I grew up in south Florida, and was 12 in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, but have absolutely NO recollection of any drill in public school where you go underneath your school desk and cover your head, like that's going to save you from a nuclear blast. I've always assumed that when people talk about this exercise, it's one of those things you hear about and think you remember, but I can assure everyone that I never came across it. Also, even during those several days when the crisis was at its height, life was normal except for restricted access to maybe the seaport (where I found out many years later some military was based, but never saw a single military unit in town and we were a mile away) but people didn't go to Port Everglades anyway unless you worked there. In fact, I was out on the streets selling newspapers after school in those years, and probably saw more people and events than average. Lots of what people think they remember just didn't happen (at least in my part of south Florida).
During the Cuba flap... we didn't do anything... everyone took for granted that the mushroom clouds would be sprouting any minute. Yet... as I recall... we were quite jocular about it.
I remember routine Air Raid Drills at school. (at that time I was in school in NY Sate).
Some drills, we went to the hallways and some where we had to go the the basement (Offical Fallout Shelter). All of our schools were desingated fallout shelters. This is back in the early 60's.
The sound for the air raid drill was different than the routine fire drills.
Fallout Shelter Signs were posted in any public place that had basements or I would assume reinforced walls. They were everywhere and most commonly seen in stairwells marking the route to take.
Drills may have varied from state to state.
I also remember during school hours several sonic booms as military aircraft broke sound barrier nearby (What was then Stewart AF Base).
Our proximity to an AF base may have been why we had drills.
You said -- "I grew up in south Florida, and was 12 in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, but have absolutely NO recollection of any drill in public school where you go underneath your school desk and cover your head, like that's going to save you from a nuclear blast. I've always assumed that when people talk about this exercise, it's one of those things you hear about and think you remember, but I can assure everyone that I never came across it."
I can assure you that it went on in Texas, with me. I was there -- in Dallas and Houston. I remember the weekly sirens in Houston, at around noon, where you were supposed to seek out the nearest shelter (at least be aware of where it was). Everything stopped in downtown Houston for about one minute.
And then in Dallas, I remember our classes having to leave the classrooms, to go out into the hallways, and practice lining up along the hallways in the "protected positions" close to the walls, kneeling/squatting down, with one arm over the back of your head and neck and the other arm in front of your eyes.
So, it definitely went on and was practiced all the time.
Regards,
Star Traveler
I was 10 in 1962, and I clearly remember doing the duck and cover exercises on a regular basis throughout elementary school (1-6)
I still remember looking around and seeing everyone under the desks in 6th grade.
I do remember the Cuban fiasco.
FYI: Him and his battalion (just the troops) were sitting on the tarmac in Charleston, SC - Charleston Army Air Field, now home to the 437th Airlift Wing (active) and the 315th Air Lift Wing (reserves) is part of the Air Mobility Command (AMC) and is aligned under 21st Air Force at McGuire AFB, NJ. Today it is known as Charleston Air Force Base.
The cargo and troop transport planes were fully loaded with weapons, equipment, trucks, food ammunition. The other elements of the 82nd infantry troops were waiting the same in GA and FL as they were closer and would be the 1st wave to capture the airports.
Twenty-eight minutes before they were scheduled to load the troops onto the planes and take off, because they were to be the 2nd wave to land, they got the orders to stand down to yellow alert. Dad said he was sure WWIII was about to start and he'd never see us again. Fort Bragg was a definite target then by the USSR and there was only a scant security force left on post.
Sunday, Oct. 21, 1962, around 6:30 pm, the 82nd went on full (yellow) alert and within 18hrs, the entire division had been deployed to the multiple staging areas along the east coast. Oct. 24, 1962, the U.S. went to DEFCON 2 (except maybe on 9/11 for a brief time), highest alert ever to this date, and the Army XVIII Airborne Corps was on Red Alert.
Oct., 29, 1962 2:30 pm was the predetermined 'go' time if my memory serve me correctly in that the situation was changing by the hour and a lot depended on if Soviet naval ships were to try and run the blockade (that would have been the trigger).
Also, a retired (1974) full bird USAF explained too just how dang close we came. The military mission was to perform air strikes on the ballistic sites (conventional ordnance), invade Cuba with ground troops, remove Castro from power and destroy all the missiles, sites, SAMS, and as much of the Cuban military as required. JFK and staff were convinced the Soviets were going to respond with nukes.
While the Pentagon developed a detailed plan for invasion of Cuba, this was not assigned any code-name, instead keeping its number: CINCLANT OPLAN 316-62.
This plan envisaged the invasion to begin with massive air strikes, which were to target SSM and SAM-sites. On D +1, Soviet FKR-1 anti-ship missile sites would be attacked, and follow-up strikes against SSM and SAM-sites. As soon as these would have been taken out, warships would attack with artillery in order to prepare the ground for invasion. The invasion itself would begin with arrival of SEAL-teams, which were to support the capture of ports of Mariel and Matazanas, disable any demolition charges and seize ships in the harbour to prevent their scuttling. Army Special Forces teams were also to go in and disable radar stations and SAM-sites before the actual strikes would begin.
Then the 82nd Airborne was to jump at San Antonio de Los Banos AB and Jose Marti IAP; 101st Airborne was to jump at NAS Mariel and Baraoca IAP, capture these airports and the nearby port of Mariel. The 1st Armoured Division was to land one of its brigades at a time from 15 available LSTs, arriving from Miami (the whole division would need approximately 30 hours to be landed in Cuba); 1st Infantry Division would be flown in to captured airfields. 1st Armoured would then clear Pinar De Rio, with 101st Airborne, and then push east to link up with the 82nd Airborne before moving on Havana, which would be isolated, but not seized. The 5th Regimental Landing Team was to land near Santiago de Cuba and act as decoy for fixing Soviet and Cuban forces in eastern Cuba. 2nd Marine Division was to land at Varadero Beach and push inlands towards the port of Matanzas. Its follow-up, the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division and corps troops of the III Corps, including the 4th Infantry Division if needed, would be deployed either east or west, depending on what would be needed. Once a linkup between XVIII Airborne Corps and II MAF would have been established, the eastern part of Cuba would be mopped up.
CINCLANT expected organized resistance to end within 18 days of the actual landings, while expecting at least 1.000 US casualties a day for the first 15 days of invasion. Two National Guard Divisions were to be called up for occupation duty once organised resistance would end.
Fort Benning, in Georgia, was to house Soviet POWs brought in from Cuba."
I'd like to say a lot of what I mentioned at the beginning is best from memory as Dad only discussed this once with me as an adult. Seemed as though he didn't care to remember that time too much and refused to answer 3 of my questions then as to some details I was curious about. As a retired CSM nine years later, 'he was still under orders' as to 'classified' Cuban Missile Crisis details from his several debriefings from June 1962 through Jan 1964.
I grew up in northern NJ. In second grade, when I was 7, 1963, we had drills where we had to kneel against the wall in the hallways, facing the wall and cover our heads. That was the only year we did it.