PORTLAND OREGON'S CIVIL DEFENSE DEBUT "A DAY CALLED X" (1957)

    A DAY CALLED X ATOMIC ATTACK  

Be prepared.

That's what they keep telling us. Prepared for a viral pandemic. Girded for a killer earthquake. Braced for the next volcano eruption, for widespread fires, for marauding terrorists.

Bad things happen, we know this. So hunker down. Gear up. And thank your lucky stars that no matter how scary the H1N1 virus may seem, at least we no longer consider ourselves to be poised on the brink of a day so horrifyingly destructive it can only be referred to as "X."

It actually happened in Portland, on a sunny September morning in 1957. You think I'm kidding, but I've seen it. You can see it, too (watch video below). What you'll see, my friends, will shock you.

It's our city. Fifty-two years ago, but entirely recognizable, full of light and life and something like vim. Urban life proceeding apace. Paper boys on their bikes, longshoremen loading scrap iron at the port, the City Council dickering over some incomprehensible point of sewer policy. "An average day in an average American city," notes Glenn Ford.

Wait. What? The actor Glenn Ford? How did he get into the picture? Who's he talking to? And why did he just compare Portland's size and population on this wonderfully average day to that of, um, Hiroshima?

"This day," Ford continues, "THIS day is the one called ... X."

That can't be good. And just in case you think you're watching a Hollywood fantasy, here comes Mayor Terry Schrunk -- the real Terry Schrunk, Portland's mayor from 1957 until 1973 -- looking extremely grim as he addresses officials stationed in the city's doomsday bunker in Kelly Butte.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he intones. "You've heard reports that enemy planes are approaching. In less than three hours an H-bomb might fall over Portland."

This really happened. The sirens really wailed. Mayor Schrunk really sprinted off to Kelly Butte. He really declared that enemy planes were on their way. Portland hospitals and schools were really evacuated. Citizens really fled the city in droves.

All for the benefit of cameras sent from CBS to film "The Day Called 'X,'" a 30-minute movie aired on the television network on Dec. 8, 1957.

Produced as a kind of dramatized documentary about the best way to respond to a nuclear attack, "X" was shot in Portland over several weeks that September, with actual Portlanders (including the mayor and other government notables) as themselves. Chosen as a result of a particularly successful citywide Civil Defense drill in 1955, Portland stepped easily into its role of an American city on the brink of a nuclear holocaust.

Families across the city became aware of the worldwide crisis when the newspaper landed on their front porch.

"We're interested more in the reality of Portland's civil defense work than in a glamour-type Hollywood production," associate producer Arthur Swerdloff told The Oregonian a few weeks before filming began.

Which seems fortunate when you consider the absence of real characters or a plot beyond the surface story of a city full of people made to run for their lives in the most calm, reasoned way imaginable.

"My dad was always big on civil defense, and being prepared," recalls Terry Schrunk's son, longtime Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk, who was a teenager during his father's turn in front of the cameras.

"He saw it as promoting civil defense," the younger Schrunk says. "There wasn't any big glamorous opening, or anything like that."

Granted, "The Day Called 'X'" isn't the sort of glossy crowd-pleaser designed to make audiences stand up and cheer. More like duck and cover, or perhaps run and hide. No wonder CBS felt compelled to plaster "AN ATTACK IS NOT TAKING PLACE" across the screen every few minutes.

The fun begins with a quick establishing shot from the radio tower on Kelly Butte, from which we see a pair of official-looking cars zooming up the road. A siren blares. The cars screech to a halt. And men in suits burst from the doors, striding past a guard and into the maw of an underground bunker.

The lead man is Schrunk, who seems a bit queasy as he faces the bureaucrats stationed at the desks and confirms what they already know to be true: Bombers are headed for Portland. The fiery holocaust is imminent.

The entire city hit the road, including patients in hospitals, students in schools -- all but essential personnel.

The shriek of an air raid siren accompanies the movie's title, which lasts scant seconds before we cut to the reassuring presence of Ford, perched on a stool on a darkened stage in a funereal suit.

"Like myself," the actor rumbles, "I think you'll be very interested in the story we're about to tell you."

This may strike you as an understated way to begin a movie about the end of the world. But Ford is nothing short of avuncular as he sets the scene for viewers, describing Portland's sylvan setting and the "friendly, rugged" people here. Why, here comes Joe the paper boy now, tossing a copy of the morning's Oregonian (good lad) onto the porch of Mrs. Frank Stuefel, housewife and mother of five, who avoids the terrifying headlines on the front page (WORLD SHAKEN BY CRISIS) in favor of the ladies' page. A nameless host on KOIN-AM beams happily into his microphone as he ushers his listeners into the new day. "Wake up, Portland!" he cries. "It's a wonderful day today!"

Not for long. Because what we're seeing is the world's worst nightmare, particularly in the 1950s depths of the Cold War between the nuclear powers of the United States and the Soviet Union: the onset of a nuclear war, waged against everyday citizens in virtually any, or perhaps every, city in the world.

"The banshee wail heralds the siren," the announcer says. "And the city prepares for survival."

There is, he continues, an intricate citywide plan already in place. "But," he muses, "will it work?"

