THE DAY'S THAT NYC STOOD STILL! MANDATORY CIVIL DEFENSE DRILLS DURING OPERATION ALERT (1955)

NYC/NYS CIVIL DEFENSE OFFICIALS AND MOST LIKELY
THE MAYOR GET READY TO KICK  OFF OPERATION ALERT WITH PROBABLY THE ONLY AIR RAID SIREN IN NYC

NewYorker's at their finest no pushing and ladies first.



THE DIFFERENCE IS A SUNTAN IN NEW JERSEY OR BBQ IN MANHATTAN





REPRESENTING NEW YORK COUNTY, THATS MANHATTAN FOR ALL NON NEW YAWKERS



THE ORIGINAL CAPTION TO THIS PIC WAS KINGS COUNTY,NYC
CIVIL DEFENSE WORKERS PLOT MOCK FALLOUT SPREAD
FROM A DETONATION OF A HYDROGEN BOMB



NYC MANDATORY CIVIL DEFENSE AIR RAID DRILL PART OF THE "OPERATION ALERT" CIVIL DEFENSE PROGRAM

MANY CITIZENS OF THE TRI STATE AREA FOUND THESE HEADLINES ON THEIR DAILY PAPER AND INFORMATION OF THE MANDATORY OPERATION ALERT DRILL THAT WOULD BE HELD LATER THAT DAY IN NEW YORK CITY




  *** NOTE THE PAPER BELOW BROOKLYN IS BURNING ON THE LEFT FAR COLUMN "ALL NASSAU SUFFOLK IN DANGER" SO THE HELL CLOUD THAT MUSHROOMED OVER BROOKLYN ALSO GETS SUFFOLK, FIGURES..

 CIVIL DEFENSE OFFICIALS WANTED TO CREATE REALISM TO THE OPERATION ALERT DRILLS NEWSPAPERS WERE CREATED WITH FAKE HEADLINES AND STORIES AND ON THE INSIDE OF THESE NEWSPAPERS WERE CIVIL DEFENSE INFORMATION ON HOW TO SURVIVE A NUCLEAR ATTACK AND RADIATION AND FALLOUT INFORMATION AND "BROOKLYN CUB SCOUT PACK 23 MEETING AT YMCA IS CANCELLED DUE TO DOOMSDAY..."

  

NEW YORKERS OF ALL AGES PARTICIPATED AND EVEN AFTER THE OPERATION ALERT DRILLS FADED OUT SCHOOLS AROUND NYS CONTINUED TO DRILL SCHOOLKIDS TO TAKE SHELTER ALL THE WAY INTOTHE 1970's -80's



CIVIL  DEFENSE OFFICIALS AWAIT AN ALL CLEAR IN THE SUBWAY

YEARS AGO WHEN THE COLD WAR RAGED THE ONLY DEFENSE CIVILIANS HAD WAS BEING PREPARED TO SURVIVE AND RIDE OUT THE HORROR OF NUCLEAR ATTACK  IN SHELTERS OF OUR OWN OR THE ONES PROVIDED BY OUR GOVERMENT AND TO MAKE SURE WE WERE READY ,VARIOUS CITIES AND STATE CIVIL DEFENSE AGENCIES MADE AIR RAID OR ATTACK WARNING DRILLS MANDATORY TO PARTICIPATE IN, AND FAILURE TO DO SO COULD GET YOU PUT IN JAIL FOR NOT DOING YOUR PATRIOTIC DUTY TO YOUR NATION, NYC WAS ONE OF THE CITIES THAT HELD CITYWIDE AIR RAID DRILLS PART OF THE "ALERT AMERICA" PROGRAM "OPERATION ALERT"  AS THE SIRENS SOUNDED OVERHEAD PEOPLE MADE THEIR WAY TO SHELTERS UNTIL THE ALL CLEAR WAS SOUNDED, EVERYONE PARTICIPATED TAXI'S PULLED OVER, PEOPLE SHOPPING MADE FOR THE NEAREST DESIGNATED SHELTER AND THE WHOLE CITY STOPPED AND WAS QUIET,NO SUBWAYS,CARS, NO SIDEWALK PREACHERS THE IMAGE IN MANY MINDS WAS LIKE THE IMAGE BELOW AND THIS IS WHY NYC AND OTHER CITIES ACROSS AMERICA PARTICIPATED IN THE "OPERATION ALERT" PROGRAM AND  HELD THESE MANDATORY DRILLS. THOUGH THE PICTURE IS FAKE THE IMPORTANCE OF NEW YORKERS KNOWING WHAT TO DO IF ENEMY BOMBERS MAKE IT THROUGH OUR DEFENSES HOW TO REACT AND WHERE TO GO AND SEEK SHELTER IF BOMBERS WERE TO APPEAR OVER A PART OF NYC. CIVIL DEFENSE LITERATURE PUSHED THE IMPORTANCE OF " DUCK AND COVER" THE VERY FAMOUS LINE USED IN A MOVIE AND DEMONSTRATED BY A TURTLE NAMED BERT,SCHOOLCHILDREN LEARNED WHAT YOUR REACTION IN THOSE FIRST SECONDS OF A DETONATION BY AN ATOMIC BOMB WILL MAKE YOU EITHER A  SURVIVOR OR  ONE OF THE CASULTIES SO BE ALERT AND PREPARED AND IT WAS TAUGHT NATIONWIDE TOSCHOOLKIDS. SOME OF THE MOST MEMORABLE ANTI A-BOMB DEMONSTRATIONS WERE IN NYC AND MORE INFO CAN BE FOUND AT "conelrad.com " ABOUT ONE OF THE MORE KNOWN DEMONSTRATIONS THAT RESULTED IN ARRESTS PLUS MUCH MORE, A GREAT WEBSITE DEVOTED TO CIVIL DEFENSE AND ATOMIC SECRETS &PROPAGANDA OF THE COLD WAR ERA. IT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT . 

