FALLOUT SHELTER NYC IS AN ATTEMPT TO FIND AND CENTRALIZE THE ATOMIC HISTORY OF THE NYC AREA AND THE EASTERN SUBURBS OF LONG ISLAND NY AND THE NUCLEAR GENIE THAT BEGGED TO BE LET LOOSE AND ITS ATOMIC MASTERS THE US NUCLEAR FORCES - DECLASSIFIED-DESANITIZED- ARCHIVAL FILM FOOTAGE,PICTURES,STORIES FROM THE COLD WAR TELLING THE STORY OF A WAR THAT WAS ANYTHING BUT COLD-THE CIVIL DEFENSE, THE STRATEGIC DEFENSE ,THE NATIONAL DEFENSE ,THE ARMED DEFENSE ,AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE
THIS SEARCH BOX CAN FIND OLDER BLOG POSTS,LINKS,AND INTERNET INFORMATION
ATTENTION!!!! PLEASE READ BEFORE ENTERING SITE
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ATTENTION!
*** its been brought to my attention that some of the embedded movies are not downloading when opening this blog. There are literally hundreds of embed movies and they are there, So please reload the blog and you will find your movie or picture that did not load, Contact the Fallout Shelter Warden @ falloutshelternyc@gmail.com we are still down here waiting and since TRUMP became POTUS it won't be long....
THE LAYOUT OF THIS BLOG IS ODD , PUNCUATION AND SPELLING HAVE SUFFERED AS MOST OF THIS BLOG WAS DONE ON A TABLET AND CELL PHONE, YOU CAN BE AN ELITIST AND SAY ITS THE WORK OF A CHILD OR YOU CAN ENJOY IT. THE VARIOUS POSTS YOU WILL SEE ARE SEMI PERMANENT, MOSTLY THE FILMS,THE MONTHLY POSTINGS ARE LOCATED MID WAY DOWN AS YOU SCROLL TOWARDS THE BOTTOM, USE THE DIRECTORY OF POSTS TO FIND A PARTICULAR POST AND IT WILL BE FOUND MIDWAY DOWN AS YOU SCROLL DOWN TOWARDS THE PERMANENT DECLASSIFIED ATOMIC FILM COLLECTION. IT IS A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE BUT THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF POSTS ON LOCAL NEW YORK / LONG ISLAND ATOMIC HISTORY LOTS OF ATOMIC AGE ART AND PROPAGANDA, NEVER SEEN ATOMIC KITSCH AND MORE! BE PATIENT, USE THE POST DIRECTORY, SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM TO SEE IT ALL AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED WITH A TRIP UNDERGROUND IN FALLOUT SHELTER NYC , AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS, ENJOY, SHELTER WARDEN0910
FALLOUT SHELTER NYC TABLE OF CONTENTS-CHECK OLD POSTS FOR EXCELLENT IMAGES AND NEVER SEEN ATOMICA!!
THE FALLOUT SHELTER STARTS HERE SIGN IN WITH THE FALLOUT SHELTER OFFICER UPON ARRIVAL
WELCOME- THIS BLOG HAS MANY POSTS THAT CAN BE FOUND ABOVE IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS, I TRY TO ADD THINGS MONTHLY SO ALWAYS CHECK BACK. THE MAIN SECTION OF FALLOUT SHELTER NYC DOES START HERE AND YOU CAN SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE AND FIND DOZENS OF DECLASSIFIED NUCLEAR TEST MOVIES AND CIVIL DEFENSE FEATURES, THERE ARE LOTS OF POSTS TO GO THROUGH AND YOU WILL FIND SOMETHING GUARANTEED THAT WILL HAVE YOU COMING HERE MORE, SO DECONTAMINATE ,FIND YOUR BEDDING AREA AND RECEIVE YOUR SHELTER RATIONS WHO KNOWS HOW LONG YOU WILL BE HERE FOR.
