Miami Labor Citizen

Civil Defenses
To Be Tested
In Mock Raids

Hundreds of volunteer workers in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina will man Air Force Filter Centers and observer posts Sunday (March 22) to spot and plot "enemy" planes during Operation Cocoa.

One of the biggest alerts to be staged by the Air Force in this section.

Operation Cocoa will begin at one in the afternoon and last until four. During this time, Civil Air Patrol planes will make simulated attacks on the Peninsula State and the three other southern states to test the training of volunteer spotters and Filter Center workers.

In Florida, observers will report all aircraft sighted to either the Miami Filter Center or the one in Jacksonville, depending on the area in which the reporting post is located.

Theoretically, AF interceptors would be sent up to shoot down the invaders, and Civil Defense units and the general public would be alerted.

In Exercise Cocoa, however, only Filter Center, Ground Observer Corps and CAP personnel will participate.

The states taking part in the operation are four of the 36 states required to have Ground Observer Corps. At present, 27 of these states are participating in Operation Skywatch, the around-the-clock alert called last July 14.

Florida will join this operation when it is capable. The state now has 181 observer posts, but needs 385 for minimum coverage.

Colonel R. G. Howie, Director of Florida Civil Defense, stated, "The task of these volunteers is doubly important because there are too few of them. This phase of defending our state and country is a civilian responsibility and a vital one. It is unfair and unrealistic to expect these people to carry the full load."