SCHOOLS HAD VARIATIONS OF THESE TYPE OF
ATTACK WARNING DRILLS STATEWIDE .I REMEMBER DOING THIS TYPE OF DRILL FACING A WALL EYES COVERED AND LAYING FLAT ON OUR STOMACHS COVERING OUR HEADS AND THIS WENT ON INTO THE LATE 1970's EARLY 80's

A COLD WAR IMAGE OF A NUCLEAR CLOUD OVER NYC WITH THE "UN" IN THE FOREFRONT.

PEACEFULLY PROTESTING THE MOCK HYDROGEN BOMB ATTACK A PRIEST STANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF MANHATTANS AVENUES PRAYING

THATS A HELL OF A WAY TO FACE AN H-BOMB FINISH THAT SHAVE IN THE SUBWAY SIR?





NYC POLICE STEP IN DURING ONE OF THE PROTESTS STAGED DURING THE OPERATION  ALERT  DRILLS DURING THE MID 1950's AND THESE TWO LADIES WERE HOPEFULLY ON THEIR WAY TO A SHELTER AND NOT A JAIL CELL!

 
 


HERE A NYPD OFFICER STANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF FIFTH AVENUE IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORK DAY DURING ONE OF THE DRILLS. THIS IS ONLY MADE POSSIBLE BY THE COOPERATION OF THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK.BELIEVE ME!



"Cross roads of the world" Times Square during a mid 1950's Operation Alert Drill ,Even though it was protested by some many took the drills in stride and felt it was a patriotic duty to participate.



NYC TOOK CIVIL DEFENSE SERIOUSLY THROUGHOUT THE 1950s - 1960s SOMEWHERE DURING THE MID SIXTIES IT SEEMS AS THOUGH THE COMMUNITY SHELTER PLAN AND THE STOCKING AND MARKING OF FALLOUT SHELTERS STARTED TO FALL OFF AND WAS NOT TAKEN VERY SERIOUS AS SHELTERS WERE NOT BEING FOLLOWED UP ON AND BUILDING OWNERS CLEANED THE CIVIL DEFENSE RATIONS OUT OF THEIR BUILDINGS AND LEFT AT THE CURB. EVEN TO THIS DAY SHELTERS CAN BE FOUND STOCKED WITH RUSTING WATER BARRELS AND CARDBOARD BOXES WATER ROTTED WITH CONTENTS FALLING OUT, AND THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FALLOUT SHELTER SIGNS STILL ADORN BUILDINGS IN ALL FIVE BOROUGHS



OP ALERT NYC BUS PASS FROM CONELRAD.COM's Blog on blogger CONELRAD ADJACENT



DURING THE AIR RAID DRILL NEW YORK CITY CAME TO A STOP AS NEW YORKERS WENT TO THE NEAREST PUBLIC SHELTER. HERE A CIVIL DEFENSE OFFICIAL AND NEW YORKERS AWAIT THE ALL CLEAR SIREN THAT WILL ALLOW THEM TO RESUME THEIR EVERYDAY DUTIES IN A  SUBWAY STATION IN MANHATTAN.