A VERY ARTSY CLIP OF A SIMULATED A BOMB ATTACK ON NYC WITH WARNING BY A MILITARY
RADAR OPERATOR THAT TRACKS THE SOVIET JET CARRYING A NUKE FOR NYC,SHOWS CIVIL DEFENSE RESPONDING TO ASSIGNED POSTS AS A HAUNTING AIR RAID SIREN WAKES MANHATTAN,ANOTHER SCENARIO INVOLVING NYC,AND OUT OF ALL THE MOVIES THAT SHOW A SIMULATED ATOMIC ATTACK OR A PICTURE OR WRITTEN WORD NYC IS THE TARGET CITY IN AT LEAST 75% MAYBE MORE......
THE LETTER THAT THE NYC APARTMENT DWELLER GOT INVITING THEM TO THEIR OWN PERSONAL FEW FEET OF UNVENTILATED FLOOR SPACE. LOCATION, THE BASEMENT OF HOPEFULLY THEIR OWN BUILDINGS BOILER ROOM. 60 PLUS ATTENDING PLUS THE CRAZY LADY FROM 3G AND THE LADY NEXT DOOR WITH THE 5 KIDS AND NEWBORN. WELCOME NYC CITIZEN TO THE URBAN NYC PUBLIC FALLOUT SHELTER SYSTEM.* COMPLIMENTARY CRACKERS MAY OR MAY NOT BE INCLUDED*
In 1954, the United States Federal Civil Defense Agency instituted an exercise called Operation Alert. It was a civil defense drill that took place on the same day in scores of major cities. Citizens in what were called the "target" areas were required to take cover for fifteen minutes. At the same time civil defense officials tested their readiness and their communications systems, and federal officials practiced evacuating from the capital. Even President Eisenhower left the White House for a tent city outside Washington. The following day newspapers routinely published reports of the fictitious attacks naming the number of bombs that were dropped in the mock alerts, the number of cities hit, and the number of casualties.
In 1955, New York State made the failure to take cover during an Operation Alert exercise punishable with a fine of up to $500 and a year in jail. A small group of pacifists that included Catholic Worker Dorothy Day reacted to this law by staging a protest in Manhattan's City Hall Park. When the air raid sirens sounded, on June 15, 1955, the 27 protesters sat on park benches, surrounded by reporters. They explained that they were protesting the government's pretense that citizens could be protected in the event of a full-scale nuclear attack. The protesters were arrested and given suspended sentences.
The pacifists held similar protests every year. But it wasn't until a group of young mothers organized a much larger-scale demonstration in 1960 that the rest of New York took notice. The women managed to draw hundreds of protesters, including celebrities like Norman Mailer, to City Hall Park on May 3, the day of the 1960 Operation Alert. The organizers appealed to the political center; encouraged protesters to dress in their best clothes and to bring their children; and claimed to represent just one belief: "Peace is the only defense against nuclear war."
There was one more Operation Alert in 1961. The young mothers managed to bring together two-and-a-half-thousand protesters. That year civil defense protests also took place in other states, and hundreds of college students staged demonstrations on several East Coast campuses. In 1962 Operation Alert was permanently canceled.
ABOVE THE US GOVERNMENT IN TRANSIT HOLD MOCK SENATE AND CONGRESSIONAL MEETINGS AND MEETINGS WITH THE PRESIDENT OR VICE PRESIDENT,BOTH PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT COULD NOT BE NEAR EACH OTHER TO ENSURE CONTINUITY OF GOVERNMENT AND TO ENSURE ONE WOULD SURVIVE A ATOMIC ATTACK AND BE ABLE TO FIGHT A WAR AND ISSUE CODES AND ORDERS TO THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF AND LAUNCH BOMBERS, MISSILES, AGAINST THE ATTACKING COUNTRY (SOVIET UNION) THE GOVERNMENT IN TRANSIT ALSO HAD EVERY BRANCH AND DEPARTMENT PRESENT TO ALSO ENSURE POST ATTACK RECOVERY THE PEOPLE THAT WOULD GET FOOD AND HELP TO SURVIVORS AND TO START A POST WAR ECONOMY (THE REALLY BELIEVED IT POSSIBLE WHEN WE CANT DO THIS WITHOUT A WAR) EVERYBODY WAS PRESENT TO GET THE UNITED STATES UP AND RUNNING POST ATOMIC ATTACK EVEN THE POSTAL SYSTEM THIS WAS ALL IN THEORY.
