During World War II, students were encouraged to
collect tin cans, hardened cooking fat, and milkweed pods for the war effort.
Pods were used in life preservers and children received twenty cents per bag.
Children were also encouraged to grow vegetables in a special section of their
family's Victory Garden. Defense stamps were sold to students on Fridays at ten
cents each. In McIntyre, as in other schools in Indiana County, students were
given "Junior Commando" cards such as this one. The more tin, fat, and
pods the child collected, the higher in rank he or she rose. The service record
on the reverse side of the card indicates that this particular student rose from
rank of "private" to "corporal" to "sergeant" to
"lieutenant," and then to "captain" within a year!
Document: courtesy Ed Setlock family collection.
Clarence D. Stephenson, Indiana County, 175th Anniversary
History, vols. 2
(Indiana, Pennsylvania: Halldin Publishing, Company, 1989), 556.