports in certain publications. These made it necessary to announce officially the new, improved method before there was time for advance notice to reach all local defense councils.
The confusion resulting from the premdture announcement is now cleared away and the superiority of the jet method has been publicly demonstrated and accepted. The Army Chemical Warfare Service proved the effectiveness of the jet over the spray in a public exhibition, July 30, before Mayor LaGuardia and New York fire and civilian defense officials. Fifteen seconds was the time required to extinguish a 4-pound fire bomb with a jet; 1 minute and 5 seconds by the old-fashioned spray. And the spray method required more than twice as much water. After the demonstration by the two Army sergeants, two young girls volunteered from the crowd to fight an incendiary. They had never seen a fire bomb before, but they rapidly extinguished the incendiary with a jet as the crowd applauded.
The new recommendations minimize the use of sand in fighting fire bombs and emphasize that fire, rather than the bomb itself, is the real enemy. Since more than one bomb may have to be fought, they also emphasize the {Continued on Page 2)
CAP Wing Tips
The dramatic rescue of three persons from a capsized sailboat earned two Civil Air Patrol members of Detroit, Mich., commendation for distinguished service by National 'CAP commander Maj. Earle Johnson. Gordon Smith, pilot, and Wesley Smith, observer, both of Squadron 632-2, saw the sailboat capsize on Lake St. Clair. The wind was so strong that other planes in the area were grounded, but they took off in a light plane equipped with pontoons and effected a difficult landing beside the boat. One of the persons from the boat was so exhausted that he was taken into the plane. The others clung to the pontoons until a Coast Guard cutter arrived.
A man struck by a train at Gordon’s Ferry, Iowa, in all probability owes his life to the first-aid training of a CAP member. George Jacobsen, the CAP member, was nearby when the accident happened. He quickly used his necktie as a tourniquet, probably preventing the victim from bleeding to death.
The dreaded Cyprus swamps of Florida had claimed another Army plane. Up went the planes of Squadron 414-1, Orlando, weaving back and forth over the swampy wilderness in search of the lost plane. Finally Pilots Ted Patecell and Bob Swanson sighted the crashed ship, nearly obscured in the swamp, the collapsed parachute of the flyer visible nearby. They circled until Acting Squadron Commander L. W. Burton, Jr., relieved them and dropped a first-aid kit to the pilot. Ground crews and Army planes were directed to the spot and, for the third time, the Orlando Squadron had been successful in its lost-plane searches.
As an example of the patriotic devotion to service typical of the CAP, this comment on “Shirkers” from the July issue of Contact, published by Squadron 632-1, Roseville, Mich., is noteworthy: “Two CAP members—not of our squadron, thank goodness—refused to report for blackout guard duty. They are no longer members of CAP. When we think of the boys who are giving their lives, is it too much to ask that we, who are privileged to be at home in safety with our families, should do our part to the best of our abilities?”
On the ground, as well as in the air, many CAP members are working out share-the-ride plans. One Cleveland group, for example, has posted in the hangar of each of the four squadrons a map dividing the city and surrounding territory into 208 zones. Beside it is a list of all squadron members, with business addresses in black and home addresses in red. Names are listed by zones, and a member whose place of business is in a different zone from his home is listed twice. This permits anyone to determine who lives or works nearby, so that arrangements can be made for trading rides to and from the airport.
Demonstrating aerial maneuvers, a flight of 15 planes of the first Virginia group was dispatched from three airports and arrived simultaneously over the crowd in the Richmond City Stadium at a recent field day.
Chief Named for
Forest Fire Fighters
David P. Godwin, Assistant Chief of the Fire Patrol Division, JJ. S. Forest Service, has been appointed National Coordinator of the Forest Fire Fighters Service, recently established by the Office of Civilian Defense.
The Forest Fire Fighters Service, according to OCD Director Landis, will ¿be one of the basic units of Civilian Defense and will serve as a part of the national Facility Security Program. The service will be comparable in organizational set-up to the Civil Air PatroL
State and local coordinators will be appointed and local working units will be organized in squads of 8 to 10 Forest Fire Fighters. The emblem of the service will be a pine tree, in red, on the white triangle and blue circle used in all civilian defense insignia.
Fire protection specialists of the various agencies under whom the new service will operate will train the volunteer forest fire fighters necessary for the safety of timbered areas during wartime.
Mr. Godwin becomes National Coordinator after long experience in the field of fire control. He entered the Forest Service in 1908, serving as forest ranger and later as forest supervisor. From 1917 to 1919 he served in France as a captain with the 10th Regiment of Engineers (Forestry) and the 1st Regiment of Combat Engineers. He is a graduate of the Army General Staff College and Army School of the Line. He returned to the Forestry Service after his Army career and several years in private business.
Fire Bombs
{Continued from Page 1) necessity of speed in attacking the incendiary with a jet.