ABOVE IS ONE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN TRANSIT DEPARTMENTS SET UP IN A KOREAN WAR SURPLUS MAYBE EVEN WORLD WAR TWO TENT, THE US GOVERNMENT AT THE TIME WAS VERY BUSY BUILDING ELABORATE BUNKERS AROUND THE UNITED STATES LIKE THE GREENBRIAR, RAVEN ROCK, MOUNT WEATHER , AND OTHER COVERT PLACES TO HOST THE CONGRESS OR SENATE OR PRESIDENT OR VICE PRESIDENT EACH WITH A HAND SELECTED ADMINISTRATION THOSE PICKED WERE ISSUED CARDS THAT STATED THE BEARER WAS TO BE ALLOWED UNRESTRICTED MOVEMENT AND HELP IF REQUESTED DUE TO ESSENTIAL GOVERNMENT DUTIES. THESE MEN AND WOMEN WOULD HAVE TO LEAVE BEHIND FAMILIES TO BE INCINERATED BY THE COMING ATTACK, I DON'T THINK THEY REALLY EVER KNEW WHO WOULD BE ABLE TO DO THIS AND WOULD STAY BEHIND.DURING THE OPERATION ALERT YEARS A MEDIA SESSION WOULD BE SET UP SHOWING THE PRESIDENT LEAVING VIA HELICOPTER TO GO TO HIS HIDDEN SHELTER AND OTHER MEDIA SHOWED DOZENS OF HELICOPTERS FERRYING ESSENTIAL MILITARY PERSONNEL FROM THE PENTAGON LAWN AS OTHER LESS FORTUNATE POLITICIANS EVEN THE VICE PRESIDENT SHELTERING IN BUNKERS UNDER THE WHITE HOUSE OR ON LOCAL MILITARY BASES. BELOW 2 PICTURES SHOW FIRST WHAT LOOKS LIKE FDNY? GO OVER A NEW CHRYSLER LIBERTY BELL VICTORY SIREN A LATE 1950s SIREN AND BELOW THIS PICTURE OFFICIALS GATHER ON A NYC ROOFTOP TO KICK OFF PROBABLY ONE OF THE FIRST OP ALERTS IN THE EARLY 1950s BOTH PICTURES SHOW THE SAME ROOFTOP EDGE GUARDS AND COULD BE THE SAME ROOFTOP WITH DIFFERENT SIRENS THE FIRST PICTURE SHOWS THE CHRYSLER SIREN WHAT PROBABLY HAS A BIG SIX CYLINDER CAR OR TRUCK ENGINE PUSHING THE BLOWER IN THAT SIREN AND IT PROBABLY NO I'D SAY DEFINITELY MADE A HELL OF A NOISE THE EARLIER PHOTO BELOW THE FIRST MAY BE A SURPLUS WORLD WAR TWO SIREN IF ANY SIREN EXPERTS KNOW PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
BELOW A NYC METROPOLITAN BUS HANDBILL INSTRUCTING PASSENGERS WHAT TO DO IF THE ALERT BEGINS AND THEY ARE ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
(BELOW )NYPD KEEP WATCH NEAR NYC TRANSIT BUSES THAT PULLED OVER WHEN THE ALERT STARTED FORCING THE RIDERS IN TO SHELTERS.
