“Already our enemy may be devising newer and deadlier bombs!” a brochure entitled “FACTS about fighting fire bombs,” reads. But they were trained for the worst, the documents found reveal. “But after a year or so, you got used to it.”Īs Bremerton, a quaint town of 15,000, ballooned to more than 80,000 during the war, air wardens helped keep the peace. “It would jar you loose at first,” Carson Connelly said of the sirens. Even nets were erected at Rich Passage so ferries could come and go but enemy submarines could not.Ĭity residents got used to air raid sirens, and the wardens ensured everyone heeded their calls. Thick smoke screens would imperil their view. Barrage balloons encircled the city, held by long cables that could entangle enemy planes. Overnight following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the city was fortified. 8, 1941, article in the Bremerton Daily News Searchlight read. “Without hysteria or dramatics, grim-faced leaders of all phases of community life put aside their regular business today to give their full attention toward perfection of defense organizations and invited citizens to do their bit by enlisting in the nation’s cause,” a Dec. They live on a top floor developed after the fire station closed.īut buried deep under the station’s former engine bays was a trip to the past: a time when the city feared a Pearl Harbor-style attack was imminent a time when air raid wardens were the city’s block-by-block guardians. Their Ironsides Avenue residence was born in 1942 as a fire hall. The Stocktons don’t live in your traditional home. ![]() ![]() ![]() “it’s just fascinating stuff,” said Glenn Stockton, who with his wife, Lori, plan to find a home for the artifacts at local history museums. They found stacks of wartime leaflets, paperwork and other documentation necessary to administer the air raid warden’s critical role. Recently, a Manette couple uncovered a trove of air raid warden history in a crawl space under their home. “They were more than air raid wardens,” his daughter, Marva Carson Connelly, said.
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