BOY SCOUT BOMB SHELTER

(Source of photo below: Florida State Archives; picture below, National Archives)

Let's build a bomb shelter!  And that's what these Jacksonville Boy Scouts were doing in 1941.  There's no indication of whether this occurred before or after Japan raided Pearl Harbor on December 7, pulling the US into World War II.  (Did they ever give out merit badges for bomb shelter construction?)

The shelter above was meant to protect against conventional bombs, such as those dropped by the Germans and the Japanese.  Nuclear weapons did not come into play until the US leveled two Japanese cities in 1945.  And many Americans didn't really fear foreign nuclear aggression until 1949, when the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb. 

The poster to the left comes from World War II, reminding Americans how to behave during an air raid. 

ON GUARD UP HIGH -- Would Jacksonville suffer a Luftwaffe attack?  During World War II, eagle-eyed volunteers kept watch against any enemy aircraft that might strike the River City and its naval bases.  These local plane spotters staffed structures that resembled short fire towers, but sometimes with porches wrapping around all four sides.  During the height of activity, more than 3,000 volunteers in the Jax area worked around the clock, informing the military about aircraft movements.  They phoned information to an Air Force plotting room in Jacksonville.  Thank goodness that the US mainland never did suffer an attack by aircraft during the conflict.

The local plane towers were also used during the Korean War (1950-1954).  In July 1962, however, workmen tore down one of the last -- if not the last -- aircraft-spotting towers in Duval County.  The 35 foot structure stood at Moncrief School (now St. Clair Evans Academy), located on the Northside at 45th and Moncrief, just northwest of the Northside Golf Course.  The tower had become obsolete in a much faster age of missiles and electronic warning devices.