ATOMIC PROPAGANDA AIMED AT NY'ers
COULD WE IMAGINE IF MAGAZINES OR OTHER NEWS JOURNALS HAD A UPDATED PICTURE WITH A CAPTION SAYING "TERRORISTS PLAN ON SETTING OFF A NUCLEAR DEVICE IN NYC AND ITS NOT A MATTER OF IF BUT MORE OF A WHEN!" THATS EXACTLY WHAT WAS BEING PUSHED ON THE 1950's NY'er THAT THE EVIL COMMUNIST HOARDS WERE WARMING THE ENGINES ON THEIR BOMBERS AND TARGETS ARE SELECTED SO LEARN WHAT TO DO AND WHERE TO GO.

 THIS CIVIL DEFENSE SUBWAY AD FROM EARLIER DAYS WAS PART OF THE EARLY EFFORT TO GET NYC RESIDENTS INVOLVED IN CIVIL DEFENSE AND WAS POSITIONED NEXT TO A VERY ANTI COMMUNIST AD ITS FUNNY THAT THAT SAME AD IS PROBABLY POLITICALLY INCORRECT AND WOULD DRAW PRO COMMUNISTS TO GET IT REMOVED AND THEY WOULD MORE THAN LIKELY BE SUCESSFUL.......



BE FOR SOME TIME. IF ANY ONE KNOWS OF A AIR RAID SIREN ON A BLDG. IN NYC I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT IT.
NYC SUBWAY CAR WITH ONE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORKS AIR ATTACK WARNING SIREN PSA'S THE PSA LET SUBWAY RIDERS KNOW THE DIFFERENCE IN TONES THAT WOULD SIGNIFY AN ATTACK OR A WARNING AND THE ALL CLEAR SIGNAL, NEW YORKERS ALREADY HAD SOME PRACTICE DURING WORLD WAR TWO BUT THESE SIREN WARNINGS WERE OF A MORE SERIOUS SCENARIO IN THE 1950's
** IN OVER 30 PLUS YEARS I HAVE NEVER EVER HEARD A AIR RAID OR WARNING SIREN IN NYC EVEN WITH PROXIMITY OF INDIAN POINT AS YOU GET INTO THE SUBURBS LIKE NASSAU AND SUFFOLK COUNTIES EACH TOWN HAS A VOLUNTEER FIRE DISTRICT AND MOST TO THIS DAY USE THEIR SIRENS SOME SURPLUS FROM THE COLD WAR YEARS TO SIGNAL NOON EVERYDAY AND TO GET MEMBERS TO THE FIREHOUSE DURING A CALL AND IT'S SOMETHING LIVING IN THE SUBURBS YOU HEAR FROM BIRTH, HOWEVER THERE ARE STORIES OF VISITORS FROM TORNADO PRONE AREA'S TO START TO PANIC UPON THE NOON WHISTLE, EVEN WITH THE COMPUTER AGE OF PAGERS AND ALERT DEVICES VOL. FD's USE TO GET MEMBERS TO THE FIREHOUSE DURING AN EMERGENCY THE SIREN STILL IS USED AND WILL

THIS WAS ANOTHER AD FOUND ON SUBWAY CARS IN NYC,THIS CIVIL DEFENSE PSA WAS PUT OUT BY THE OFFICE OF CIVIL DEFENSE IN WASHINGTON DC, ATOMIC CIVIL DEFENSE PSA's HAD A MORE SERIOUS TONE TO THEM, AND THE CITY'S MANDATORY AIR RAID EXERCISE BROUGHT WITH IT A LOT OF PROTEST FROM THOSE WHO FELT THERE WAS NO DEFENSE FROM ATOMIC WAR AND WOULD NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE CIVIL DEFENSE DRILLS,PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED AND CALLED COMMUNIST AGITATORS AND JAILED, MOVIE STARS CAME TO NYC AND PROTESTED THESE AIR RAID/ATTACK WARNING DRILLS, SO DID PRIESTS, NUNS , HOMEMAKERS, ACTIVISTS, AND PLAIN OLD EVERYDAY NEW YORKERS THAT THE PREPARDNESS DRILLS FADED INTO THE DARK AND CIVIL DEFENSE IN NYC WAS FAST TO FOLLOW AS AMERICANS GOT MORE INFORMATIONM AND REALIZED THAT BEING IN NYC DURING A ENEMY ATTACK IN A BASEMENT FALLOUT SHELTER WOULD BE ENTOMBING YOURSELF UNDER THE DEBRIS OF 20 STORY BUILDINGS WITH NOBODY AROUND AND NOTHING AVAILABLE TO DIG YOU OUT! AND IF THEIR IS A PRIORITY POST ATTACK IT WILL BE SEEKING MEDICAL HELP AND FOOD AND WATER, LEAVING THOSE BURIED ALIVE IN SHELTERS TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES, CITY OFFICIALS SAW THIS AND STOPPED THEIR COMMUNITY SHELTER PLAN AND QUIT STOCKING BASEMENT FALLOUT SHELTERS, EVENTUALLY THE BUILDING SUPERS DISCARDED THE CRACKER AND BISCUIT RATIONS AND WATER BARRELS AND OTHER EQUIPMENT TO THE TRASH, A REMINDER STILL LINGERS AND THATS THE HUNDRED OF THOUSANDS OF FALLOUT SHELTER SIGNS THAT DECORATE CITY BUILDINGS IN ALL BORO'S , THEY HANG THERE IN SILENCE NO LONGER REFLECTIVE BUT FADING AWAY WITH THE YEARS.


