in Local History, My books, US History, War 604 Words

Post-World War II Ground Observer Corps

Note: This will be my last blog post for a while. There are just more pressing tasks – like cutting down sweetgum sprouts — that need my attention. One of the joys of country living. They multiply like rabbits and grow as fast as kudzu.

I will sorely miss getting to work on my blog posts every day, but life changes as we grow older and energy is limited.

Today’s blog is about the Ground Observer Corps and what I learned about it when I was writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper.

The Ground Observer Corps was formed during World War II. One source I found indicated than more than 1.5 million civilians volunteered to man 14,000 observation posts in the coastal states of the United States. Another source reported 800,000 volunteers manned the eventual 16,000 observation posts.

There was a Ground Observer Corps post in the little town of Harrisburg, North Carolina, so I did some research about it in 2007 when I was writing a local history column for Harrisburg Horizons newspaper.

Keep in mind that radar detection of aircraft was low during the war, so human eyes on the skies was a way to try to keep our country safe from foreign bombers.

The program was ended by the Army Air Forces in 1944 but was formed again during the Korean War in the 1950s.

Public service announcements were used to recruit volunteers who were instructed to call their local Civil Defense office.

The Ground Observer Corps post in Harrisburg, NC was organized on July 14, 1955 through the Harrisburg Volunteer Fire Department. It was another civic service in which our local general practitioner, Dr. Nicholas “Nick” E. Lubchenko, played an important role.

Presentation of certificates of service to representatives of the Ground Observer Corps Station in Harrisburg, NC January 27, 1959. Pictured, left to right, are U.S. Air Force M/Sgt. M.L. Venable; Emmett C. Sapp, Jr.; J. David Blume; Lt. Col. James Brennan, Ground Observer Corps Coordinator for North Carolina; and P.V. “Pete” Smith.

John David Blume, Sr. was the post supervisor. Plato “Pete” V. Smith was chief observer. Emmett C. Sapp, Jr. was assistant chief. Mr. Sapp’s extensive experience in an Aircraft Battalion in North Africa, Italy, and Germany during World War II made him well-qualified to assist in training the volunteers in Harrisburg.

Volunteers signed up for whatever hours they could be at the fire station. The post had to be manned 24-hours-a-day, seven days-a-week. This was quite an undertaking in a town of just 300 people!

The volunteers constructed an observation tower in 1957 to make observations easier and more efficient. Duke Power Company (now Duke Energy) donated utility poles to support the tower. Mr. Sapp remembered digging holes by hand for the poles to be anchored in. The tower was 15 to 20 feet tall (to the floor of the platform) and the platform was 20 feet square.

Mr. Sapp told me that almost everybody who lived in Harrisburg at the time – men and women – volunteered and played a part in the program. Although primarily concerned about an invasion by enemy aircraft, all plane sightings were reported. “We couldn’t take any chances,” Mr. Sapp said.

Radar detection of low-flying planes improved enough by the late 1950s that the Ground Observer Corps was no longer needed. It was deactivated on January 31, 1959.

If you’d like to read more about the Ground Observation Corps’ operations in Harrisburg, look for Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 on Amazon and at Second Look Books in Harrisburg. The book is available in paperback and e-book.

Janet

All history is local, but no history is just local

25 thoughts on “Post-World War II Ground Observer Corps”

  2. Glad I was able to tell you a little about something new. The tower was still behind the old volunteer fire station for a long time. I assumed it was a fire tower. I didn’t know about the Ground Observer Corps until I went to interview Mr. Sapp about his World War II experiences. He didn’t open up about that like Mr. Taylor did. Mr. Sapp was a little bitter that D-Day and the rest of the war in Europe and in the Pacific got all the publicity and no one ever talked about the war in North Africa. Unfortunately, he didn’t share enough about that for me to put together even a short newspaper article. I was glad he wanted to tell me all about the Ground Observe Corps, though!

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  6. Great piece, Janet. Yes, it really was all hands on deck in those days. We have some pretty good radar and satellite systems monitoring the world now, so I don’t think we’ll need those again, unless, of course, there’s a massive cyberattack that takes down all electronics. Have fun in the garden. I just spent two hours outside taking care of some things around my house.

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  7. Thank you, Edward. I will try to find the joy in cutting sweetgum, oak, pine, and cedar sprouts but the older I get the worse the arthritis in my back get… it’s getting more difficult to find joy in yardwork. Good luck with your yardwork, too. I’m trying to keep in mind how fortunate I am to have a yard to take care of, but four acres is hard to keep up with at 73 years old. I’m hanging in there. The rewards come just before sunset when the deer, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, and birds converge in the backyard to eat the corn I had to start buying to lure the deer away from eating anymore of my shrubbery. It’s a jungle out there! It’s entertaining to watch the different species eating together, holding my breath that the deer won’t step on the rabbits. Just wish I’d started buying corn before the deer ate all my monkey grass down to the roots. Then, they started eating the azaleas and I had to do something. The rabbits regularly hold me hostage when I drive into the driveway. They apparently think NC is a “Stand Your Ground” state. Glad you enjoyed my piece about the Ground Observer Corps. We’re going to be in a world of hurt when a cyberattack takes out all electronics. That will make The Great Depression look like child’s play.

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  8. You’re welcome, and I see what you mean. That’s a lot to take care of. I bet it’s nice to see the wildlife roaming through your land. Yeah, a massive cyber attack is going to be a problem.

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  9. Since the folks under 50 years old can’t add without a calculator, a massive cyberattack is going to push them right over the edge. An interesting thing about our yard… this is where I grew up. I lived in different parts of NC for years, but now I’m back. The first deer I saw out in the wild, though, was in the Uwharrie Forest between Charlotte and Raleigh in the mid-1970s. Now, we see them every day in our yard — as many as a dozen at one time. It’s a beautiful thing… until they start eating our shrubbery.

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  13. I had a border collie and corgi mix and he was such a delight! A little odd looking — a border collie body on crooked little corgi legs. He showed up on our porch one day without any ID. Looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to his eye. Took him to our vet. They had to remove his eye and shave half his face. We were going to look for a good home for him when he looked presentable and no longer had a bloody gauze wick hanging out of where his eye had been; however, by then he’d already found a good home and we adored him. Miss him many years later. One of the most caring and appreciative dogs ever! I never met a dog I didn’t like. LOL!

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  14. Wow, that’s the first time I’ve heard about that kind of mix. My son loves corgis and wants one, but I told him that we can only have one dog at a time. You’re right. Dogs are so lovable and special. Ours turns 8 in a few weeks, so hopefully he’ll be with us for a few more years.

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  20. Thank you, Alison. Not to worry… I’ll be back in a couple or three weeks. Just needed to get something off my to-do list for a while. Thanks so much!

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  22. I had no idea you were writing and illustrating a children’s book! Wowzer! I can’t wait for it! I hope to finish the rough draft of my first novel by the end of the summer, but life keeps happening and pulling my attention away from it. People can read a book in a week, so they don’t understand why I’ve been working on this novel for more years than I can remember. I shouldn’t have told anyone what I was doing!

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