Excerpt from "Are America's Civilians Ready for Attack?"

Reprinted from the Saturday Evening Post.

Published June 6, 1942.

"Don't think they're scared. These people are raring to do something. They can't fight or build planes, but they can defend their own community, and they don't intend to leave the job to somebody else."

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States officially entered World War II, and U.S. citizens eagerly sought civil defense volunteer opportunities. Americans on the eastern and western coasts felt most vulnerable to enemy attack, but civil defense volunteers came forward nationwide. Midwestern cities practiced for air raids and carried out blackout rehearsals as meticulously as coastal...