The East Hartford Gazette

New Air Raid Regulations
Meet
With Favor Here

GLASTONBURY

Confusion
At An End

Although no serious confusion ever existed in Glastonbury over the air raid system, the town as a whole seems glad to welcome the new system which went into effect Wednesday night.

The chief confusion in the minds of many Glastonburyites was not the fault of town officials, rather the fault of the inconsistency of alarms that different towns and states had adopted. Under the new setup a uniform system of air raid regulations will exist throughout the East.

As the signals have been simplified and standardized, there are now only two: 1. The long, continual blast of whistles or the steady wail of sirens which means blackout, the probability of a raid, the probability that enemy planes are approaching. This is the "blue" or warning signal. At the sound of this long continual blast, for approximately two minutes, a period of alert begins. Homes should blackout immediately and stay blacked out. Pedestrians are to continue. Vehicular traffic and all other transportation continues. Street and traffic lights remain on. Civilian defense personnel will be alerted to the imminence of a raid. This is the "red" or air-raid signal, and lasts for about two minutes.

Homes remain blacked out. Pedestrians now take shelter. Motor vehicles draw up to the curb, park, extinguish all lights, and the motorists take cover. All transportation stops and the passengers take cover. All war plants black out. Emergency vehicles and authorized persons only can move.

Then, the important thing to remember is that a "blue" or alert period will always follow the air-raid period.

The sequence of signals has been emphasized so much in the past, it was pointed out, people are dependent upon that sequence to know what the signals mean. There is no assurance in spite of all the precautionary measures and warning devices that there will be intervals for any preliminary warnings.

Everyone should realize that a surprise raid might be successful in evading early detection, in which case the first warning will be the air-raid or 'red' or proximity signal. This happened in General Doolittle's raid on Tokyo. His planes came in very low and fast, so there was no time for the Japanese to sound preliminary signals. In such case, immediate action must be taken to blackout lights and to seek shelter. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for the protection of the public that the identification of the air-raid or proximity of enemy planes or "red" signal especially be immediate and without question.

"Even though many communities are satisfied with their present signals, uniformity is essential for complete protection of the entire Eastern Military Area.

Another point to remember is that the blackout or probability or "blue" signal will always follow the air-raid or "red" signal. This allows the resumption of movement and war production while keeping the area in a state of alert and the civilian defense forces mobilized. All lights except those in factories, street and traffic lights remain out.

Thus, the period of the air-raid or "red", when transportation and production are stopped, is reduced to a relatively shorter period.

There may be several air-raid or "red" signals and several alert or "blue" signals before an all-clear is affected.

Any signal by whistles or sirens means a blackout for every home and a period of alert for us all. So a good motto is whenever you hear the horns, whistles or sirens put your lights out. Never put them on.