"In the days and weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Wakefield residents rallied together to help by volunteering at the American Red Cross headquarters at the Lincoln School, becoming air raid wardens and joining the medical defense unit as part of the Wakefield Committee on Public Safety, and/or collecting scrap metal, rubber and paper through the Wakefield Salvage Committee. In addition to the Wakefield Municipal Light Department-sponsored (now Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department) school for air raid wardens, hundreds of local residents were trained in civil defense and what to do in case of a 'red alert.' As the men were registering for the draft at the Lafayette Building (now the Town Hall) or enlisting in a branch of the armed forces, local women were trained in first aid, canteen work and motor transport. One such civil defense drill was conducted by the Fire Auxiliary Department on a rainy Sunday in June on Main Street, across from Oak Street, in Greenwood under the watchful eyes of Fire Chief Fred Graham (left) and Firefighter Arthur Goodrich (center). In addition to the local efforts, more than 1,600 Massachusetts women, including approximately 70 from Wakefield, joined and trained with the Massachusetts Defense Corporation under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety. The Wakefield Company of the military organization was trained for duty to serve as volunteers in the local Civil Defense agency as air raid wardens, drivers, communications personnel, canteen workers, medics, chemical detection personnel and as emergency fire fighters." Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2016 Photo from the collection of the late Murray Young, courtesy of David Parr
