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WWII Civilian Defense Ribbons


frederick
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Believe these Civilian Defense ribbons were created in 1943 to show hours of service in the CD. Both my father and my uncle were in the CD in WWII and I do not remember either of them mentioning a ribbon for such service. Think these ribbons were for the higher level volunteers who spent more personal time on CD business than the average Block Warden. The average volunteer attending an orientation class, maybe one or two meetings a month with one or two black-out drills a month would be lucky to accumulate 500 hours of service during the entire war. The 5000 hour ribbon is roughly equivalent to two years of continuous 8-hour days (with no weekends off or vacation days).

 

This may explain the relative rarity of these ribbons. Have seen some, but few, of the 500 and 1000 hour ribbons; a very few of the 2000 and 3000 hour ribbons; think the 5000 hour ribbon I have is the only one I ever encountered.

 

The illustration of the back side of the ribbons also show the war time metal restrictions in action. The cloth ribbon is sewn over a cardboard center shape in the 1000 hour and higher ribbons. The 500 hour ribbon is sewn to a plastic mesh. Assume the recipient was left to his own ingenuity for attaching the ribbon to a jacket or suit.

post-1633-1217179852.jpg

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Yes, these are indeed very interesting. Thanks a lot for posting them, now I know what they are when I run across any. :)

 

- Jeff

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