(BELOW) THOSE FORCED FROM THE STREETS OR WERE IN PLACES WORKING OR SHOPPING MAKE THEIR WAY INTO THE BASEMENT SHELTER OF WHAT LOOKS LIKE A LARGE BUILDING'S BASEMENT SHELTER, AND THAT IS ALL THEY WERE ,NOT STOCKED OR ASSESSED A PROTECTIVE FACTOR AGAINST RADIATION. THESE SHELTERS WERE NOT SET UP FOR LONG TERM OR EVEN SHORT TERM STAYS UNLESS A BUILDING OR STORE OWNER STOCKED IT WITH SUPPLIES ON THEIR OWN DOLLAR, THE NATIONAL FALLOUT SHELTER PROGRAM STARTED IN 1961 AND MARKED SHELTER LOCATIONS WITH THE ALL FAMILIAR BLACK AND ORANGE/YELLOW SIGNS WITH THREE DOWNWARD TRIANGLES , THESE LOCATIONS WERE ASSESSED A PF AGAINST RADIATION AND HAD WATER AND VARIOUS RATIONS TO OFFER SHELTER INHABITANTS POSSIBLY A WEEKS WORTH OF SUPPLIES WITH SOME SHELTERS STOCKED WITH RADIOLOGICAL MEASURING GEAR.(*note this photo appears in another post about los angeles civil defense drills and was mistakenly identified as a california picture)
ABOVE NEW YORKERS AWAIT THE ALL CLEAR IN ONE OF NEW YORKS MANY SUBWAY STATIONS BY VOLUNTEER CIVIL DEFENSE WORKERS, NYC AND NEW YORK STATE REALLY GOT BEHIND THE WHOLE CIVIL DEFENSE PROGRAM MAYOR LaGUARDIA AND WAGNER AND NYS GOV. ROCKEFELLER WERE VERY PRO CIVIL DEFENSE AND ADVOCATED AND ALLOCATED FUNDING FOR MANY CIVIL DEFENSE PROGRAMS ,EQUIPMENT, EDUCATION, AND SET UP A WORKING VOLUNTEER CIVIL DEFENSE ORGANIZATION,
ABOVE A NYPD OFFICER STANDS A SOLITARY WATCH WAITING FOR THE ALL CLEAR SIREN TO SOUND, TO SEE AND HEAR VIDEO OF THE AIR RAID SIRENS SOUNDING THROUGH THE EMPTY NYC STREETS IS A VERY EERIE SOUND AND IMAGE.
ABOVE A PEDESTRIAN RUNS FOR IT AS THE AIR RAID SIREN IS BLARING SIGNALING HE NEEDS TO TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY! CARS ARE HAPHAZARDLY PULLED OVER AND THEIR OCCUPANTS ARE ALREADY IN PUBLIC SHELTERS TAKING COVER, ALL UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYES OF NYPD. OPERATION ALERT 1954-1956 NEW YORK CITY NEWSREELS THE NEWSREELS BELOW ARE OF VARIOUS OPERATION ALERT DRILLS NATIONAL ATOMIC ATTACK MANDATORY DRILLS THAT OCCURED IN THE MID 1950s MORE OF THESE LOST FILMS OF A VERY DIFFERENT NYC ARE BEING RESTORED AND RELEASED ALTHOUGH THESE DRILLS WERE WIDELY THOUGHT OF AS A PAIN IN THE ASS IT IS EERIE TO SEE TIMES SQUARE EMPTY OF PEOPLE AND TRAFFIC OR TO SEE NEW YORKERS WAITING IN SUBWAY ENTRANCES FOR THE ALL CLEAR. THE BLOG HAS FILM OF A ATTACK DRILL IN NYC WITH AIR RAID SIRENS HOWLING THROUGH THE CANYONS OF NYC ONLY A FEW POSTS BACK SO CHECK IT OUT!
(BELOW)BEFORE FALLOUT SHELTER SIGNS THIS WAS THE PUBLIC SHELTER SIGN SOME REMAIN AROUND NYC TO THIS DAY
THE MOCK NATIONAL ATTACK THAT OCCURED IN 1956 WITH MORE NYC FOOTAGE THAN OTHER FEATURED NEWSCLIPS, SHOWS UPTOWN (42nd street? )SUBWAY STOP ,NEW YORKERS BEING RUSHED INTO SHELTERS BY NYPD .AND AT THE END OF THE NEWSREEL NO OTHER CITY WAS GIVEN A "MOCK" DEATH TOLL EXCEPT NYC ! CHECK IT OUT FOR THE MOCK AMOUNT OF VAPORIZED NYC RESIDENTS, THESE DRILLS WERE QUITE COMMON IN THE 1950s AND EVEN THEN NYC HAD ITS SHARE OF INDIVIDUAL THINKERS WHO PROTESTED THESE EXERCISES, ALSO NYC WAS AND STILL IS THE CITY USED FOR RUSSIANS TO ATTACK AND BOMB IN THESE DRILLS AND IS USED IN FILMS, AND OTHER CIVIL DEFENSE PROPAGANDA ALSO HOLLYWOOD FILMS, BUT IT WOULD TAKE MORE THAN A NUCLEAR ATTACK TO SLOW DOWN THE AVERAGE NEW YORKER!