Next we revisit the opening sequence, with Schrunk and his entourage bee-lining their way to Kelly Butte. The top ranks of the city's government are already there to greet him ("The government must survive if its people are to survive," Ford points out) and from there the film becomes a lesson in how a well-oiled bureaucracy approaches the prospect of a fiery apocalypse. Amazingly, and perhaps reassuringly, they make it all look boring: mass death foretold in traffic bulletins, evacuation statistics and reports of what sounds like widespread indifference. "There is no panic among the schoolchildren!" a functionary shouts.

Bunker-like facilities for the officials who had to stay in town were provided with purified air.

Then it's 1:47 p.m., almost three hours after the initial reports had the enemy something like, oh yes, that's right -- three hours away. The camera settles again on the grim face of Portland's mayor, who observes that "the bombers are probably overhead."

Silence. Then a quick cut back to Ford, perched again on his stool. "What happened after that moment, we'll leave you to contemplate," he says.

Viewers' contemplations inspired a variety of responses. Some were terrified, particularly in Portland, where dozens of panicked calls flooded into The Oregonian's city desk. More savvy watchers, such as the TV critic at Time magazine, declared themselves bored with a film that portrayed a citizenry greeting their own near-guaranteed destruction "with the equanimity of Perry Como in a high school fire drill." The fault, the review concluded, belonged to the 10,000 unprofessional actors. "Portland's citizens let viewers down."

I'm sure they felt terrible. But, as Ford pointed out at the movie's end, at least Portland had a plan. "They're ready, if there really is a day called 'X,'" he says, fixing the camera with a level gaze. "How about you?"

The definition of 'X' may change. But the question still looms.

THIS STORY COMES FROM A RESIDENT OF THE PORTLAND OREGON AREA AS
HE EXPLAINS HIS CITIES SCENES AND RESIDENTS WHO ACTED INSTEAD OF
HIRED  HOLLYWOOD TYPES ALL IN ALL WELL DONE PORTLAND WELL DONE!!! CONTACT PETER CARLIN FOR MORE HISTORY ON THE MOVIE A DAY CALLED "X"
 petercarlin@news.oregonian.com

A Day Called X is a dramatized CBS documentary film set in Portland, Oregon, in which the entire city is evacuated in anticipation of a nuclear air raid, after Soviet bombers had been detected by radar stations to the north; it details the activation of the city's civil defense protocols and leads up to the moment before the attack (the ending is left intentionally unknown). It was filmed in September 1957 and aired December 8 of that year. It was presented by Glenn Ford.

Its local rebroadcast in 2004 and appearance in the on-line Prelinger Archives attracted interest among local history buffs due to its extensive outside shots of the city, and the use of non-actor participants (local officials and broadcasters).Whenever one of these individuals is heard uttering warnings or statements regarding attack, the words "An attack is not actually taking place" are superimposed over the picture.

On September 27, 1955, Portland actually conducted an exercise evacuation of downtown called "Operation Greenlight,"and the film is often misattributed to that year. Ford's narration, however, does make direct reference to the 1955 exercise

At the dawn of the nuclear age, evacuation was opposed by the federal government. The Federal Civil Defense Administration produced a short movie called Our Cities Must Fight. It argued that in the event of a nuclear war, people need to stay in cities to help repair the infrastructure and man the recovering industries. "Nuclear radiation," it advised, "would only stay in the air a day or two."Despite this early opposition, evacuation plans were soon created. One city at the forefront of such efforts was Portland, Oregon. In 1955, their city government completed "Operation Greenlight"--a drill to evacuate the city center. Hospital patients were packed into semi-trucks, pedestrians were picked up by passing motorists, and the city's construction equipment and emergency vehicles were rushed out to "dispersal points." The entire city center was evacuated in 19 minutes. On December 8, 1957 CBS Television aired a dramatization of how a well prepared city might respond to an imminent nuclear attack. The show,A Day Called 'X', produced "in co-operation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration," was shot in Portland, using City officials and ordinary citizens instead of professional actors. It was narrated by Glenn Ford. Such plans were plausible in the early days of the Cold War, when an attack would have come from strategic bombers, which would have allowed a warning of many hours. The development of Intercontinental ballistic missiles made this goal less realistic, however. Despite that, civil defense officials still worked to prepare evacuation plans. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced the Crisis Relocation Plan. The White House suggested that the $10 billion, five-year program could allow the evacuation of targeted urban centers to rural "host areas" and thus save 80% of the population. The plan allowed up to three days for the evacuation to be completed, believing that a nuclear war would not come in a surprise attack but rather as the culmination of a crisis period of rising tensions. Thank god we did not have to Evacuate since as a study showed that if Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant had a level 1 Crisis with it being 50 plus miles up the hudson NYC residents would have to shelter in place since Evacuation would be impossible,Go ahead and look "shelter in place" on the FEMA web site, Another study during the 1970s was Evacuating Long Island if the Long Island Lighting Co. "LILCO" Shoreham Nuclear Power Generating Plant went online when construction was finished in the late 1980s, Long Island has one of the worst Rush Hour traffic problems in the world known as the worlds largest parking lot, A study showed it was impossible to Evacuate Suffolk and Nassau through New York City Day OR Night! If the Shoreham Reactor Had A crisis or a release of Radiation, (most long islanders had no idea about the working nuclear reactor at brookhaven national lab and IT was leaking into the ground water) Long Islanders trying to flee the reactor 80 miles east of NYC would try to Evacuate on  the Long Island Expressway and secondary roads not made for heavy traffic dooming anyone trying to get off LI,One simple point i will always remember And it was on every bridge pillar along the LIE, activists painted , Fallout Shelter symbols and statements like " If this were you evacuating would you make it ? imagine triple the amount of cars add panic-) Or (you are in the 30 mile Evacuation Zone lethal radiation expected) Now remember your sitting for over an hour in bumper to bumper traffic for miles reading these signs they worked and Shoreham was dismantled. Evacuation may have worked in "A Day Called X' with a 3 day head start but for most areas in the US this was wishful thinking,