The Springfield rifle was a good rifle; but, when the Garand was invented, it went into the discard. The “spray and sand’* method of fighting incendiaries was also good—but the jet is at least four or five times as effective.
The new instructions, reduced to essentials, follow:
1.	Bring your fire-fighting equipment to the scene as soon as the bomb strikes.
2.	Shoot a jet of water on the bomb at once. Take cover behind a door, chair, or other furniture, if you can, when you do this. The jet knocks the bomb out quickly. There will be a burst of white flame and a scattering of molten metal, most of which will be driven away from you by the force of the jet.
3.	Then use the jet quickly to quench fragments and the remains of the bomb and any fires it might have started.
4.	Be absolutely sure all the fire is out before you leave the scene.
5.	Use a coarse spray only where scattering of metal must be avoided—for example, where there are concentrations of highly inflammable materials.
6.	Use sand only if a bomb falls where it is not likely to start a fire or if water is not available.
The national OCD office has prepared a variety of new educational material on fighting fire bombs, including a documented memorandum containing essential reasons for the revision, full-page newspaper mat, press releases, and a new instructional film.
Child Care Featured by Many Councils
The Women’s Division of GEORGIA’S Citizens* Defense Committee reports a State-wide project on Child Care and Protection. Twelve women have been graduated from an 80-hour training course, and one graduate, who is chairman of the MUSCOGEE COUNTY Child Care Committee, is starting a course in child care in her own community.
In NEVADA, classes in nursery school education for women and girls ■over 13 are being directed by the State chairman of the National Association of Nursery School Education, who is also a member of the Pre-Schqol Advisory Board of the State Council of Defense.
Th® VERMONT Council of Safety (Defense Council) has appointed a Child Day Care Committee which has outlined a training course for volunteers.
One of the first jobs undertaken by the recently appointed Home and Community Service Division of the' FLORIDA State Defense Council is planning for the care of children of working mothers and for children living in communities which have mushroomed because of new war industries or military establishments. A subcommittee has been appointed to plan the training of volunteers to work in day nurseries, play centers, and nursery schools. The Home and Community Service Division of LAKE WALES and six nearby towns under the POLK COUNTY Defense Council cooperates in the operation of a nursery school for children whose mothers are doing volunteer work.
An experimental day nursery has been opened in DETROIT, MICH., for both preschool and school-age children whose parents work in war industry. It is sponsored jointly by the Defense Council Committee on the Day Care of Children and the Wayne County Board of Education. A joint A. F. of L.-C. I. O. committee has been active in stimulating the program. A survey of 10,000 families showed that four times as many women would be free to enter war industry if care were provided for school-age children than if the program were for preschool children only.
At OGDEN, UTAH, a citizens* committee has contributed $1,000 to. open a day nursery for children of war mothers. The money will serve as a revolving fund, as parents pay for their children’s care.
A nursery school has been established for children of war workers living in a trailer camp in BALTIMORE, MD. It is one of nine in that vicinity operated by the WPA with the assistance of child-care aides recruited and trained under a defense council program. Fifty volunteers have completed training, and 30 are now taking courses.
The Community Welfare Section of the MILWAUKEE, WIS., Citizens’ Service Corps has written and interviewed employers of women to find out the need for day care. It has also arranged with the Family Welfare Association for a consultation service for working mothers and is planning additional child-care facilities.
As more women take their places in war industries, the more insistent become demands for programs of day care of children. With most recent Government estimates indicating that 4 million women are expected to be working in war employment by the end of 1942 and 6 million by the end of 1943, defense councils are challenged by the urgent need for providing adequate day-care facilities.
Many defense councils are already cooperating in programs caring for children of war working mothers, and their examples can be of value to others contemplating similar service.
Most of the day-care activities of defense councils follow the same general pattern. There is a defense council committee, which may be a unit of a larger welfare and child-care committee or it may be a separate day-care committee. Such committees represent interested public and private organizations, such as schools, welfare and social agencies, WPA, employment offices, labor groups, and women’s organizations. Its first job is to investigate the immediate demand for day care of children and to study existing facilities.
The committee endeavors to find out from the U. S. Employment Office and industrial plants the extent to which mothers will be employed in the future. Then, with professional guidance, it outlines programs for training volunteer child-care aides recruited through the local Civilian Defense Volunteer Office. Finally, necessary day-care programs are begun. Some may be operated as supervised homemaker services, others as supervised foster-family day care, day nurseries, nursery schools, and out-of-school leisure-time programs. Working mothers are usually glad to pay a reasonable amount for the care of their children, although special arrangements are advisable for women unable to afford a fee.
