A Boy Named Sue?

[RonSwanson]

Seems to be quite a few of us old farts on here. For some reason this memory popped up today and made me smile.

Back in the 1960s at the height of the cold war and the perceived nuclear threat, I was in high school. We experienced such things as a six month series of classes on Communism complete with textbook, a "know thine enemy" kind of thing. As I recall, we never did the hide under the desk drills that I have heard others mention, though.

Anyway, some government official somewhere decided that when we students were lying dead in radioactive heaps or wandering about mumbling incoherently in the rubble, a quick, sure way to identify us was needed. Really not a bad idea, given the times. We were all signed up, and one day a large envelope arrived with our dog tags in it, complete with beaded chains. Name and birthday, as I remember.

Now anyone who has been a teenager, parented a teenager, or been around a teenager for a couple of days can guess what happened next. Boyfriends and girlfriends immediately started swapping dog tags. It was a symbol of undying love or something, I suppose. I can imagine the responder's voices now if an attack had ever happened. "Hey, Bob, did you ever see so many girls with boys' names in your life?" "Naw, and half the boys have girls' names, too."

The law of unintended consequences was alive and well back then, also.

 

[mohavesam]

"..back in the 1960s..." In fourth grade our teacher put up a big map of maybe a 100-mile radius from our school. It showed circles depicting DOD-rated atomic-bomb targets in WNY and guess what? Our little school was overlapped by five or six red target circles. Bummer.

-I wonder what that class lesson would do to today's ten-year old's self esteem. (we seemed to live through it).

No, the 10,000 degree pressure wave never happened, but then kim jong child wasn't around then. (the threat is not over, not by a long shot) no pun intended.

 

[coach]

Living on the east coast between D.C. and N.Y. not to mention all the army and airforce bases and industrial concerns nearby, this was the 60's, I always figured in a nuclear attack there was little chance of surviving. Probably wouldn't want to anyway given the radiation.
I remember the drills hiding under the desk and against the hallway walls and the health class in junior high about what to do after an attack. Anybody remember the 3 F's?
Never had or exchanged dog tags with anyone back then.
Of course the Johnny Cash song is a classic.

 

[graygun]

I don't recall any special training or measures...dog tags,hiding under desks etc...and I grew up in the 50s and 60s. I do recall "tune to 640 or 1240 on your AM dial" CONELRAD announcements on TV.

 

[737tdi]

I don't recall any special training or measures...dog tags,hiding under desks etc...and I grew up in the 50s and 60s. I do recall "tune to 640 or 1240 on your AM dial" CONELRAD announcements on TV.

Graygun: If you lived in or around San Antonio at that time they knew it would be useless to try and hide. SA was/is a military establishment. The best burn center in the world "BAMCE", Kelly AFB, Randolph AFB, Ft. Sam, etc.. San Antonio had no chance of surviving. I have read a lot of books on the subject and San Antonio was a major target, Dallas, where I grew up, not so much.

Karl

 

[graygun]

I lived not far from DC most of the 50s/60s. How many nukes would that area have taken? :shock: :lol:

 

[CGDustDevil]

I grew up 2 miles (as the crow flies) east of Dow AFB. (2 mile runway for B-52s) We did duck & cover in the 50s at school, but never got any dog tags. Anyone with a hummingbird brain knew that Loring and Dow would both be vaporized in the event of a nuclear attack. To make matters worse, they put in a Bomark Missile base with 16 silos about 8 miles to the east of us. We were pretty well sandwiched!

School made us kind of aware that there was danger lurking... We asked if we should hide in the cellar if things went bad. Dad told us: "Well, if the $%@# hits the fan, just take the dining room chairs, go outside and sit on the lawn 'cause you ain't NEVER gonna see anything like that again!"

 

[daveg.inkc]

I grew up in North Missouri, close to Iowa line. WE did the desk drill, had basement in school with the black and yellow radiation signs. And don't for get to open opposite windows in your house when a tornado approached. I remember being told that a vacuum caused houses to explode. The 200 + MPH winds had nothing to do with it. It was the vacuum!

 

[Dan in MI]

We did the hide under the desk thing and that was about it.

We always assumed we were toast due to our proximity to Detroit and all the manufacturing capabilities. My buddy always said "if we get any warning I'm heading downtown (Detroit) with a catchers mitt."

 

[Mega Twin]

As children,my older brother and I would spend the summers with our aunt and grandmother near San Diego.
When the sirens went off,they would make us put gas masks on,and get under the table!
I think the sirens went off daily around noon,but I was pretty young then.

 

[Fox Mike]

In the 60s I was stationed on Nike Ajax, then Hercules, missile sites. I know that there was a heightened awareness during that period. The Cuban missile crisis, JFKs assassination, MLKs assassination, all raised the possibility of the 'bad guys' trying to do something.

 

[sceva]

I grew up about 25 Miles from Wright Patterson ABF and in addition the Nat'l Guard base south of town had runways long enough to be used by B-52's as alternates and a major manufacturing facility north of town and one in town. No sense doing duck and cover drills there; we were targeted several times over.

 

[Tom W]

Grew up mostly at Camp LeJeune. No worries about nukes.

 

[flyinfred]

Grew up in NJ about 20 miles west of NYC...and less than 5 from Newark airport....we did a lot of duck and cover crap...
this in the 50's and early 60's...had Civil Defense stuff in school basements....hah...like anyone would have survived
to try to find/use it!
SAC and TAC used to play war games over our heads....lots of sonic booms in those days....ah the sound of freedom...
When I got to 18 alive I could not get out of there quick enough!

 

[Critch]

We were in a briefing in 1973 at FE Warren AFB, WY about how we would survive a Russian attack and living on hard candy and canned water we would make our way to Laramie and regroup...none of us were over maybe 24 years old, but we got a good laugh out of it..FE Warren was the largest, most modern missile base in the world, Cheyenne was a state capital, two interstates and 6 railroads crossed there...yeah,,,the Russians were gonna forget about us..

 

[LDM]

Back then Detroit was a primary target with all the manufacturing facilities including the tank arsenal and the Redstone missile plant. I remember bi-monthly air raid/tornado drills where we were ushered to the school's basement and huddled against the walls. Ten short rings on the school bells was the signal. Ah, youth.