Cuban Missile Crisis

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http://video.pbs.org/video/2289498535/

I was 6 years old during this: bomb shelters, duck and cover, the whole nine yards.

To those who watch PBS's offering, opine.  Also, other graybeards' recollections of the time, I'd appreciate -- even more if you watch.

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x

[Volron]

lol  Duck and Cover.  That's a good one.  But I also understand that you HAD to give the people SOMETHING.

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During grade school that was the drill our teachers made us do.

[SIK1]

I was born a couple of years after the Cuban missile crisis. Watched the PBS show about it as well as other documentaries. Scary times and probably as close as we have ever come to all out nuclear war. We didn't have the duck and cover drills in school but I do remember the civil defense siren going off every Saturday at noon.

[guncrasher]

I was born a couple of years after the Cuban missile crisis. Watched the PBS show about it as well as other documentaries. Scary times and probably as close as we have ever come to all out nuclear war. We didn't have the duck and cover drills in school but I do remember the civil defense siren going off every Saturday at noon.

try living withing a few miles of a nuclear power plant then hearing the sirens go off for what seemed like hours. I grabbed my kids threw them in the minivan taking off while yelling at the wife to get her fat bellybutton moving.  several of our neighbors did the same thing.  then we hard on the radio stations about 1/2 an hour later that it was just a test but the nuclear plant had screwed up and didnt warn the neighbors.


semp

[eagl]

They were still doing duck and cover disaster drills when I was in elementary school.  For a while after they were no longer required for nuclear attack, we kept doing them for earthquake response since it was in San Diego.  My Elementary school was built like a fortress, half dug into the side of a hill.  The windows were floor to ceiling but only about 4 inches wide with thick decorative reinforcing bars between the panes.  The walls were about a foot and a half thick reinforced concrete.  Somehow they managed to make it look attractive, with interesting landscaping outside and good lighting and interior design inside.  It's one heck of a strong building, not a bad place to ride out an earthquake or nuclear attack.  In that bldg., hiding under a desk would actually be a pretty decent option since the major interior damage, assuming the building survived, would be ceiling tiles and stuff falling.  Hiding under a desk is a great way to keep a kid from getting killed by a falling ceiling light fixture or air conditioning vent.

And knowing what I know about CBRNE / NBC warfare, the suggestion to have a bunch of plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal off doors and windows in the event of an NBC attack is actually pretty smart.  It's too bad idiots who think they know everything about everything were so caustic and sarcastic, spending a lot of time trying to discredit what is in fact a really good defensive measure against many NBC attacks.  Sealing off your house for 48 hrs would be effective against probably 90% of the common agents and delivery methods, not a bad way to improve your odds of being a survivor of such an attack.

[SIK1]

I was in going to grade school in Las Vegas in the early seventies. We didn't have the duck and cover drills, but we did have the civil defense siren going off every Saturday at noon for about fifteen minutes iirc. The siren was located at the elementary school just down the street from my house. Funny thing is they still did tests at the Nevada nuclear test sight and they never warned us about those.   

[Gman]

My mom was teaching at CFB Moose Jaw when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s.  It may have just been a training base, but a lot of NATO and USAF stuff went on there, and it was a major alternate landing base for all the Minot based bombers, and the B52's would regularly practice and come visit.  For this reason, there was bomb shelters there, as the base was an obvious target for a secondary strike, or even a primary one had things ever gone nuclear.

I can remember in grade school having to do the duck and cover drills, as well as fire drill type drills to get us all into the closest shelter.  I thought it was pretty cool, not having any idea what it really meant when I was 10.

I will watch the PBS thing, I was impressed with some of their other stuff linked on this BBS.

[zack1234]

Secret papers released showed it was political posturing.

Commies removed missiles and capitalists removed "Jupiter" missiles from  the borders of soviet union

If the Russians wanted to put missiles in cuba they would not have them on display on there transport ships for everyone to see

Has North Korea invaded Wigan yet?

[Nath[BDP]]

Secret papers released showed it was political posturing.

Commies removed missiles and capitalists removed "Jupiter" missiles from  the borders of soviet union

If the Russians wanted to put missiles in cuba they would not have them on display on there transport ships for everyone to see

Has North Korea invaded Wigan yet?

They were not seen on transport ships, they were discovered being set up in Cuba by U-2 spy photos. 

Aside, detailed info on the Soviet Deception :  https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06.html

On board, the Soviets applied the same maskirovka measures that they had adopted when they first began to send weapons to Cuba. Packing crates or special shipping containers concealed and protected weapons carried as deck cargo. Certain telltale military equipment was boarded up with planks to make it look like the ship's superstructure. Even on-deck field kitchens were disguised.28 The Soviets shielded crated military hardware—such as missiles and launchers—with metal sheets to defeat infrared photography.29 They stored other combat and specialized equipment below, out of sight. Ordinary automobiles, trucks, tractors, and harvesters were placed on the top deck to convey the impression that only civilian and agricultural gear was being transported.

[Rich46yo]

No it was NOT posturing. Dozens of missiles were either active or on the verge of being active. The ones observed in photos alone could have killed 80,000,000 Americans, AND, also on the Island were Soviet bombers and gravity nukes. If the Reds only wanted the Jupiters out of Turkey they probably only had to ask. Since the Jupiters were out of date anyways. "Cuba" was the real deal.

Secret papers released showed it was political posturing.

Commies removed missiles and capitalists removed "Jupiter" missiles from  the borders of soviet union

If the Russians wanted to put missiles in cuba they would not have them on display on there transport ships for everyone to see

Has North Korea invaded Wigan yet?

[Randy1]

I was, I think in grade 7.  The worst of it came with the US Navel blockade of Cuba.  Our parents were told we could be found at the Gator bowl as it was called back then if things went bad.  I think we had to take a bag lunch on the worse day when they encountered the first Russian cargo ship.  Long time ago.  I remember being apprehensive.  The teachers seem to be worried.

My Dad was maintenance Supervisor for the federal government building down town.  I went with him one night to fill water containers for the shelter in one of the buildings.

I seem like I remember the news hyping up the poor residents of Keys.  They would surely be overrun by Cuban and Russian troops since they were only 90 miles away.

And then the Bay of Pigs making JFK 1, 0 and 1 with he Cubans

[Oldman731]

I remember being apprehensive.  The teachers seem to be worried.

Yup.  While we probably were closer to nuclear holocaust at other times, this was certainly the scariest I can remember.

- oldman

[GScholz]

The guy who saved the world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov