Remember when Lorain had a Civil Defense tower sitting right next to the old City Hall, dating back to the early 1950s?
No? That's not surprising. As the years roll by, there are fewer Lorainites that can recall the old observation tower. Before it was erected there for use by the Ground Observer Corps, it was previously located in the harbor and served as the U. S. Coast Guard 's life-saving tower.
It came down in 1971 (which I wrote about here) when the new Lorain City Hall was being built.
But before the tower was moved there from the harbor, the Lorain Skywatchers, Ground Observer Corps had to watch the skies for enemy aircraft from somewhere. And that was atop the Eagles Building on Broadway.
And according to the article below, which appeared on the front page of the October 9, 1953 Lorain Journal, Lorain's volunteer Skywatchers were a dedicated bunch. They racked up hours and hours of scanning the skies, and were going to be honored for their efforts.
The article notes, "78 Lorain men and women are scheduled to receive medal awards from the U. S. Air Force Ground Observer Corps for lengthy service in the Skywatch operation.
"In addition, approximately 100 more will receive award certificates."
A medal similar to what was given out to the Lorain Skywatchers is on eBay right now (below). It's currently up in the Great White North, but I wonder if it originally belonged to a Lorainite?
4 comments:
Lorain started scanning for aircraft for civil defense back in WW2 along with 24-hour armed guards on railway bridges and the like. Like most Lake Erie ports and steel-making cities, it was considered essential to the country's war effort and considerable money was spent to monitor the situation and keep things safe from sabotage which was a huge concern, particularly with the gov'ts knowledge of the same going on in other countries.
I wonder if this program was a continuation of that?
I was looking for photos of GOC towers and found a nice one in Iowa. Iowa? Reminds me of the time George Goebel was on the Tonight Show and told a tale of his Air Force service which was in Oklahoma in WWII. When Johnny looked surprised, George explained it was considered quite a success as "...no Japanese plane ever made it past Tulsa."
From the Wiki entry, it sounds like the Ground Observer Corps mentioned in the 1953 article was part of the second program that went by that name. The first was organized during WWII; the second, in 1950.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_Observer_Corps
I know my grandfather was a GOC volunteer, although I'm not exactly sure if it was during the war or after. I'm not aware of any medal or certificate related to it in his belongings. Although we did find a certificate that he passed a swimming test when he volunteered for the Coast Guard Auxiliary during the war. He was exempted from the draft because his job was considered critical to the war effort (he installed and serviced radio telephones on lake freighters at the time) so he volunteered in other ways.
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