The Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a program of the United States government that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees, willing to serve their country in some capacity but unwilling to perform any type of military service, accepted assignments in "work of national importance" in 152 CPS camps throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Draftees from the historic peace churches and other faiths worked in areas such as soil conservation, forestry, fire fighting, agriculture, under the supervision of such agencies as the U.S. Forest Service, the Soil Conservation Service, and the National Park Service. Others helped provide social services and mental health services.
Civilian Public Service firefighting crew at Snowline Camp near Camino, California, 1945.
John T. Neufeld was a conscientious objector sentenced to 15 years hard labor in the Disciplinary Barracks at Leavenworth, Kansas. Neufeld was paroled to do dairy work and released after serving five months of his sentence.
Camp Wickiup, CPS #60, La Pine, Oregon was a former Civilian Conservation Corps facility erected in 1938.
In large CPS dormitories, each man had a cot, simple desk with chair and a narrow set of shelves for personal possessions.
Peace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism or Biblical nonresistance. The term historic peace churches refers specifically only to three church groups among pacifist churches:Church of the Brethren, including all daughter churches such as the Old German Baptist Brethren, Old Brethren and Dunkard Brethren;
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers); and
Mennonites, including the Amish, Beachy Amish, Old Order Mennonites, and Conservative Mennonites
The Deserter (1916) by Boardman Robinson
