Children & the War

 

            Even as the adults enlisted, the children also signed up to help in the war effort.

            On January 15, 1942 it was reported that thousands of Dayton boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 20 signed up for registration to act as volunteer messengers in the air raid and fire watch division of the Dayton civilian defense organization.  American Red Cross workers also gave each boy and girl first aid instructions.  Nearly 10,000 youth would eventually enroll for the job to carry messages during emergency situations where phone lines and other communication lines were down.

            “There is very little possibility that these youngsters will have to do actual emergency duty, “ stated Joseph T. Cline, chairman of the Dayton defense council at the time, “but school authorities are planning this training to become a part of a long-time program to promote a better spirit of civic-mindedness on the part of these youngsters.”

            In October 1942 a children’s volunteer aviation corps was organized.  Known as the Civil Air Patrol Cadets, its purpose was to extend the same training, under the guidance of seasoned airmen, as was given to adults enrolled in the senior CAP.  Although the younger cadets were not assigned to flying duties, they were eligible for full membership in the senior patrol upon their completion of training and graduation from high school.  The cadets studied navigation, meteorology, radio and other aviation subjects together with military drill, first aid, gas protection and code signaling.  Whenever possible the programs were centered around the airports so that the cadets would quickly get the “feel” of aviation.

            In April 1943 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed the Boy Scouts of America as official dispatch bearers for the Office of War Information.  The Scouts assisted in distributing broadsides and posters about the war to local businesses.

            Plans were also made to extend the “Good deed a day” spirit of the Boy Scouts into a summer long farm project.  The Miami Valley Council of the Boys Scouts of America urged their members to do what they could to help with the shortage of farm labor.   The Scouts were also kept busy with the planting of the Cricket Holler Victory garden, at the Boy Scout camp seven miles north of Dayton.  The food was used to furnish food for Scouts that camped at Cricket Holler that summer.   

            Girl Scouts also helped in many ways.  Forty-two members of Girl Scout Troops 30, 45 and 64 came together and began volunteering in the kitchens of Dayton hospitals.  After taking 20 hours of instruction on diet, food buying and nutrition, the young ladies began preparing and serving food to the patients and staffs at Miami Valley and St. Elizabeth hospitals. 

            In the first year of the war, a million and a half 4-H boys and girls harvested 3,000,000 bushels of vegetables from victory gardens and preserved 14,000,000 jars of food.  In 1942 it was estimated that children collected 23,000,000 pounds of salvage rubber, 73,000 tons of scrap metal and sold $6,000,000 in war bonds.

            Members of the Dayton Boys’ club joined 300,000 members of Boys’ clubs throughout the country to donate pennies towards a new Jeep for the Army.  Within two months a total of $1,105.11 was raised which was enough to buy the jeep.  The Boys’ Club emblem was inscribed on the doors of the jeep.

            In the theaters kids watched while Donald Duck fell asleep while reading Mein Kampf in Der Fuehrer’s Face.  Donald began to dream that he was in Nutziland, which was full of bad goose-step ballet dancing and even worse food.  He woke up holding the Statute of Liberty and proud to be an American.  Their favorite movie stars were also joining the war effort.  Jimmy Stewart served in the Air Force, as did Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Alan Ladd and Robert Preston.  Tyrone Power joined the Marines.  Little Mickey Rooney, Robert Mitchum and William Holden saw service in the Army. Henry Fonda entered the Navy, along with his pals Robert Stack and Robert Taylor.

            Patriotic movies were also popular with the kids.  The Fighting Sullivans, the true story of five brothers who all died on the U.S.S. Juneau in the South Pacific, brought the war home.  Yankee Doodle Dandy, with songs like “You’re a Grand Old Flag” packed them in.  And, although Rosie the Riveter centered around the aircraft industry, it also showed how women working in factories had become an important part in the fight overseas.    

            Whitman Publishing Co. began issuing a Fighters for Freedom series of books which included such titles as Sally Scott of the WAVES and Barry Blake of the Flying Fortress. Terry, from the Terry and the Pirates comics, began fighting the Japanese. 

            Big Little Books, sort of a thicker book version of a comic book, began publishing the war adventures of daring men like Don Winslow of the Navy, flying ace Smiling Jack, and Mac of the Marines.

            Comic heroes went to war as well.  Daddy Warbucks from the Little Orphan Annie comic strip served as a general.  When the character Joe Palooka joined the army in his strip, it prompted a number of men to join, too.  Superman, however, was ruled 4-F, which meant he was not acceptable for military duty.  When asked to look at an eye chart during his army physical, Superman accidentally used his X-ray vision and looked right through the eye chart and the wall behind it, and read an eye chart in the next room.  Rejected for poor eyesight, he spent the war promoting the Red Cross and selling war bonds.

