From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
US federal wartime agency 1941 to 1945
Office of Civilian Defense
|
|
Formed
| May 20, 1941
; 83 years ago
(
1941-05-20
)
|
---|
Dissolved
| June 4, 1945
; 79 years ago
(
1945-06-04
)
|
---|
Superseding agencies
| |
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Jurisdiction
| Federal government of the United States
|
---|
Headquarters
| 2000 Massachusetts Ave,
Washington, D.C.
|
---|
Employees
| 75
|
---|
Key documents
| |
---|
Office of Civilian Defense
was a
United States
federal emergency war agency set up May 20, 1941, by
Executive Order
8757
to co-ordinate state and federal measures for protection of
civilians
in case of war emergency.
[1]
Its two branches supervised protective functions such as
blackouts
and special fire protection and "war service" functions such as child care, health, housing, and transportation. It also created the
Civil Air Patrol
. The agency was terminated by Executive Order 9562 of June 4, 1945.
[2]
The
Office of Civil Defense
with similar duties was established later.
Fiorello La Guardia
was the first head of the office, succeeded in 1942 by
James M. Landis
, followed in 1944 by General
William N. Haskell
. While the agency only had a paid staff of 75, it supervised and coordinated the efforts of civilian volunteers estimated to have topped 11 million.
[
citation needed
]
Volunteer tasks included firefighting and air-raid preparedness. Children, under adult supervision, could volunteer in the Junior Citizens Service Corps, and were especially helpful in wartime
scrap drives
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T (May 20, 1941).
"Franklin D. Roosevelt: 'Executive Order 8757 Establishing the Office of Civilian Defense'
"
.
The American Presidency Project
. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- ^
Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T (June 4, 1945).
"Harry S. Truman: Executive Order 9562?Termination of the Office of Civilian Defense"
.
The American Presidency Project
. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- ^
Ellis, Charles H. Jr. (January 15, 1942).
"LaGuardia to Quit One of Two Jobs"
.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
. Philadelphia, PA. pp. 1, 4 – via
Newspapers.com
.
External links
[
edit
]
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