Day-care committees can get helpful suggestions from the following publications:
Available from the Children’s Bureau, Washington, D. C.: “A Community Program of Day Care for Children of Mothers Employed in Defense Areas,” “Procedures and Requirements for Day-Care Projects Under the Community Facilities Act (Public Act 137),” “Standards for Day Care of Children of Working Mothers,” “Factors in Planning Community Day-Care Programs.”
^From the Association for Childhood Education, Washington, D. C.: “What Is the Federal Government Doing for Children?” by Mary Dabney Davis, U. S. Office of Education.
From the National Association for Nursery Education, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa: “Some Ways of Distinguishing a Good Nursery School.” (2 cents.) “Essentials of Nursery Education.” (25 cents.)
From the National Commission for Young Children, Washington, D. C.: “Children’s Centers Vital to Victory.”
From Play Schools Association, 1841 Broadway, New York: “A Handbook on Play Schools for Group Leaders and Teachers.” (15 cents.)
Quotes
“With peace among nations reasonably assured, with political stability established, with economic shackles removed, a vast fund of resources will be released in each nation to meet the needs of progress, to make possible for all of its citizens an advancement toward higher living standards, to invigorate the constructive forces of initiative and enterprise. The nations of the world will then be able to go forward in the manner of their own choosing in all avenues of human betterment more completely than they ever have been able to do in the past.”—Secretary of State Cordell Hull, radio address July 24.
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“That we Americans have what it takes, our fighters at Bataan, in the Coral Sea, and at Midway have amply proved. We on the home front must do likewise.”— Letter to the New York Times, July 24.
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“To win this war for freedom is not to win a doubtful victory. To win this war for freedom is to win the greatest triumph any nation, any people, ever won.”—Archibald MacLeish in the July 1942 Atlantic Monthly.
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“When I was working on the Seventh Symphony, my thoughts were of hatred of the enemy and love of the people—of the ideals of progressive mankind and of our coming victory. I wrote my symphony in my native city of Leningrad in those days when the enemy tore at the gates of this beautiful city. My music is my weapon, and I have endeavored to vest my symphony with those feelings which grip our people . . .”—Dmitri Shostakovich famous Russian composer and “fire watcher” on top of the Leningrad Conservatory of Music during the Nazi siege of the city, from his message to listeners of the recent premiere American performance of his Seventh Symphony, acclaimed by critics as one of the greatest modern compositions.
* * *
“Civilian defense offers possibility of a better world.
“We must insist that we are trained as well for the future as for the present; that through our training and experience we will be able to hold on to what we are gaining.
“Our immediate task is difficult, but not much will be added to it if we determine to do the task well enough so that it will carry over into the future—into a new world.”—Chicago “Civilian Defense Alert” June 30,1942.
* * *
“ ‘Could you kindly,’ said a letter received by Civilian Defense Director Leonard Dreyfuss, ‘instruct your air-raid wardens to wait until they get inside a person’s home before they ask such personal questions as people’s ages?’
“ ‘It is not very dignified to have to answer such questions before a row of neighbors sitting outdoors.’”— Washington News, July.
Nearly Ten Million!
Nearly 10,000,000 volunteers have enlisted in civilian defense through June 1, according to the OCD Statistics Seetion. Eight and a half million of the 9,900,000 enrolled at approximately 10,000 defense councils have been assigned to training or work. This represents an increase of approximately 600,000 over May 1.
The Citizens* Defense Corps totaled 5,200,000 and the Citizens* Service Corps 3,300,000. In the protective services there were 1,636,000 air-raid wardens, 483,000 auxiliary firemen, and 428,000 auxiliary police. Particularly significant was the fact that the number of volunteers mounted steadily despite the increased requirements of eligibility and training announced last April 29. More Americans were learning that participation in the civilian defense of their country is a democratic privilege.
Organizations Can Help
A drive to secure greater participation of national organizations in civilian defense has been launched by Jonathan Daniels, Assistant OCD Director in charge of Civilian Mobilization Branch. In letters to more than 500 national organizations, Mr. Daniels called for their complete cooperation with defense councils.
“Every national organization can take its greatest pride today in terms of the participation of its members in the war effort,” said Mr. Daniels* letter. “I am sure we can count on the members of your organization to cooperate in meeting the needs of American communities in these critical days, and I am also sure that your organization can assist its members and their country by urging all members to insist on good defense organization in their communities and to participate fully in that organization for war.”
The National Organizations Section of OCD serves national groups as a clearing house for civilian defense advice and counsel. Suggestions have been given more than 5,000 organizations which have inquired, “What can we do?” The section has also striven to mobilize the resources of practically all national organizations to contribute more fully to the war effort.
OCD Counsel Appointed
Harold W. Newman, Jr., has been appointed general counsel of the Office of Civilian Defense. He has been serving as acting chief of the OCD Legal Division. A native of New Orleans, Mr. Newman joined the OCD staff last February after extensive practice in New York City, Newark, N. J., and Washington, D. C.
I. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
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