            In 1942 President Roosevelt sent out an official letter asking children to join in the scrap drives.

 

“Boys and girls of America can perform a great patriotic service for their country by helping our National effort.  Millions of young Americans, turning their energies to collecting all sorts of scrap, metals, rubber and rags can help the tide in our ever increasing war effort.  They will earn the gratitude of every one of our fighting men by helping them to get the weapons they need - now!   I know they will do their part.”

 

            Thousands of  high school students were also trained to be “defense messengers”.  Registration of boys and girls between 15 and 20 years of age started on January 8, 1942.  Couriers who wished to volunteer were issued cards by their teachers, which had to be signed by their parents. 

            The training courses covered instructions in fire and gas defense as well as first aid.  Training took place in the classrooms, with all high school students, including students that had not volunteered to be couriers, taking the course.  The idea was to have one boy and one girl available for every block in the city, the boys working at night, the girls during the day.

 

Trouble on the Street Corners of Dayton

           

            On February 16, 1943 Dayton city commissioners signed a petition from the Dayton and Montgomery County Federation of Churches which called for a voluntary curfew for children.  The petition asked for a curfew of 10 p.m. for children up to 12 years of age and of midnight for high school youths for the duration of the war.  The petition read:

 

            “To Parents and Children of Dayton:

            “Inasmuch as juvenile crime and delinquency are on the increase in Dayton, and present-day conditions are causing serious strain on your homes, parents, teachers and children, we do hereby endorse and approve a voluntary curfew of 10 p.m. for children up to 12 years of age, and 12 p.m. for high school youth, unless accompanied by parents or guardian.

            “This curfew shall become effective immediately, and continue for the duration of the present war emergency and until conditions return to normal.

            “We do not want it to become necessary for the police to arrest the children and young people of our city.  We believe therefore this voluntary curfew can be popularized constructively by way of press, radio, church, school, etc., so that parents and children will voluntarily cooperate as the keepers of their own discipline.”

 

            Unfortunately, the curfew was not recognized by many of the children or parents.  On April 27, 1943 the Montgomery County juvenile court reported that the number of “first time” juveniles brought into the court during January through March, 1943 had increased over 85% from the same period the year before and that 407 delinquency cases had been recorded.

            “A year ago we found that we were dealing with boys in the 15-17 year age group.” said juvenile Judge Frank W. Nicholas.  “Now it has lowered to the 11-14 year crop.

            “It is a question as to whether our mothers, while winning the war on the production line are not losing it on the home front.  It is a question of which job is more important toward winning the war.”

            At the same time the May issue of Reader’s Digest carried an article titled “Trouble on the Street Corner”.  The article stated that “during the past year...delinquency has doubled in Dayton, Ohio.”  

            The Dayton city council had had enough.  Mayor Krebs said that police authorities “cannot keep youngsters off the streets nights, unless they have authority covered by ordinance.”

            In June 1943 a new ordinance passed stating that boys and girls under 15 years of age had to be off the streets and out of public places by 10:30 p.m., unless accompanied by parents or guardians.  Dayton law enforcement officers were given responsibility to see that the ordinance was carried out.  If the juvenile court found a minor guilty of a violation, the child’s parents faced the possibility of a $100 fine, 30 days in the workhouse, or both.

            To help counteract the problem, a youth center was opened for high school students at 24 West Fourth Street in October 1943.  Financed by the Community War Chest, it offered  weekly programs of dances, movies and talent shows, as well as entertainment by two Wright Field swing bands and an all-star high school band that alternated.  Along with the YMCA club on West Monument, the club helped give the children a place to go.  Both proved popular, with upwards of 200 youths attending the YMCA on some evenings.

 

Sidebar text:

 

Children were taught how to spot enemy aircraft, both by the plane’s markings, and by their silhouette.  On May 24, 1943 Joe Kaiser, 12 and Harry Wombold, 13, were playing outside when they spied what they were sure was a German plane.  They  called the authorities at Patterson Field, who told the boys that they had no airplanes of that description but that they would check further. 

            A call to Wright Field revealed that a new Army Air Forces ship, bearing marked resemblance to a certain German plane, was undergoing tests at the field, and it was this one that the two youths has spotted. 

