National Origins
The enactment of Civil Defense legislation began soon after World War I and expanded near the end of World War II and during the Cold War. “During World War II, the [federal] Office of Civil Defense (OCD)...devoted most of the OCD's resources to protective services, such as air raid warning and plane spotting.” (McEnaney 17) “...the first postwar agency to coordinate civil defense, the National Security Resources Board (NSRB) was the first to define what national security would look like for nuclear-age citizens.” (McEnaney 14). The government quickly accelerated all civil defense measures after September 1949 when the Soviets successfully detonated an atomic bomb.
The creation of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) was proposed by the NSRB chairman and supported by President Truman. In 1950, the “Federal Civil Defense Act transferred civil defense responsibilities from the NSRB to a newly created FCDA situated in the executive branch. It required the FCDA to be headed by a civilian--not military--administrator.” (McEnaney 15). “Nothing in its 1951 Federal Civil Defense Act gave the federal government the power to tax citizens or mandate their participation...It was expected to formulate a coherent strategy for rehabilitating the economy, the labor force, and key civil and military installations; and it was supposed to provide states and cities with guidance on legal and personnel training matters, supplies and equipment, and technical advice.” (McEnaney 22)
State and Local Structure
Zone A and its accompanying governmental civil defense organizations were created in 1950 following the Federal Civil Defense Act and the creation of the Federal Civil Defense Agency, which led to state and local government civil defense planning and organization.
Zone A is one of five zones in Milwaukee County, and it represents the northernmost part of the area. Zone A is also part of the Southeast Area of the Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management, one of several areas dividing the state. The Department of Local Affairs, which became part of the Department of Administration, oversees the state Division of Emergency Government. This division is the parent organization of all administrative areas in Wisconsin. The Southeast Area includes all Milwaukee County zones, New Berlin, Oconomowoc, Washington County, Waukesha, Waukesha County, Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Cedarburg, Ozaukee County, and Kenosha County.
Zone A, along with the other zones in Milwaukee County, was charged with emergency management. This constituted extensive planning and training for man-made and natural disasters in the Milwaukee County area.
Duties and Activities
According to the Operation alert, 1955: a consolidated report of participation by the City of Milwaukee in the national civil defense test exercise, June 15-16, 1955, “In June, 1948, the Honorable Frank P. Zeidler, Mayor of Milwaukee, organized the Milwaukee Civil Disaster Relief Committee [which]...has...changed to the Milwaukee Civil Defense and Disaster Committee....The function of Mayor Zeidler's committee was to study the various types of disasters which might strike a large metropolitan community and to study further the problem of how such a community could be organized most effectively to combat such disaster.” (Carleton 1) The committee received continuous advice and assistance from officers of the armed services stationed in Milwaukee.
The function of the Milwaukee Civil Defense and Disaster Committee, as well as Zone A's function, was to save lives, provide aid, protect property, maintain morale, aid neighboring stricken communities, and maintain a high level of production.
Funding
“Without federal funding, state and local government agencies responded to the new civil defense directives as best they could, using extant institutions and budgets.” (Brown 70). However, the Operation alert, 1955, report explains that the State of Wisconsin set aside a budget which was matched by the federal government for the purchase of emergency and radiological monitoring equipment. Thus, the budget was shared between the state and federal governments on a fifty-fifty basis after information on available equipment and a needs assessment was completed.
