Research

Scope and Content Note

This series contains correspondence, memoranda, lists, and forms documenting the State Property Officer's distribution and liquidation of civil defense equipment, including steel helmets, pump tank extinguishers, and gas masks. Lists enumerate equipment distribution by community, and correspondence with hospitals notes the receipt of emergency medical equipment. Other correspondence details communities' requests for equipment and the Mutual Aid Allocation program, in which local communities agreed to assist one another in the case of certain emergencies.

The fire fighting equipment's liquidation is detailed in correspondence and forms. The forms note: community and county; population of community; presence of a fire department; number of pumpers fire department owns; number of firemen; and type and number of equipment requested.

Many local property officers were involved in the distribution of surplus goods as they handled both the physical and administrative transfer of the equipment.