OPERATION ALERT
Taken from fhwa.dot.gov

The possibility of urban evacuation was put to the test on June 15, 1955, when the Federal Civil Defense Administration staged Operation Alert in cities around the country, including Washington, D.C. As The New York Timesobserved on June 16, "This was the first Civil Defense test in which the Government actually left Washington and in which account was taken of the lethal and widespread effects of radioactive fall-out." The government was able to estimate the spread of fallout because it had exploded a hydrogen bomb on March 1, 1954, in the Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. The test revealed that the fallout spread 7,000 square miles over the Pacific. "On land," the Times explained, "that fall-out would have killed virtually every exposed person in an area about the size of New Jersey."

Operation Alert targeted 55 cities in the continental United States, plus 6 in its territories. Of these cities, 13 had no advance notice that they would be included. Atomic and hydrogen bombs were presumed to strike the East Coast, including New York City, the West Coast, and parts of the Midwest. The coordinated attacks began in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at 1:22 pm. Two minutes later, attacks occurred in Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston, followed at 1:26 pm by attacks in southern California. A five megaton thermonuclear bomb struck New York City. (The Times helpfully informed its surviving readers that this was the equivalent of 5 million tons of TNT.) A second megaton thermonuclear bomb hit Chicago.

The estimates of devastation were extensive, as reported in the Times:

Vital centers of the nation were under the assumed blight of radioactive fall-out from hydrogen bombs that could paralyze them for weeks.

In a recapitulation tonight, the Federal Civil Defense Administration estimated assumed casualties at 5,000,000 killed and almost 5,000,000 injured. It also estimated that 10,000,000 persons had been made homeless, creating serious welfare problems.

The Times added that the results of the test "ranged from indifference and confusion in some cities to well-disciplined drills and even evacuations." In New York City, according to the Times, most people went indoors for 10 minutes when sirens signaled the start of the drill. However, the all-clear siren rang prematurely, sending the public back into the streets 4 minutes early. A baseball game at Yankee Stadium was delayed 23 minutes, but the 17,000 spectators remained in their seats throughout. Wall Street suspended trading for the drill. Governor Harriman took shelter in the Port Authority Building at 111 Eighth Avenue, but repeated his concern that the Eisenhower Administration "has not yet informed me what is expected of a Governor" and "has not kept pace with scientific development" since 1950.

Arrests for nonparticipation in New York City included 28 pacifists staging a sit-down demonstration in City Hall Park. Police also arrested a pedestrian who refused to go into a shelter in Harlem and a truck driver who would not leave his truck in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Results around the country varied. Philadelphia, one of the cities that had not been warned it would be targeted, was hit by an H-bomb, but public participation was reported to be spotty. Some motorists stopped when sirens began blaring, but most kept moving. Similarly, most pedestrians kept walking. A small number of people in Denver, about 2,400, were evacuated to the mountains, while Houston officials were satisfied with the evacuation of a 275-block downtown area. In Atlanta, Honolulu, and Los Angeles, government workers headed for shelters, but the rest of the population ignored the sirens. A report on the Los Angeles exercise indicated "considerable confusion, some panic, and a number of traffic problems, but, basically, the population responded well."