 

US NAVY (GRUMMAN AIRCRAFT)OVER LONG ISLAND AIRSPACE IN THE ADC ROLE PROTECTING THE NYC METRO AREA

THE NAVAL AIR COUNTERPARTS FLYING AIR DEFENSE WERE PRESENT OVER SUFFOLK IN THE COLD WAR YEARS ALONG WITH THEIR US AIR FORCE COUNTERPARTS  FLYING GRUMMAN MADE FIGHTERS AND RADAR ALERT & WARNING AIRCRAFT KEEPING AN EYE OUT FOR WAYWARD SOVIET BOMBERS TRYING TO CATCH A GLIMPSE OF NYC OR A TARGET.
THESE PHOTOS OF GRUMMAN FIGHTERS  AND A FEW OTHER AC MFG'S ARE ALL TAKEN OVER VARIOUS AREAS OF LONG ISLAND

NASSAU COUNTY PREPARES FOR ATOMIC ATTACK 1950

THE STATE OF NEW YORK TOOK CIVIL DEFENSE VERY SERIOUS WITH PRO CIVIL DEFENSE ELECTED POLITICIANS SUCH AS NYC MAYOR FIORELLO LaGUARDIA AND NYS GOVERNOR NELSON ROCKEFELLER BOTH TOOK CIVILIAN DEFENSE LITERALLY WITH ENACTING LAWS AND ORGANIZATIONS AND SERVING AS MEMBERS OF CIVIL DEFENSE THIS NYS BOOKLET / PAMPHLETS OF 1000's IS MARKED NUMBER ONE AND WAS DISTRIBUTED THROUGH NASSAU COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE WHERE I FIND NOT TOO MANY IMAGES OF ONCE A CIVIL DEFENSE STRONGHOLD BUT HAVE FOUND EARLY CIVIL DEFENSE MOVIES CIRCA 1950s TO BE FILMED IN THIS LONG ISLAND COUNTY JUST OUTSIDE QUEENS AND BROOKLYN COUNTIES OF NYC.

BEING A LITTLE MORE OF A PAMPHLET ITS PICTURES ARE FOUND IN OTHER OCD PUBLICATIONS AND THE BACK COVER INFORMATION ON AIR RAID WARNINGS SEEMS A LITTLE ODD ENSURING READERS THAT A ENEMY AIR ATTACK RADAR SYSTEM ENSURES THAT A "CODE RED OR CODE WHITE" WILL BE THE REAL THING, I THINK JUST THIS ENSURES THAT THIS WAS A VERY EARLY PRINTING OF NYS OCD MATERIAL,NYS WAS VERY SERIOUS IN REGARDS TO A COMMUNIST ATTACK AND DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN 1950 WHICH CAN BE FOUND IN A POST UNDER "NUCLEAR LEFTOVERS" AND GIVES THE READER THE MINDSET OF THIS PERIOD.

CIVIL DEFENSE NYC

(1951) COLD WAR PROPAGANDA USAF/CIA AMERICAN PSY OP

PROJECT REVERE AMERICAN PSY-OP

MOST AMERICANS DURING THE 1950s WERE PART OF SOME CIA US GOVT. EXPERIMENT  WHETHER THEY WERE LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY WHEN CIA AGENTS TOOK LIGHT BULBS FILLED WITH A COLD VIRUS INTO THE SUBWAY SYSTEM AND SMASHING THEM ON THE TRACK BED TO SEE IF THE SUBWAY COULD MOVE A BIOLOGICAL AGENT FROM STATION TO STATION ON THE DRAFT OF SUBWAY CARS PUSHING AIR THROUGH THE TUNNELS  OR MK ULTRA ,TESTING LSD ON UNSUSPECTING PEOPLE, THE ATOMIC TESTS IN THE PACIFIC THAT PURPOSELY LET FALLOUT FROM TESTS FALL ON THE ISLANDS AROUND THE BLAST, THEN USING THESE VICTIMS FOR RESEARCH DATA FOR 50 YEARS NEVER DISCLOSING THE CAUSE OF CANCERS AND BIRTH DEFECTS THEY SUFFERED AND EVEN THE TESTS AT THE NEVADA TEST SITE WHERE HIGHLY RADIOACTIVE CLOUDS WOULD PASS OVER HIGHLY POPULATED AREAS WHILE THE US GOVT./CDC KEPT RECORDS ON CANCERS AND OTHER DISEASE RELATED TO ATOMIC WEAPONS NEVER FULLY DISCLOSING THE ACTUAL AMOUNT OF CONTAMINATION THAT RAINED DOWN ACROSS THE UNITED STATES,PROJECT REVERE WAS TRYING TO IMPLANT CERTAIN THINGS IN THE SUBCONSCIOUS OF THE CITY'S WERE THESE LEAFLETS DROPPED , HOW COULD THE GOVT. INFLUENCE PEOPLE WITH RUMORS STARTED BY LEAFLETS, THIS IS JUST ONE LITTLE LOOK AT ONE OF THE COUNTLESS EXPERIMENTS AMERICANS WERE SUBJECTED TO DURING THE DARK DAYS OF THE COLD WAR.

