I grew up about ten miles from what I always figured was number one on the Soviet target list: Offutt Airfield in Bellevue, NE, the home of the Strategic Air Command. I never figured I’d live to adulthood. True story.
I lived at the base of NORAD in CSC for years south of the Broadmoor. RUMINT said that a 300 Kt was aimed at NORAD. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, taken in stride.
I used to drive by an active missile silo in the late 1980’s for one semester in college. It was maybe 50 yards off the road, max (if you were going the right direction).
Minuteman II maybe Minuteman III by then. Always figured the Russians would try to dig that one out with a MIRV’d warhead (along with each of the others).
Same here. We lived near the Naval Ammunition Depot that had to be a prime target and my uncle was in SAC. I figured I’d go out in a childhood blaze of glory or die a long death from leukemia.
I always wondered how or if the adults knew the air raid siren tests were really just tests.
Ditto - lived near Davis-Monthon AFB when it had B-36 and B-52s. Add in the Titian missile silos surrounding town and Tuscon was in the middle of the target zone.
That’s OK, the State and Feds had no real plans, no real shelters and no clue. Kinda of like today....
Several of us carried an old wood Diamond match box. On them them we put the address of the designated community and a stamp. Inside the matchbox, we left a note. "If found put us in here and drop in any mailbox".
I grew up in the DC suburbs. I also never thought I would live to adulthood!
I agree with you in thinking we were most likely to die in a nuclear exchange. I picked this pamphlet up at the library from a rack labelled “please circulate” in 1980. 70 pages of valuable tips on preparations and survival. I actually incorporated some of the bomb shelter pointers when building my house in 1988.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6EYykewEtgvRVpvRGthaVVNeGIzVDRVaThISWpuc0JIVEln
When I was a kid my town had nuclear tipped Hercules SAM missile installations as part of the ring that protected New York and Philadelphia, the installations were just a few miles from my home. I’m sure that made my town a target at the time, as a Soviet surprise ICBM or SLBM attack would look to knock out those installations to allow their bombers to get through. Eventually as ICBM’s became even more prevalent with less emphasis on bombers, the Hercules sites were considered obsolete and decommissioned back in the 1970s. Don’t know if my town is a direct target anymore, but I’m close enough to New York that it probably doesn’t matter anyway.
I read a novel once about a soldier walking in the exact center of the Pentagon, thinking about the vendors there, and them being oblivious of how many nuclear missiles were pointed at the exact spot where they were standing. Chilling to think of.
I grew up there, too. Howdy neighbor.
Heh ... you’re hardly the only one who grew up near SAC base ... we all figured we were toast when (not if) the balloon went up.