Pascagoula Braces for Attack: Civil Defense on the Mississippi Coast, 1941–1944

On Thursday, December 11, 1941 — four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor — more than 500 people in Pascagoula, Mississippi, came to a community meeting to learn about civilian defense. The town had reason to take it seriously: it was a Gulf Coast port with a major shipyard, Ingalls Shipbuilding. Pascagoula is now an American World War II Heritage City, and this is how its people prepared.

"America calling — Take your place in civilian defense," Government Printing Office, 1941. Library of Congress.

"What to do in an air-raid"

On December 19, 1941, the Pascagoula Chronicle-Star printed the U.S. Office of Civil Defense's rules on its front page:

KEEP COOL. Do not lose your head. STAY HOME. The safest place in an air-raid is at home. PUT OUT THE LIGHTS. … LIE DOWN. If bombs start to fall near you, lie down. STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

It asked for volunteers — air-raid wardens, auxiliary police and firemen, fire watchers, nurse's aides, first-aid teams, rescue, road-repair, demolition, electrical and decontamination squads, and emergency food and housing units, with jobs sorted by sex in the fashion of the time. Families were urged to hold their neighbors to the blackout rules, since one lit window exposed the whole street. Drills ran Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at Pascagoula High School.

"Among the most vulnerable spots"

In March 1942, Major J. E. Breth told the leaders of the Pascagoula Citizens Defense Corps that the whole U.S. coastline was open to attack and that Pascagoula and the other Mississippi Coast ports were among the most vulnerable — a submarine could surface offshore and shell the shipyard, and ships could bring planes close enough to bomb it. Organized citizens, he argued, would lose fewer lives and recover faster; he compared it with MacArthur's forces holding out on Bataan from prepared positions. He urged that shipbuilding be rushed, because everything the troops needed had to come from home. In April 1942, the defense unit needed 200 volunteers for decontamination and road-repair squads.

A harbor patrol, and a first

The Pascagoula Harbor Patrol was organized in November 1941 with 18 members under Police Chief A. W. Exell — the first organization of its kind known to be active in the country. By March 1942 it had been reorganized with about 40 members, endorsed by the Navy's Eighth Naval District as an auxiliary to the U.S. Coast Guard in emergencies, and promised a portable fire unit through Ingalls. Members were registered by the federal government and trained each Monday night in harbor conditions, boating and first aid.

"Home safety is front line defense," New York City WPA War Services, between 1941 and 1943. Library of Congress.

Women in the defense effort

In January 1942, the chair of Jackson County's women's civilian defense organization, Mrs. L. K. McIntosh, urged every woman who had not yet enrolled to do so and begin training, pointing out that the county was on the coast and plainly vulnerable.

By May 1944 the call had widened. Women packed a USO recruiting session for the women's services — WAC, WAVES, Marines and SPARS — so full it moved to a bigger room. Mississippi was the first state to run a woman-power survey to find recruits for the women's branches of the armed forces; in Pascagoula it was led by Mrs. J. O. Cole, president of the Civic Council, and Mrs. T. T. Justice, with block chairmen and volunteers. The same meeting appealed for nurses for the U.S. Nursing Corps and for donors to push the town's blood bank past its 1,000th pint, with one day reserved for Ingalls employees.

"Train to be a nurse's aide," New York City WPA War Services, between 1941 and 1943. Library of Congress.

Questions for the classroom

• Find Pascagoula on a map. Given its location and industry, what made it a target?
• Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941; the air-raid rules ran on December 19. Why print them in the newspaper?
• The volunteer list assigns roles to men or women. How were those lines challenged during the war and after, and why does that matter when reading old sources?
• Why did Major Breth connect shipbuilding with home-front safety?
• What was the woman-power survey for, and what might it have meant for women in the armed forces later?

Sources

Based on "(H)our History Lesson: Civilian Defense and Volunteer Contributions in Pascagoula, Mississippi, World War II Heritage City," National Park Service, Teaching with Historic Places, written by Sarah Nestor Lane through the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the NPS. It draws on the Pascagoula Chronicle-Star of December 19, 1941, January 23, March 13, March 24 and April 14, 1942, and May 5, 1944. The National Park Service page is a work of the United States government in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words.