The Ground Observer Corps was a WWII program that was expanded in 1950 to include 8,000 observers to supplement what would eventually become NORAD. Over 200,000 volunteers participated in nationwide drills, telephoning dozens of coordination centers which in turn relayed information to the Air Defense Command (ADC) ground control interception centers. By 1952 the program was expanded with a new organizational plan named Operation Skywatch with over three-quarters of a million volunteers taking shifts at over 16 thousand posts and 75 relay centers. Technological improvements eventally rendered the Corps irrelevent and the program was discontinued in 1959. |