In Peoria, Illinois, which was included in the test when a simulated radioactive dust cloud from Chicago blanketed the city, civil defense officials refused to participate. The Director of Civil Defense preferred to let his volunteers work at their regular jobs instead of asking them to take a day off to "run around with arm bands on."

In Washington, an H-bomb was dropped on the city. With advance warning of the attack, President Eisenhower left the White House by automobile just after noon and headed for a secret destination in Virginia. The Timesexplained:

En route through the Capital, the cavalcade found traffic was not heavy although 15,000 Government workers were being evacuated. Although the President's route and destination were secret, children along the road shouted, "Hey, Ike," as the President's car passed.

Shortly after the President left the White House, sirens began warning the city of the impending attack, scheduled for a little after 3:25 pm. In his speeding Cadillac, the President signed a proclamation that concluded:

Now, therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the aforesaid Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950, do hereby proclaim the existence of a state of Civil Defense emergency.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Word was radioed from the Cadillac to Federal Civil Defense Administrator Peterson that the President had signed the proclamation.

A few other high level officials also left their posts early to evacuate before the attack. One of them was Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, who attributed his early departure from the Pentagon to "superior intelligence" information. Other high level officials evacuated after the warning sirens began to signal the emergency. Only one Cabinet Member, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, failed to participate. He stayed in his office throughout the H-bomb attack and left at 4 pm for New York.

The members of Congress remained in the Capitol and conducted business as usual. Although the President had talked to congressional leaders in January about the need for an evacuation point, the Congress still had no secret center where the business of the legislature could be carried on in the event of an attack.

The only real casualty of Operation Alert was a Deputy Director for Civil Defense of the District of Columbia, who refused to participate in the evacuation. He called the exercise ridiculous, saying it was not a "drill but a show." He was fired.

Speeding along at 70 miles per hour, the President's car passed several other evacuees, including Herbert Hoover Jr., Under Secretary of State, and Joseph M. Dodge, White House foreign economic advisor. Still, some leaders reached the secret rendezvous ahead of the President. The Times reported that:

One of the first to greet the President at the sunny relocation headquarters was George M. Humphrey, the Secretary of the Treasury, who had driven in his own black limousine.

"What did you do-come down here to see if the money was safe?" the President asked Secretary Humphrey with a grin, as they walked along a gravel road together . . . .

From the emergency relocation center, the President broadcast a message to the American people. "We are here," he said, "to determine whether or not the Government is prepared in time of emergency to continue the function of government so that there will be no interruption in the business that must be carried on." The Nation's television and radio networks, which had not expected the address, had only an hour's warning to prepare for its broadcast. As a result, only the NBC and DuMont television networks broadcast the President's remarks live. It was carried, however, on the major radio networks, including NBC and CBS.

Following a 90-minute meeting with top officials, President Eisenhower headed to his own secret emergency hideout in a caravan of five automobiles. The Times described the secret location as "a mountainous wooded area within 300 miles of Washington."

For Operation Alert, the Federal Civil Defense Administration had gathered more than 100 reporters at the Emergency Press Headquarters to spread news of the mock disaster to the population. However, the exercise primarily demonstrated that the government and the media would have to improve coordination. Even before the exercise began, one metropolitan reporter had revealed the location of the secret press center; he had been out-of-town when the other reporters had been briefed about the importance of secrecy. "Not that it would have mattered greatly," the Times observed. "Reporters arriving last night could stand in a local hotel lobby and overhear the bellboys telling each other what was about to happen."

News from the Emergency Press Headquarters was slow to arrive, so the reporters strolled to a press bulletin board where they could read wire service reports of the nationwide attacks hours before official announcements were made. As the Times put it, "The wags are saying of today's Civil Defense test that everything is simulated but the confusion."

Although Operation Alert had its comical elements, an editorial in the Times declared the first nationwide test evacuation a success in demonstrating that a real attack could kill millions of men, women and children "in a holocaust that makes the imagination falter." With Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov in New York City on the day of the test (he left the city early for the Soviet's estate at Glen Cove on Long Island), the editorial continued:

This [threat of a holocaust] makes "Operation Alert" far more than a test and converts it into a dramatic demonstration to all-including, it may be hoped, Mr. Molotov, who happens to be among us at the moment-of the deadly menace that hangs over the world today. This demonstration gives new emphasis to President Eisenhower's dictum that war no longer presents the possibility of victory or defeat, but only the alternative of varying degrees of destruction, and that there is no substitute for a just and lasting peace.

COURTESY OF FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMIN phwa.dot.gov


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