            As a reward for the excellent manner in which they both spotted and reported the plane, the two boys were invited to be guests at the Wright Field.  They were given a tour of the flight line and many of the planes they had studied during a course in war aircraft identification at Whittier school.  And there, right before their eyes, was the very plane that they had mistaken for the German ship. 

            When asked what they thought of the plane, Joe replied “Boy, it sure was swell.”

 

The Dayton Junior Commandos was started in November 1942.  The organization was sponsored by Adler’s department store, and was headed by Wallace L. Stickler, a 20 year old war veteran. Commandos pledged themselves to “devote their spare time to earning money for the purchase of war stamps, to aid in salvage and other wartime drives, and to set aside at least 10 per cent of their spending money for the purchase of war stamps.” 

Within two days of the announcement, over 1300 children had enlisted in the Dayton Junior Commandos.  When asked why she enlisted, eleven year old Leatrice Schwaller said “I want to join because I feel that we, too, have to help win this war.”  Leatrice had three uncles in the service at the time.

The Junior Commandos were patterned after the US Army, with squads, platoons and companies commanded by non-commissioned and commissioned officers.

Dayton Daily News began carrying a Junior Commandos column that gave “General Orders” to the troops.  These orders varied from collecting books to send to soldiers overseas to the collection of used hosiery from mom so that they could be recycled to make parachutes.  The column also listed letters and poetry from the “troops” and  the names of junior commandos that had worked their way up the ranks to Corporal, Sergeant or Captain in the club.

Junior Commandos would stage extensive “raids”, recruiting cans in the neighborhood for the war effort, collecting grease, waste paper and scrap metal.  The money raised by these efforts went to support various war efforts, including the “Lynn Avenue Commandos” who raised enough money to feed and entertain 800 men at the local Soldiers Service club in 1943.

 

In 1943 the Dayton Council for Defense helped establish nursery schools and day nurseries for the care of pre-school children whose parents worked in defense plants. The Agricultural Marketing Administration supplied free food for the children’s lunches.  The meals were substantial, being planned on the assumption that some mothers would be unable to prepare a nourishing meal for the child at home in the evening.

Each school was staffed with a head teacher, two assistant teachers, a cook and a janitor.  The first five schools to open in Dayton were based at Central Christian Church, DeSoto Bass Courts, Barney Community Center, Edison elementary school and Parkside Homes.  Each school accommodated thirty children, whose ages ranged from two to six years old.  The first children to arrive was usually at 6 a.m., the last straggling home around 7 p.m.  A nurse made weekly checkups and a doctor reported every three months to examine each child thoroughly.

The Community Chest and the Federal Works Agency worked together to provide a carefully selected staff for the schools. The war-time child service program for Dayton was made possible by a grant of $49,000 for the Federal Works Agency, with the Dayton Community War Chest giving $23,000 toward the project.  Most of the other money needed came  from fees charged to the working mothers for the care of their children.  Mothers paid $1 per day for each child, a rate that was adjustable if necessary. 

Programs of extended school service centers for children 6 to 14 years old was completed in June 1943.  These units were at Westwood, Edison and Emerson schools, as well as DeSoto Bass Courts.

   .       

            Toward the end of 1942 it was reported that the stork had become quite busy making deliveries at the local hospitals, the number of births at St. Elizabeth, Miami Valley and Good Samaritan being more than double from the year before.  At one point, Miami Valley and Good Samaritan hospital patients sometimes had to make due with temporary beds in halls to meet the demand. 

            Sister Frances Maria, administrator at Good Samaritan hospital at the time, declared that births had jumped from a monthly average of 100 to nearly 250 a month.  Miami Valley Hospital had the same complaint, stating that births had jumped from an average of 118 the year before, to more than 180 a month.

            “Reservations don’t mean anything anymore,” reported Albert Scheidt, administrator of Miami Valley Hospital.  “A reservation is no assurance of a bed for the mother.  We take them as they come.  Two or three times each week we have been compelled to place patients in beds set up in the halls.  We have had as high as eight in the hall at one time.”  Scheidt did hasten to add that a mother and child were much better off in a hospital than at a home because of the care of nurses specializing in obstetrical cases.

            Patients at Good Samaritan, too, had, on occasion, had to be cared for in beds in halls, the biggest problem in both hospitals being that the specialized equipment in maternity care was not available in the regular wards.

            Local hospital authorities agreed that the main reason for the jump in birth rates was that Dayton’s population had increased due to war workers coming to the city from other parts of the country.  Quick war marriages after Pearl Harbor was also believed to be a factor. 

           

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