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1 Relief from Hard Times “It was the best years of my life.” That is what many of the veterans of service in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) say. It seems an ironic statement considering the fact that the CCC operated during the Great Depression of the 1930s, a time of grinding economic hardship that touched almost every family in America. Unemployment reached unprecedented levels, and so did the national sense of despair. Many household breadwinners became desperate for any job. Teenagers and young men wondered how they would ever get a start in life without a job or training in a special skill. As the full weight of the Depression settled over the nation, popular demand for some type of relief program prompted newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt to act quickly. In 1933, during his first month in office, the Emergency Conservation Work Act was passed into law and the Civilian Conservation Corps was born. The CCC was a relief program whose purpose was to enlist unemployed young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five to work outdoors on forest and conservation-related projects. Enrollees had to be in good health and unmarried. They were paid thirty dollars a month, of which twentyfive had to be sent to relatives back home. The enlistment term was six months, but it was possible to reenlist for an additional term.1 Enrollment began in early April 1933, and by the end of that month— barelyamonthafterCongresshadapprovedRoosevelt’sproposal—some camp locations had already been selected. The president appointed a civilian director to oversee the program, but the main responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the camps was in the hands of the U.S. Army. Everything was thus set up “the army way.” The prospect of military discipline and supervision by an army ofIntroduction 2 j the ccc in arizona’s rim country ficer was not very appealing to many young men. In fact, most of the apprehension among potential enrollees and the later criticism of the CCC by outsiders centered on its military aspects rather than on its reason for existence. Drawn to the CCC for the job opportunities and adventure , however, the young men had no choice but to put up with the army’s presence.2 Executive cabinet–level departments also had a hand in organizing the CCC. The U.S. Labor Department, for example, was charged with recruiting and processing the men. State agencies working with the Department of Labor developed a kind of quota system for supplying recruits . Most of the very early camps were set up in the eastern United States, close to a readily available workforce.3 Afterward camps were set up in the West, where the vast majority of forestry jobs were located. Because fewer men lived in the Rocky Mountain states, however, it often happened that units of men were shipped from the East to jobs and camps farther west. On enlisting, the men were given a general physical examination. They were then supposed to be sent to a military camp for conditioning and training, but that step was often bypassed. Next they were sent to a city or town that served as a regional staging area. Army officers would meet them at the depot and assign them to work units of about two hundred men. The men were usually grouped by town or region, and thus were able to serve with buddies and relatives from their home state no matter where the companies were sent.4 After the companies were working in the forest, however, new enrollees were often assigned individually to fill slots opened by expired enlistments and desertions. The CCC was a life-changing experience for the young men who gave it a chance. The corps provided an opportunity to mature into adulthood and learn interpersonal skills through hard work, friendship, and self-discipline. The administrators of the program knew the work and projects were important—that was the tangible benefit the government was seeking—and many government officials viewed the CCC as a success because of the work the men completed. But the visible brickand -mortar work of the CCC is only part of the story. A significant part of the program’s success is to be found in the life experiences of the young men who participated. It is their voices from the past that explain why these years were “the best of my life.” Thousands of the young men who enrolled in the CCC...

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