Established in 1951, Project Revere - funded by the US Air Force and CIA - was designed to test how the seemingly-humble printed information leaflet, dropped from aircraft, could be used to spark rumours though particular communities. While the lessons of the research would be applied at the font line of the US's Cold War encounters (e.g. Korea), the testing grounds were found much closer to home; within towns and villages in rural Washington State, Idaho and Utah.

Project Revere

Established in 1951, Project Revere was born out of the US government's increasing interest in using communications to promote their policy priorities at home, and overseas, during the Cold War. In an important example of academic-government co-operation, researchers at the University of Washington were enlisted to investigate how the seemingly-humble information pamphlet could be deployed, via air drops, as a ‘flexible weapon’ to spark ‘interpersonal communications’ and spread rumours throughout particular target populations. Financial support was funnelled through the US Air Force, as well as 'cover agencies' linked to the CIA. The research programme, named in recognition of the revolutionary hero, Paul Revere - he of the famous 'ride' between Boston and Lexington - became one of the best funded, but least well known, academic studies conducted in the Cold War United States.

While the testing ground for these aerial experiments was the northwest United States (Washington State, Utah, Idaho), Revere scientists were aware that their work would find particular application in supporting America’s Cold War activities overseas, not least in the Korean peninsula. At the same time, however, the Revere leaflets played on domestic concerns and anxieties over Civil Defence, 'emergency procedures' (in the event of a nuclear attack, for example) and warnings about “enemy bombers”.

THIS INFO IS COURTESY OF 

projectrevere.blogspot.com   WHO ARE INVOLVED IN RESEARCHING THE EFFECT THIS BIT OF PSY OPS HAD ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CHECK OUT THEIR BLOG.

(1966) STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND "THE STRENGTH OF SAC" PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER

SAC-STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND OFFUTT AFB


USAF COMMAND AND CONTROL

AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE CAME INTO EXSISTANCE, THEY HAD SURPLUS PROP DRIVEN AIRCRAFT AND ALOT OF OTHER HAND ME DOWNS BUT THANKS TO MEN LIKE GENERAL CURTIS LEMAY THEY TURNED THE USAF INTO A ONE COHESIVE TEAM ENTRUSTED WITH THE DEFENSE OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES FROM ANY ENEMY RED CHINESE OR COMMUNIST SOVIET UNION,AND THE KEEPER OF THE NUCLEAR GENIE ONLY USED TWICE,THE USAF WAS ENTRUSTED WITH THE TASK OF CARRYING THESE NEW WEAPONS OF WAR DEEP INTO THE ENEMIES HEARTLAND AND DECAPITATING ITS POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERSHIP AND ALSO KEEPING OUR ENEMIES FROM GETTING ANY NUCLEAR DEVICE INTO THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES,THIS NEW MISSION REQUIRED MANY DIFFERENT UNITS FROM THE DISTANT EARLY WARNING RADAR STATIONS, TO THE AIRBORNE ALERT CREWS THAT FLEW MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE COLD WAR 365 DAYS 7 DAYS A WEEK, THE AIR DEFENSE COMMANDS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE NATIONS CITIES WHERE INTERCEPTOR AIRCRAFT IDLED WAITING FOR THE KLAXON TO SCRAMBLE AND INTERCEPT INBOUND ENEMY AIRCRAFT ALSO THE USAF MISSILE CREWS DEEP IN SILOS FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA ON CONSTANT ALERT READY TO SEND THEIR ICBMS AT WHATEVER TARGET OUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF APPROVED AND THE OTHER ANTI AIR CRAFT MISSILE SQUADRONS OUTFITTED WITH THE LATEST MISSILE WITH A NUCLEAR WARHEAD, THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE USAF TURNED A BUNCH OF SURPLUS BASES AND AIRCRAFT INTO PERHAPS THE WORLDS TIGHTEST AND DEDICATED BRANCH OF THE ARMED FORCES DURING THE COLD WAR WITH THE MOTTO "PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER" THE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND CONTROLLED THIS NUCLEAR FORCE AND NEVER HAD AN ACCIDENTAL NUCLEAR EXPLOSION EVEN WITH MOST USAF AIRCRAFT CARRYING SOMETYPE OF NUCLEAR ROCKET OR BOMB.THERE WERE ACCIDENTS BUT NEVER A BROKEN ARROW TYPE EVENT ,THE FOLLOWING FILM WHICH WAS POSTED AWHILE BACK IS BEING SHOWN IN ITS ENTIRE TWO PARTS.

