The stories of the Civil Defense Ground Observer Corps in the 1950s are
really interesting and important and should be recorded.   The obserevr post
in the Village of Nassau, Rensselaer County, N.Y., was in the old Fairgrounds
grandstand, which was otherwise abandoned.  My father went there every Sunday
morning very early to watch for and report high-flying bombers.   I still have
my father's little pin that he was given in recognition of his service.
    My scientific interest was then focussed on the ground and soils, and I
remember one day noticing very finely shredded, small strips of silvery foil
here and there on the ground, in different places in the village. This was
quite a mystery.  Then my father remembered something about radar and new
techniques for jamming radar; maybe this was something that should be
reported!  I carefully collected a sample, and my father sent it to the Ground
Observer Corps office.   Of course it turned out to be anti-radar chaff with
which the Air Force was apparently then experimenting.  No one else had
noticed the finely shredded foil fragments.  I still have some of it in an
envelope.  I wonder if these experiments were occurring over Nassau, or if the
wind brought the foil from some distant place.   This would be ca. 1954 or
1955.