' of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 789

strategically located in every section of our State. 15, 000 loyal Marylanders
have sacrificed their time and have forgotten personal confort to safeguard
your comfort. Their "Business} as Usual" is scanning the skies twenty-four
hours of every day to report the presence of airplanes in their respective dis-
tricts.

Coincident with the establishment of Ground Observer Posts the Council
undertock the recruiting of several hundred volunteers for duty in the Informa-
tion Center of the Army Aircraft Warning Service located in Baltimore. Here
again the traditional characteristics of our people to espond courageously to the
all of duty was admirably shown. On September 16, 1941, the Council turned
ever 511 volunteers to the Commanding Officer of the Filter Unit.

This Unit is the nerve center of our home defense. Here every plane is
plotted, identified, and cleared. Precision and accuracy are the requisites of
this all-important and tedious task. Literally every minute on the clock finds
this service feverishly at work. To witness this vital service in operation fills
one with a sense of security. These volunteers carry out their duties with the
full knowledge that one mistake may be fatal.

By June of 1941 the organization of Local Civilian Defense Organizations
had begun in our State. By December 1, several of the counties had set up
complete Civilian Defense Organizations and the others had organized skelton
units. Although at that time the danger of bombardment seemed somewhat
removed, it was gratifying to observe the desire of the people to marshal their
resources for the protection of their communities.

In the belief that a general demonstration would spur all interested to
even greater action, on December 1, 1941, I called a State-wide meeting of all
Local Directors of Civilian Defense and Chief Air Raid Wardens to convene in
Annapolis on December 14, 1941. The combination of Pearl Harbor and the
meeting caused intense activity during the following few months, as a result of
it is fair to say that today and for many months past, Maryland is in an ex-
cellent state of preparation against hostile attack with every area fully pre-
pared.

The picture of Maryland of the last twelve months is a picture of a State
growingly conscious of the danger of war and preparing itself with vigor to

meet them.

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Months ago a State Communications Center was inaugurated. This Con-
trol Center is designed to serve the entire State. Here the Chiefs of all Emer-
gency Services, in case of an emergency, will be in constant contact with every
County Control Center through either telephone, radio, teleprinter, or teletype,
ready to dispatch needed service wherever demanded. Major General Milton
A. Reckord, after inspecting this operation, commented that it was. "unique"
and one of the most important developments yet conceived in Civilian Defense
preparations.

Too often, in our thinking about Civilian Defense, the greatest stress has
been placed on its personal aspects. We think*in terms of protecting ourselves
against the enemy bombers—or protecting our personal property. But there
is really a military aspect in its implications. Civilian Defense is actually a
very important defensive weapon aginst the enemy. Its purpose, in this sense,