We Americans want to believe that the Kremlin peace overtures are sincere. We hope that the Soviet government genuinely desires to settle the differences between East and West in a peaceful manner over the conference table.But, while we listen willingly to any of their peace proposals, we must not let ourselves be lulled into a sense of false security. Not while the Kremlin still has about 1000 long-range bombers which can strike any part of the United States.
Our Air Force and Army Anti-Aircraft defenses are on round-the-clock duty guarding against the threat of enemy air attack. But they need the help of an active and alert Ground Observer Corps to spot low-flying enemy planes that might sneak under our radar network.
So, if you are not already one of the 300,000 civilian volunteer plane spotters in the Ground Observer Corps, join now. Remember, so long as the Iron Curtain exists we must always be on guard. Never forget that eternal vigilance is still the price of liberty.
TheGround Observer Corps (GOC), sometimes erroneously referred to as the GroundObservation Corps, was the name of two American civil defense organizations during the middle 20th century.
The firstGround Observer Corps was aWorld War IICivil Defense program of theUnited States Army Air Forces to protect United States territory against air attack. The 1.5 million civilian observers at 14,000 coastal observation posts performed naked eye and binocular searches to detect German or Japanese aircraft. Observations were telephoned to filter centers, which forwarded authenticated reports to theAircraft Warning Service, which also received reports fromArmy radar stations. The program ended in 1944.[2] A fewAircraft Warning Service Observation Towers survive as relics.
The secondGround Observer Corps,[3][4][5] with programmatic aims and methodologies similar to the first, was organized in early 1950, during theCold War. Its creation was prompted by the similar organization formed in Canada in 1950, theRCAF Ground Observer Corps.
Operating as an arm of theUnited States Air ForceCivil Defense service, the second GOC supplemented theLashup Radar Network and thePermanent System radar stations.[6] Observations were telephoned directly to filter centers[3][7] and the information was relayed toAir Defense Command ground control interception centers.[8] By 1952 the GOC program was expanded intoOperation Skywatch, consisting of 750,000 volunteers aged 7 to 86 years old working in shifts at over 16,000 posts and 73 filter centers.[9][10] Extant examples of observation platforms used by GOC/Skywatch volunteers include theCairo Skywatch Tower,[11] theWest Island tower inFairhaven, Massachusetts (originally part of a World War II-era anti-submarineFire-control system),[12] and a tower inSoda Springs, Idaho.[13]
The second GOC program ended in 1958[14] with the advent of automated Army (Missile Master) and Air Force (SAGE) radar systems. GOC volunteers were encouraged to continue their service in theRadio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES).[15]
The GOC was a story element in the 1957 science fiction filmThe Deadly Mantis.
| External image | |
|---|---|
 1952 map |
The meeting will be addressed by Lieut. Wenzel of the New Haven Filter Center,...
 | This article about themilitary history of the United States is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |