During World War Two, the United States Military promoted both combat and civil defense.  One great example is the aircraft spotter card, a new type of playing card requested by the U.S. Military in the 1940s.  These cards were first used by the U.S. military during World War II and aided in the memorization of the shape of friendly and enemy aircraft.  Originally used for training purposes, spotter cards were used by soldiers as well as civilians for training and entertainment purposes. Spotter Cards featured the profiles of the Axis and Allied aircraft.   Each aircraft is shown in three silhouette views for easy identification from ground or air. 

Spotter cards are still used by the armed forces today.  For example, personality identification playing cards were recently distributed in Iraq in order to train soldiers to spot individuals such as Saddam Hussein.  

Teachers should integrate World War Two ephemera such as spotter cards to illustrate the impact of the war effort on the home front.  Young and old were trained to identify enemy aircraft from multiple viewpoints using these cards, and teachers should query students as to why spotter cards were even necessary during the war.  In addition, teachers should relate the concepts of World War Two spotter cards to today's personality identification playing cards.