Introduction to SAC

Background

World War II left in its wake a conflict in ideology between the United States and the Soviet Union that quickly escalated into what became known as the “Cold War.”  Toward deterring aggression, the U. S. built a vast nuclear arsenal, most of it under the control of the Strategic Air Command.  The Soviet premier banged his shoe on the United Nation’s podium and screamed wildly at the American ambassador, “We will bury you.”  SAC had over a thousand jet bombers that dared them to try.  Tensions peaked in October, 1963 when the Soviets placed nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba and aimed them at the United States.  Leaders of the two nations pushed “brinkmanship” to the limit and brought the world perilously close to nuclear holocaust. Years later, scientists discovered that a greenhouse effect would have resulted from such a confrontation.  A carpet of ash and debris would have orbited the globe and blocked out sunlight.  All plants would have died and this cataclysmic disruption of the food chain would have eventually destroyed all life on earth.      Throughout this chaos, America’s nuclear armada was on a hair trigger.  SAC represented that its complex command and control technology precluded the possibility of an accidental nuclear war.  SAC said it was Fail Safe.  That just wasn’t true.  There was always the threat of an electronic or mechanical malfunction and the ever-present risk that the unrelenting pressure would cause someone to panic and “push the button.”      During the 1970’s, tensions eased and both sides began a process of gradual disarmament. The next decade saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.  SAC dismantled many of it’s missiles.  Almost all of it’s bombers were placed in storage or scrapped for their metal.  One-by-one, it’s bases were closed.  In 1992, the Strategic Air Command was officially disbanded.  It was the end of an era.  Today the SAC museum maintains, “The Cold War didn’t just end … it was won.”  For forty years SAC’s motto proclaimed, “Peace is Our Profession.”  It had fulfilled that mission   Our planet survived the most trying moments of it’s nuclear age and without question it was the single greatest threat that mankind has ever experienced.

OUTSIDE THE SAC HQ IN OFFUTT NEBRASKA "PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION" MISSING IS BUT WAR IS OUR TRADE"

SAC OMAHA NEBRASKA OFFUTT AFB THE NUCLEAR WARRIORS VALLHALLA

REFUELING THE STRATEGIC AIR ARM OF SAC THE B-52 LONG RANGE BOMBER STILL IN SERVICE ALMOST 60 YRS LATER WITH NO END IN SIGHT, IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT!

OUT ON THE WINDSWEPT PLAINS STAND THE USAF NUCLEAR INTERCONTINENTAL MISSILE SILOS AND LAUNCH CONTROL

THIS AIRCREW SCRAMBLES INTO THEIR B-47 STRATOJET BOMBER NOT KNOWING IF THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A LONG TRIP INTO THE SOVIET UNION

THE RED PHONE HOTLINE IN THE SAC WAR ROOM THE PHONE IS PART MYTH AND PART TRUTH AND NOBODYS TELLING,

THE MOVIE THAT SURPRISED THE HELL OUT OF THE PENTAGON FOR ITS ALMOST REAL LIFE DEPICTION OF HOW SAC BOMBERS AND PROTOCOLS WORKED "DR STRANGELOVE" (here slim pickens go over the war orders for the plane war plan R "

THE WAR OR SITUATION ROOM WHERE UP TO THE MINUTE CONDITIONS ARE MONITORED WORLDWIDE

OVERSEAS BASE IN MOROCCO WHERE A WING OF USAF B-47s SIT ON ALERT WITH REFUELING AIRCRAFT

NEACP PRONOUNCED "KNEECAP" WAS THE ALWAYS AIRBORNE BEFORE ONE COULD LAND ANOTHER WOULD NEED TO BE AIRBORNE THIS WAS TO ENSURE THAT IF A SURPRISE NUCLEAR STRIKE HIT ALL COMMAND CENTERS ONE WOULD ALWAYS BE ABLE TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE NUCLEAR FORCE THE "NATIONAL EMERGENCY AIRBORNE COMMAND POST" FLEW THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE COLD WAR    EVERY DAY NIGHT ,HOLIDAY, NEACP WOULD BE MONITORING WORLD SITUATIONS WITH ITS BATTLE STAFF OF GENERAL AND OTHER HIGH ECHELON USAF MEMBERS THE OTHER BRANCHES OF THE ARMED SERVICES WITH NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES ALSO MAINTAINED AIRBORNE CPs THE US NAVY HAD "TACAMO" "TAKE CHARGE AND MOVE OUT" TO KEEP A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL OPEN WITH THEIR MISSILE SUBMARINES, EVEN TODAY AIRBORNE CP'S STILL FLY. 
(HERES A LITTLE MORE ON LOOKING GLASS)
THIS LINK HAS A LOT MORE ON SAC SO PLEASE VISIT IT BY CLICKING THE VIDEO BELOW AND RETURN WHEN FINISHED EVERYTHING THAT 
nebrasakastudies.org 
HAS ON THEIR SITE WE ALSO HAVE AND SHARE THE SAME INTEREST IN COLD WAR HISTORY

