Activation of new aaa units - Air Defense Artillery

1948 CIVIL DEFENSE 21
ernment (Federal, State, and municipal), Industry, and the
people themselves. Some of the more important problems
requiring consideration are:
t1. Government
1. Civil defense organization-from the national level
dmm to and including the municipal level.
2. The degree of uniformity required within the State
and municipal organizations.
3. The degree to \;vhich Federal, State, and municipal
organizations are to be completed during peacetime.
4. The number and types of fire, police, rescue, medical,
and other emergency units.
5. Standardization of equipment for fire-fighting and
other protective services.
6. l\lobile reserve requirements and movement plans.
7. Establishment of reserve supplies for critical areas.
8. Repair and restoration of essential community serv-
Ices.
9. Relief and rehabilitation of persons.
10. Plans for the emergency evacuation of large numbers
of civilians.
11. Adequate civil defense warning system.
12. Passive defense measures against existing and new
weapons.
13. Plans for inter- and intra-state mutual aid and Federal
assistance to States.
14. Manpower requirements for civil defense.
15. Integration of civil defense plans with other national
security plans, including internal security.
16. Preparation of necessary legislation to provide for
yarious civil defense' measures.
b. Industry
1. Dispersion.
2. Use of underground sites.
3. Protective construction.
4. Internal and external plant protection.
5. Protection of essential communications and transportation
facilities.
c. The People
I. Information to be provided to the public regarding
the nature of future warfare and its possible effects on
civilian communities.
2. Education of the public regarding the necessity for
establishing a civil defense organization, the tasks to be
accomplished in order to determine priority, and the responsibilitv
therefor.
3. ~lobilization and training.
This pattern provides an adequate starting point for
tackling the general problem of civil defense. Each item.
as it is studied, \vill present thousands of problems, each of
which \vill demand sensible solution before we have a SYStem
of ci\'il defense to carry our nation through a war 'in
the future-a \var ,,-hich by its anticipated nature, demands
the total effort of every individual; a \var which is going
to be strictly a personal affair.
Following this pattern by item, the civil defense organiz~-
tion must include everything from the Federal Government
level down to the individual in the municipality, with coordination
at one end (Government) and cooperation at
the other, and with efficient communication going both
ways. It is also mandatory, if we are to preserve our democratic
way of life during the debacle of another war, that
voluntary cooperation on the part of the individual be absolute.
The only alternative is submission to regimentation
under totalitarian law.
Federal, State, and municipal civil defense planning and
organization should be completed during peacetime, and
periodic activation practice is necessary, too, if civil defense
is to be effective.
The number and types of fire, police, rescue, medical
and other emergency units, naturally, must be contingent
on the locality concerned, since population will govern the
extent of need for such civil defense elements.
One of the biggest headaches which will present itself
in civil defense planning is the standardization of equipment
for fire-fighting and other protective services. First
of all, much of the equipment in the. United States for
fire-fighting, damage-control, and emergency is old, tired,
and, in many cases,obsolete. It should be brought up 'to date,
and kept that way. In addition, there is little possibility of
interchangeability between municipalities and between
states, and to make such interchangeability possible through
standardization \'could mean an obstacle in progress for
those companies which develop and perfect such equipment
in order to compete successfully in business. Cooperation
betvveen themselves, if thev should desire to make their
equipment universally sta~dardized, would assume the
aspects of anti-trust violation. Offhand, it would seem that
standardization and interchangeability must be a matter of
cooperation between communities using like equipment,
\vith a peacetime plan for building and maintaining a
healthy, if costly, reserve of replacements and spare parts
for their apparatus.
In the field of mobile reserve, the Armed Forces would be
required to participate, although it is most desirable to leave
such forces free for active measures, offensive and defensive.
In time of \,'ar the Armed Services have hundreds of
thousands of men in training or awaiting transport. Their
military training provides an excellent basis for their effective
utilization in the restoration of an area after attack.
Little additional training \,'ould be requisite, though such
training would be desirable. Then, should an attack occur
in an area near a military installation, a\'ailable personnel
could be routed into the attacked area to assist in the restoration
of order.
The Germans used this idea on a more formal basis bv
maintaining troops organized and trained for the purpos~
of civil defense. These mobile resen'es were equipped \\-ith
the best a\'ailable fire-fighting, demolition, and heavy rescue
equipment. They \vere manned \vith able-bodied men of
combat standard. Fiftv-three of these battalions were or-
. ganized and used, emplo:ing almost 27,000 men. In addition,
thousands of \Yehrmacht troops were employed in
debris clearance to open the way for protecti\'e sen-ices. in
augmenting emergency feeding. etc.
In the field of supplies for critical areas. our inadequacy
in peacetime gi..-esunhappy indication of what our plight