LOOK FOR OTHER POSTS ON THIS BLOG THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER FOOTAGE,PICTURES,ETC OF THESE COLD WAR DRILLS. CHECK EM OUT!
(BELOW)IT JUST WOULDN'T BE NYC UNLESS SOMEONE WAS PROTESTING THIS ATTACK DRILL , EVEN THOUGH THE U.S. WAS VERY ANTI - COMMUNIST AND MOST SUPPPORTED THESE DRILLS A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE DECIDED TO BOYCOTT AND DEMONSTRATE DURING THE DRILL AND WERE PROMPTLY ARRESTED
BELOW OPERATION 1955 IS THE FIRST NEWSREEL FOLLOWED BY OPERATION ALERT 1956 WITH NYCs DEATH TOLL
BELOW IS THE ACTUAL NYC CONELRAD RADIO BROADCAST HEARD IN NEW YORK CITY DURING OPERATION ALERT DRILL TELLING LISTENERS TO TURN THEIR RADIOS TO 640 AND 1240 ON THEIR RADIOS MAYOR WAGNER GIVES IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON HOW TO SURVIVE A ATOMIC ATTACK AS WELL AS CITYWIDE UPDATES FROM CIVIL DEFENSE POSTS A VERY RARE RECORDING FROM CONELRAD.COM
TIMES SQUARE NYC EMPTY DURING A UNKNOWN OPERATION ALERT DRILL WITH CIVIL DEFENSE WARDEN STANDING WATCH
HERE WE SEE NEW YORK CITY'S TIMES SQUARE DURING A BUSINESS DAY THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE THAT PARTICIPATED IN THESE DRILLS WAS IN THE THOUSANDS HUNDREDS OF. I CANNOT IMAGINE HOW NEW YORK CITY WOULD OF FARED IN A REAL ATTACK FAST FORWARD TO THE 60S AND ON THERE WOULD BE NO TIMELY WARNING AVAILABLE AND IT WOULD ALMOST MAKE THINGS WORSE TO EVEN WARN PEOPLE TO SEEK SHELTER WITH A FEW MINUTES WARNING IN THE AGE OF MISSILES LAUNCHED VIA SUBMARINES.
ALONG WITH VARIOUS PROTESTS A PRIEST STANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF MANHATTANS USUALLY BUSY AVENUES AND PRAYS FOR PEACE ALONE
NYC SCHOOLCHILDREN WERE NOT IMMUNE FROM THEIR MANDATORY 15 MINUTES OF OPERATION ALERT TIME ALTHOUGH I NEVER PARTICIPATED IN OPERATION ALERT THIS DUCK AND COVER EXERCISE WAS PRACTICED DURING MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DAYS WAY INTO THE 1970s AND SOME SCHOOLS 1980s 1950s CHILDREN HAD DISCUSSIONS ON WHAT TO DO IF A HYDROGEN BOMB WAS DROPPED, MY ERA THEY NEVER EXPLAINED ANYTHING IT WAS A TONE THAT CAME THROUGH THE SCHOOL P.A. AND A NERVOUS TEACHER WOULD CLOSE THE BLINDS AND SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS AND TELL US TO COVER OUR FACES UNDER OUR DESKS FACING AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS, THEY NEVER EXPLAINED WHY OR WHAT WE WERE DOING, NUCLEAR ATTACK STAYED A TABOO SUBJECT WITH CHILDREN IN TO THE 1980s WHEN THE TV MOVIE "THE DAY AFTER " THE STORY OF A NUCLEAR ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES AS SEEN BY THE RESIDENTS OF LAWRENCE ,KANSAS TV GUIDE AND CHILD PSYCHOLOGISTS AS WELL AS EDUCATORS WARNED PARENTS NOT TO ALLOW THEIR CHILDREN TO WATCH THE MADE FOR TV MOVIE.
