And still there was war.

World War II was not "the war to end all wars" as many wanted to believe. So young men from the area were called upon again to serve their country during the early 1950's in the conflict in Korea and a decade later in the conflict in Vietnam.

During this period of time, the necessity for an armed force to be ready for future conflicts was realized and the Reserve forces and National Guard units reached their peak. With development of the National Guard in Springfield came a permanent facility, the Aircraft Maintenance Center at the Springfield Municipal Airport which played an important, if unheralded, role in the conflict in Vietnam by repairing the helicopters and light aircraft used so extensively there.

With the development and use of nuclear weapons and the "cold war," the early 1950's and 1960's became a period of preparedness for the suspected nuclear war as civil defense gained new emphasis. Air raid drills and nuclear fallout procedures were practiced, some families built their own personal fallout shelters and the government set about locating, and stockpiling with supplies, buildings in the community that could serve as mass fallout shelters.