Civilian Defense Awards - 8 May 1943

Civilian Defense Volunteers in World War II did not receive medals or accolades for their service. Fortunately, depending on the number of hours they devoted to the organization, they were eligible to receive ribbon bars to wear which represented the hundreds (or thousands) of hours of volunteer effort. On 8 May 1943 (two years before VE-Day) the federal Office of Civilian Defense established six ribbon awards, ranging from 500 hours of volunteer service to 5,000 hours. For reference, I have added an image of the actual ribbons found on a militaria collector website.