Fifty years of heritage (edition 5)

Published Feb. 18, 2011
By Eric M. White
910 AW/PA

YOUNGSTOWN AIR RESERVE STATION, Ohio -- Each Thursday in 2011, the 910th AW/PA office will republish a historic article or highlight from the archive along with a brief commentary.

In the case of articles, we will publish exact copies of the originals, so any grammatical or typographical errors are intentional reproductions. Each week will feature a different year in Youngstown Air Reserve Station (YARS) history, beginning with 1957 and ending with 2007.

Article 5: Understanding the adversary

One of many evolutions, the Buckstone Carrier was officially retired July 1961, and replaced with the Blue Tiger Rag. The editorial staff of the base newspaper published a special column to explain the retirement and new name.

The 757th Troop Carrier Squadron (TCS) had recently adopted the Blue Tiger insignia--a form of which is still used today--and received Air Force approval to make the symbol official. The adoption of this new image accompanied major changes to the structure of the Air Force presence in Youngstown, several of which are highlighted in previous 50 Years of Heritage articles.

To accompany the Blue Tiger insignia as the new public face of the 757th Troop Carrier Squadron, the editorial staff adopted a new name and cover.

During Youngstown's ongoing transitions, the great nations of the world were trudging along through the silent fury at the heart of the Cold War. The impact and effort of the Cold War define the character of several years of base newsletters.

The September and October, 1961, issues feature a two-part series by Leon Goure, "Russian area specialist for the RAND Corporation." According to their website, www.rand.org, the RAND Corporation exists "To help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis." After World War II, Project Rand was formed as an initiative of the Douglas Aircraft Company of Santa Monica, California. Their goal was to "continue in peacetime the advances in knowledge that civilian research scientists had been recruited to develop during the war."

In an era of global tension, members of the 757th TCS were expected to maintain combat readiness, deployable on a moment's notice. While the members of the U.S. Armed Forces were busy maintaining standards of excellence, their adversaries were training toward the same goal.

The series--What's Russia Doing About Civil Defense?--provides an overview of Russia's Cold War efforts toward defense.

From the September, 1961 Blue Tiger Rag

WHAT'S RUSSIA DOING ABOUT CIVIL DEFENSE?

(First of a two-part series by Leon Goure, Russian area specialist for the RAND Coporation. Goure was born in Russia and lived in Germay and France before coming to the U.S. at the start of the WW II. He became an American citizen while serving in the U.S. Army during the war.)

--Russia some years ago set for herself the goal of training the nation's entire population for civil defense. Since 1955, three compulsory training programs for all persons over 16 years of age have been completed.

--According to one source, twenty-two million people, or ten percent of the entire population, now serve in civil defense groups.

--Russian publications stress a variety of shelters to protect the public, as well as the use of gas masks, protective clothing, and chemical warfare decontamination kits.

--Present plans call for evacuation of "nonessential" city dwellers to rural areas in the event of attack. "Productive" persons will remain.

--Extensive postattack and recovery plans also are past the blueprint stage in the truly impressive Red civil defense setup.

Russia has devote considerable attention to civil defense preparedness. Here is an authoritative report on the soviet program in this area as it emerges from recent publications within the USSR.

Background

Soviet leaders have been concerned with civil defense since the early 1920s. They have at various times embarked on extensive civil defense training and construction programs. Between 1935 and 1959, six mass civil defense training programs were initiated. During WW II, when such training was compulsory, 137,000,000 people are said to have taken the 28-hour civil defense course. During WW II, the Soviet population had considerable experience in shelter life. The importance of civil defense as a factor contributing to Soviet war readiness has been stressed by the top marshals of the Soviet Union and has been discussed by ministers of defense at Party congresses although Premier Krushchev has made the point that Russia, because of its size and industry dispersal, is less vulnerable to attack than western countries.

Soviet manuals stress that civil defense:

--Must protect the population against all types of weapons: conventional, chemical, bacteriological, nuclear. The threat of the so-called ABC weapons, which are termed "means of mass destruction," has been especially stressed 1954.

--Must provide important industrial administrative, and other vital installations with the ability to continue their operations "under condition of attack from the air."

Organization

Soviet civil defense organization is operated through the national, territorial, and local administrations and the economic institutes. The small full-time professional staff, which was headed until recently by a first deputy minister of internal affairs (MVD), develops operational and organizational systems and conducts research. Full-time staffs at the republic, territory, regional, district, and city levels direct the work of formations and groups that organize on the basis of existing services and volunteer teams. The formation of civil defense units according to to a prescribed table of organization is compulsory for all republics, provinces, counties, cities, districts, and all collective and state farms. Large institutions and large public buildings and apartment houses are also included.

Population centers are to be supplemented by special rural formations and militarized units which come to the assistance of the cities following an attack.

According to a West German writer, Soviet Premier Khrushchev has claimed that 22 million people or 10 per cent of the entire population, now serve in civil defense groups. This could be a goal rather than an actuality.

Training

The Soviet authorities have been insisting on the importance of training the entire population in civil defense. Since 1955, three compulsory training programs for all persons over 16 years of age have been completed. In 1955, there was a ten-hour program, from 1956 to 1958 a 22 hour program, and in 1959 a 14 hour program which stressed practical civil defense work. A new 18 hour program has now gone into effect to stress practical work in postattack operations. The training programs familiarize the population with the nature of modern weapons and their effects, teach them to use individual means of protection and how the behave in shelters, and instruct them in first aid, fire fighting, decontamination, and, in rural areas, veterinary assistance to farm animals.

Al training is conducted in small groups at places of employment, apartment houses or farms. According to soviet press reports the training has been uneven, lagging especially in rural areas, and at times has been only perfunctory, but constant efforts are made to improve its quality and to check its effectiveness.

(Next month--Shelters, other protection.)