Flying with the A-Bomb on Board: "Looking Glass"

During the Cold War, military planners assumed that the Soviet Union might start a nuclear war at any time. Initially, the attack would have come from bombers flying over the North Pole, which is the shortest route between Russia and the U.S. SAC built a string of radar stations across Alaska, Canada and Scotland to provide about one hour of warning. Then ICBMs — Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles that could fly from continent to continent in minutes — were developed, and they dropped the warning time to 15 minutes.  One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft. NET went along on one of their last missions. See that video segment here.  Planners had to prepare for the possibility that a nuclear bomb could destroy the underground SAC command center at Offutt with a direct hit. If that happened, the President could not command the thousands of bombers and missiles in SAC's arsenal. So, SAC developed a way to mirror all of the command and communication functions of the underground center in an airplane. Throughout the Cold War, one of the command planes was in the air at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. SAC began this mission in 1961, and it was nicknamed "Looking Glass" because the plane mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications systems. From 1961 through 1990, a Looking Glass aircraft, with a full crew of 24, was in the air at all times. Then, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and tough economic times in the U.S., the Looking Glass system was changed. Instead of having several planes fully manned and one plane in the air at all times, now there are fewer planes and the planes are on alert, ready to fly but not necessarily in the air all the time. The actual plane itself and its equipment has been updated. The old plane was a EC-135 and models served for over 29 years. The new plane is a Navy E-6B. Based on the Boeing 707, the new plane can communicate with the President, underground missile silos, bomber crews, landing fields and even submarines under water. It has a crew of at least 15 and is ready to fly at a moment's notice.

 Flying with the A-Bomb on Board:
"Looking Glass"

During the Cold War, military planners assumed that the Soviet Union might start a nuclear war at any time. Initially, the attack would have come from bombers flying over the North Pole, which is the shortest route between Russia and the U.S. SAC built a string of radar stations across Alaska, Canada and Scotland to provide about one hour of warning. Then ICBMs — Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles that could fly from continent to continent in minutes — were developed, and they dropped the warning time to 15 minutes.  One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft. NET went along on one of their last missions. See that video segment here.  Planners had to prepare for the possibility that a nuclear bomb could destroy the underground SAC command center at Offutt with a direct hit. If that happened, the President could not command the thousands of bombers and missiles in SAC's arsenal. So, SAC developed a way to mirror all of the command and communication functions of the underground center in an airplane. Throughout the Cold War, one of the command planes was in the air at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. SAC began this mission in 1961, and it was nicknamed "Looking Glass" because the plane mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications systems. From 1961 through 1990, a Looking Glass aircraft, with a full crew of 24, was in the air at all times. Then, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and tough economic times in the U.S., the Looking Glass system was changed. Instead of having several planes fully manned and one plane in the air at all times, now there are fewer planes and the planes are on alert, ready to fly but not necessarily in the air all the time. The actual plane itself and its equipment has been updated. The old plane was a EC-135 and models served for over 29 years. The new plane is a Navy E-6B. Based on the Boeing 707, the new plane can communicate with the President, underground missile silos, bomber crews, landing fields and even submarines under water. It has a crew of at least 15 and is ready to fly at a moment's notice.

During the Cold War, military planners assumed that the Soviet Union might start a nuclear war at any time. Initially, the attack would have come from bombers flying over the North Pole, which is the shortest route between Russia and the U.S. SAC built a string of radar stations across Alaska, Canada and Scotland to provide about one hour of warning. Then ICBMs — Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles that could fly from continent to continent in minutes — were developed, and they dropped the warning time to 15 minutes. 

One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft. NET went along on one of their last missions. See that video segment here.

Planners had to prepare for the possibility that a nuclear bomb could destroy the underground SAC command center at Offutt with a direct hit. If that happened, the President could not command the thousands of bombers and missiles in SAC's arsenal. So, SAC developed a way to mirror all of the command and communication functions of the underground center in an airplane. Throughout the Cold War, one of the command planes was in the air at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year.

SAC began this mission in 1961, and it was nicknamed "Looking Glass" because the plane mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications systems. From 1961 through 1990, a Looking Glass aircraft, with a full crew of 24, was in the air at all times. Then, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and tough economic times in the U.S., the Looking Glass system was changed.

Instead of having several planes fully manned and one plane in the air at all times, now there are fewer planes and the planes are on alert, ready to fly but not necessarily in the air all the time. The actual plane itself and its equipment has been updated. The old plane was a EC-135 and models served for over 29 years. The new plane is a Navy E-6B. Based on the Boeing 707, the new plane can communicate with the President, underground missile silos, bomber crews, landing fields and even submarines under water. It has a crew of at least 15 and is ready to fly at a moment's notice.

One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not
to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft.
NET went along on one of their last missions.
See that video segment here. 

GENERAL CURTIS LEMAY USAF FATHER OF THE JET AGE AND NUCLEAR AIR FORCE  AND A WORLD WAR 2 BOMBER PILOT FAMOUS FOR HIS  FIRESTORM TACTIC USED ON TOKYO

General LeMay & Bomber Deterrence

When Gen. Curtis E. LeMay became commander of the Strategic Air Command in 1948 he was appalled at the lack of professionalism in his bomber crews. LeMay rebuilt SAC and, in the process, presided over a huge change in the life of Omaha and Bellevue.

