In Case of Emergency: The Office of Civil Defense

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) was established in 1950 by President Truman, as a successor to the similarly-named Office of Civilian Defense during World War II. It was focused on planning for a possible nuclear attack, and tasked state and local officials with creating these plans for their communities.

I found this folder in my school’s basement.

OCD Folder

As I paged through it, I found many copies of the local agency’s newsletter, OCD Topics, which was evidently mailed to all public school principals. For example, this issue from 1956 sought to reassure New Yorkers that city public schools were prepared for a nuclear attack. Like every issue of the newsletter, it warns against complacency and emphasizes the critical importance of teamwork in the effort to save as many lives as possible. [OCD task of civil defense in NYC schools]

OCD task of civil defense in NYC schools

Also in the folder are various plans for P.S. 61 in particular. This is an initial draft of places within the building where students could gather in the event of an attack, sketched in 1950.

OCD 1950s Shelter diagram

However, other documents describe P.S. 61 as a “wall-bearing” building which would not be a suitable place to wait out an attack. The principal was directed to find another building within a two-minute walk in which students and staff could take shelter. He reported that there was nothing. Apparently, the school system then worked out a plan to use certain buildings in Stuyvesant Town, though it was estimated as being more than a two-minute walk away.

OCD Stuy Town alternative shelter map

Specific directions for different types of drills with different amounts of warning time were published in OCD Topics in 1962. The children in the drawing look delighted to be practicing for nuclear annihilation.

OCD emergency protection for school children

This undated document is clearly from late 1960 or early 1961. The first paragraph refers to the following events:

On December 16, 1960, two planes crashed into each other over New York City. One crashed onto Staten Island and the other onto Park Slope, Brooklyn. A total of 128 people on the planes and 6 people on the ground (in Park Slope) were killed. No one survived.

On December 19, the USS Constellation, a naval aircraft supercarrier, caught on fire at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 50 civilian workers were killed and about 330 injured.

This message to parents reminds me a bit of notes my school sent home after 9/11. I remember that we asked families to let us know all of the other families from our school that we could send their kids home with in an emergency. On 9/11 itself, we had had to more or less guess, when a parent appeared, which other kids to send with them, knowing not all the parents might make it to school. We were also instructed to locate a place in each of the four cardinal directions to which we could evacuate in the event of another emergency.

OCD a message to parents

There is a stack of these Air Raid Instructions posters in the folder. I’m not sure where they were supposed to be posted, as most of the instructions don’t pertain to schools.

OCD air raid instructions

I also found a stack of these blank loyalty oaths. I’m not sure what year they are from, but here’s a short article about loyalty oaths in schools and universities during the 1950s. I have also come across information about teachers who were fired for perceived Communist or anti-American beliefs around this time (a topic for a future blog post). [OCD loyalty oath]