Duck and Cover Memories

Guess I’m showing my age again, but a recent museum visit took me back to elementary school days and the duck and cover drills. For all my younger readers who didn’t have the fun of growing up during the Cold War, I will try to explain. In a nutshell the idea was to train us from an early age to be aware that at any time the Russians could drop a nuclear weapon on the US. But we would know it’s coming because we would hear the air raid siren. And if we were at school we were taught to duck under our desks. Sounds a bit unsophisticated doesn’t it.

Don’t believe me? Go to You Tube and watch the Duck and Cover video. Now that you’ve seen the video and had a good laugh, let me remind you that our parents had just lived through a world war that ended with the US dropping the first atomic bomb. And we didn’t have all the instant info that permeates our world today. We believed our parents and more importantly, we believed Bert!

So all those memories came rushing back today while visiting the Titan Missile Museum. Yep, the missile is still there (albeit gutted) along with all the “state of the art” systems in the control room.

Looking down from the top of the silo. 

The tour took about two hours and placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that this was a weapon of deterrence that thankfully was never used.  That’s a good thing since they were programmed only to be fired if the Russians fired a missile at us first.

You’re three stories below ground and you know that somewhere above you at least two nuclear warheads have gone off. If the incoming blast hit close enough you won’t be able to go out until the silo is unsealed. If the blast was on the other side of the country you can exit the silo - when the next crew relieves you.

As I sat at the control board and listened to the scenario I felt really bad for the service men and women who manned this duty station and others like it - yes there were lots of them all around the country.  They knew the horrors that would exist if the Cold War turned Hot. All us kids knew was Duck and Cover.