Gen. Curtis LeMay in an unfamiliar setting, the bridge of a Navy ship, watching one of the early atomic bomb tests that SAC carried out. You can see a history of SAC's deterrence role through the arms race and Cuban missile crisis here. LeMay had been born in Ohio and saw his first plane at the age of four or five. He later said he was excited and ran after it. After graduating from college in 1928 he enrolled in the Army Air Corps. (The separate Air Force was not formed until after WWII.) In the 1930s, he was a decorated navigator and pilot. He took part in the first mass flight of B-17 bombers to South Americans in 1938, and he developed formation techniques that were later adapted to the B-29 Flying Fortresses over the Pacific. At the end of the war, the General made a dramatic return to the United States, piloting a Super Fortress B-29 on a non-stop record flight from Japan to Chicago. When he arrived in the States, he was assigned to the Pentagon as the first Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development. In October, 1947, General LeMay was selected to command the U.S. Air Force in Europe, where he organized air operations for the Berlin Airlift. As the Iron Curtain was descending between East and West Germany, Berlin was left in East Germany. The Soviets wanted to take over the entire city, including the sections of Berlin controlled by America and Britain. The Soviets imposed a blockade on West Berlin, cutting off all land and rail routes into the Western sectors. The Western Allies responded immediately by mounting a tremendous airlift. Under LeMay's direction, C-54 cargo planes that could each carry 10-tons began supplying the city on July 1. By the fall the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day. The airlift went on for 11 months — 213,000 flights the brought in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. The Soviets gave up and opened up the land corridors to the West. Within a year, LeMay was back in the United States to take over of the newly-formed Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base. He was responsible for all of the nation's nuclear bombers and saw that an effective deterrence to the Soviets required a strong, threatening nuclear force. One of his first acts was to order a mock "attack" on Dayton, Ohio. All of the SAC bombers missed their targets — most by a couple of miles or so. LeMay was appalled and began an intense program of training and building up air bases around the country and eventually the world. It worked. Many who served under LeMay remember him as a tough leader who still cared for them deeply. Historian Vladislav Zubok says that Russian leader Joseph Stalin was enormously alarmed at the buildup of SAC: "He [Stalin] had no — had nothing to — had no means to react to it, to deal with this situation. So he came up with desperate countermeasures almost. For instance one of, one of his reactions to that buildup of the SAC forces was to concentrate an enormous armored fist in Eastern Europe and Central Europe. And the idea behind it was — that was when these immense tank armies of, appeared in Central Europe — the idea was, okay, if they want to intimidate us with their, from their air bases, their strike from the air bases, we can intimidate them by our armor groups in Central Europe. If they strike at us, we strike at Western Europe. Of course it was not the same thing, but Stalin could not reach the United States. He was not capable of reaching the United States. No delivery means. Missile designers were still in the very beginning." One of SAC's Boeing B-52 bombers with its full armament. At Offutt, LeMay oversaw the building of over 2,000 family housing units for the increasing numbers of service personnel. He worked closely with Omaha civic leaders to build more housing in the city. His daughter, Jane LeMay Lodge, remembers when they moved to Bellevue (the town closest to Offutt) that it was "a town of 1,500 people. Mission, the main street, was the only paved road in town." Bellevue is now the third largest city in the state, behind Omaha and Lincoln, with 50,000 residents. In nine years as the SAC leader, LeMay built an all-jet bomber force from the remnants of World War II. Under his leadership, plans were laid for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile capability. After SAC, LeMay was Chief of Staff of the Air Force and was involved in the Cuban missile crisis. He retired in 1965. He made a short foray into politics when he ran as a vice presidential candidate with George Wallace. General LeMay passed away on October 1, 1990.

A GREAT SHOT OF A B-47 TAKEOFF USING JATO JET ASSISTED TAKE OFF

HERE A SAC B-52 OUTFITTED "ACM NUCLEAR HOUND DOGS" GETS REFUELED DURING AN EXERCISE

MINUTEMAN MISSILE SILO NOTE THE ELECTRONIC ALARMS AND THE WHITE EMERGENCY ESCAPE HATCH

THE MEN IN THE SILO A QUIET LONELY JOB INTERUPPTED BY MINUTES OF SHEER TERROR AS EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGES COME BLARING IN ANNOUNCING AN ORDER TO LAUNCH UPON CONFIRMATION OF ORDER, SO FAR THEY HAVE ALL BEEN EXERCISES BUT THESE GUYS NEVER KNOW WHAT THE WORLD IS GOING THROUGH MINUTE TO MINUTE

HERE A USAF BASE IS SCRAMBLING THEIR BOMBERS AS CREWS ON ALERT RACE UP IN VEHICLES AND JUMP INTO THEIR IDLING B-52 BOMBER AND GET AIRBORNE IN MINUTES NOTE THE HOUND DOG ACM UNDER THE WINGS (1967) 

TO GUARD OUR NUCLEAR SITES FROM TERRORISTS AND OTHER SABOTAGE THE USAF RED TEAM IS ON HAND ANY TIME ANY NUCLEAR DEVICE IS MOVED OR OPENED FROM THE GUNSHIP IN THE BACKGROUND TO THE ARMOR VEHICLE IN THE FRONT SHOOT FIRST ASK QUESTIONS LATER APPLIES! BEHIND THE ARE OTHER SUPPORT VEHICLES A SPECIAL TRAILER THAT CAN PULL THE MISSILE FROM THE SILO OR PUT IT BACK OTHER VEHICLES ARE ELECTRONIC JAMMING AND SATELLITE LINKED AND ALSO MONITOR FREQUENCIES,HOLD WEAPONS,A COMMAND POST AND ARE EQUIPPED WITH HEAVY CALIBER WEAPONS THIS USAF SPEC OPS FORCE IS NOT SOMETHING THAT IS INTERVIEWED OR PUBLICIZED AND HAS NOT LOST A NUCLEAR WEAPON OR HAD ANY SUCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO ATTACK A MISSILE MOVEMENT

BOSTON FBI HUNT FIFTH COLUMN COMMUNIST ADVANCE INVASION CADRE'S.

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SOVIET SPECIAL FORCES ARE HIDING AMONGST THE PEOPLE OF BOSTON

ADVANCE INVASION TEAMS OF REDS

MARK TARGETS FOR RUSSIAN ATOMIC BOMBERS!

J. EDGAR HOOVER NEEDS BOSTONS HELP!

AMERICA NEEDS BOSTONS HELP!

MANY CIVIL DEFENSE WORKERS WERE IN FACT ANTI COMMUNIST GROUP MEMBERS USING CIVIL DEFENSE AS A SCARE TACTIC HYPING AMEICANS INTO THINKING THAT COMMUNIST CADRES ARE WAITING FOR THE WORD TO START WORLD WAR THREE, HIDING UNTIL THEIR CODE TO ATTACK COMES, THEN THEY WILL SET FIRES TO INDUSTRIAL TARGETS SO SOVIET BOMBERS CARRYING ATOMIC BOMBS CAN USE THESE FIRES TO FIND THEIR AMERICAN TARGETS AS BLACK OUTS AND CONELRAD GO INTO EFFECT, THE FBI BELIEVED THIS AND THOUSANDS WERE ARRESTED FOR ANTI-AMERICAN BEHAVIOR OR AS COMMIE SPYS AND JAILED, CIVIL DEFENSE INFORMATION SUCH AS BELOW SHOWED CITYS PREPARING THEIR CITIZENS IN WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF ATTACK AND THEN THE REST OF THE INFORMATION WAS WHO IS A LOCAL COMMUNIST OR LIST A LARGE BUNCH OF SUSPECTED GROUPS AS ANTI-AMERICAN THAT NEED TO BE WATCHED...CLOSELY

THE CONTENT OF THIS CIVIL DEFENSE BOOKLET HAD "FBI AND SABOTAGE" AND THE OLD FAVORITE"SUBVERSIVE ORGANIZATIONS"

TO KEEP THE INFORMATION FROM LOOKING LIKE A KOOKY ANTI RED GROUP CIVIL DEFENSE SCARES SHOWING SOVIET AIR PIRATES FREELY FLYING OVER THE NORTH POLE TO TARGETS ON THE EASTERN COASTLINE



YOU CAN NOT MAKE BETTER PARANOID PROPAGANDA THAN FBI SPONSORED PROPAGANDA IN THE LIST OF THINGS THE FBI SHOULD BE NOTIFIED FOR "POSSESSION OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL'  "SUSPICIOUS INDIVIDUALS LOITERING NEAR RESTRICTED AREAS" WHAT DOES A SUSPICIOUS INDIVIDUAL LOOK LIKE? MY FAVORITE " ANY SUSPICIOUS PARACHUTE LANDINGS"



THIS WAS NO LAUGHING MATTER BACK THEN PEOPLES LIVES WERE RUINED IN THESE COMMIE WITCH HUNTS, IF YOU READ THE AREA AROUND J EDGAR HOOVER HE WANTS AMERICANS TO GATHER INFORMATION ON THEIR NEIGHBORS HE STATES THE LOCAL "FBI OFFICE PHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS ARE IN THIS BOOKLET" SO PEOPLE ACTUALLY WRONGLY CONFUSED VARIOUS GROUPS AS MEETINGS OF COMMUNISTS,THE LISTS OF GROUPS ARE PRIMARILY BASED ON RACE , NEGRO GROUPS,JEWISH GROUPS,FOREIGN COUNTRY GROUPS,SOMEBODY EVEN SUGGESTED THAT A CHURCH CHOIR HAD COMMUNIST VIBES,LOOK AT THE LIST TODAY WE CAN LAUGH BACK THEN IT WAS NO JOKE,TAKE A GOOD LOOK AT THE GROUPS LISTED DO YOU REALLY THINK THEY WERE SUBVERSIVE?



COMMITTEE OF UNAMERICAN ACTIVITIES LISTED THESE ORGANIZATIONS AS COMMIE LOVING FOLKS! BUT THATS A WHOLE OTHER COLD WAR BALL OF WAX!