IN THE END CIVIL DEFENSE ONCE A VERY BACKED PLAN FROM MAYOR TO GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK WAS ABANDONED IN PLACE BY THE MAYORS OF THE LATE 1960S - 1980S THE THOUGHT OF NEW YORKERS RUSHING IN PANIC THRU STREETS ALREADY CONGESTED TO FIND REFUGE UNDER A 60 FLOOR BUILDING THAT IN ALL LIKELIHOOD WOULD WIND UP IN A 60 FLOOR DEBRIS PILE DOOMING THOSE IN THE SHELTER TO BE ENTOMBED AND IF THAT DID NOT FINISH US OFF FIRESTORMS CREATED FROM THE TARGET PACKAGE THAT THE SOVIETS HAVE PLANNED FOR THE TRI STATE NEW YORK AREA WOULD NOT ALLOW A LIVING THING TO SURVIVE FOR HUNDREDS OF MILES AROUND THE POPULATED AND MANUFACTURING AREAS OF METROPOLITAN NYC, IN ONE TARGET PACKAGE I SAW NYC RECIEVED NO LESS THAN 8 PROBABLY 20 MEGATON WARHEADS LONG ISLAND WAS COVERED ALL THE WAY TO THE TWIN FORKS NEW JERSEY EVERY INDUSTRIAL AREA AND INFRASTRUCTURE WAS TARGETED FROM NORTHERN TO SOUTHERN N.J. SAME AS CONNECTICUT ESPECIALLY AROUND THE US NAVY SUBMARINE BASE AT GROTON, AND EVEN IF THAT DID NOT HAPPEN THE TARGET PLAN FOR WASHINGTON D.C. WOULD HAVE SUCH A LETHAL RADIATION DOSE THAT WOULD FOLLOW THE WINDS UP THE COAST TO NYC AND THAT WOULD BE THE END OF LIFE. THE MORE INFORMATION NYC MAYORS GOT ABOUT THE REALITIES IT SEEMED A WORTHLESS EXPENDITURE. NYC WAS ALMOST BANKRUPT IN 1975 WHEN FORD TOLD THE CITY TO DROP DEAD, ITS INFRASTRUCTURE WAS FALLING APART CIVIL DEFENSE WAS THE LAST THING ON THEIR MIND, SO THE SHELTERS WERE ABANDONED IN PLACE WITH LANDLORDS THROWING OUT RATIONS IN THE GARBAGE FOR THE LAST 40 YEARS, BUT THE ONE THING THAT WILL LAST AND PROBABLE OUTLAST US IS THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FALLOUT SHELTER SIGNS THAT ARE TACKED ON BUILDINGS THROUGHOUT NYC AND NOBODY HAS REMOVED THEM SO THEY WILL BE THERE FOR YEARS TO COME.
Despite this film being a us government production and done in cartoon as to prolong its shelf life so its not easy to date it is in fact one of the scariest information films i have seen. This would be played across the United States during International crisis or if a Nuclear Attack was imminent the basic information accompanied by the sound effects and the matter of fact way its presented is scary. This is the best our Government could come up with as the cold war was entering a dangerous time in our history. The Reagan years when more chances of Nuclear War happened than under any other president and Reagan provoked Russia with his SDI program and Bombers and by calling the Soviets the evil empire along with his radio gaffe among lots of things. this DCPA film should be watched as it closed the era of Civil Defense since most americans abandoned community shelter plans and Civil Defense groups during this period as FEMA stepped in and took the reins got rid of the familiar "CD" logo and name and concentrated on natural disaster or Human error even going as far as removing the course offered by their EMI program "Nuclear Attack" . We all got to see FEMA and their new upgraded form of Civil Defense during Hurricane Katrina thats is scary had they left Civil Defense in place New Orleans might have been spared the hell they went through. Imagine a Nuclear Attack occurs in this day and age after FEMAs great response to a Hurricane? God Help Us All... Enjoy the last of the Civil Defense era propaganda films and be thankful we haven't been attacked.
The script for Protection in the Nuclear Age is both tragic and comic. Above all, the picture portrayed of nuclear war is catastrophically misleading to the American public, because it offers a best case scenario as the only case. The film is a prime example of overly optimistic estimates of survivability in a nuclear war.
-- Gary L. Guertner, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 1980
One might assume that the last major movie produced for the U.S. government on the topic of surviving a nuclear war would be more realistic than one made in 1951 – an era before intercontinental ballistic missiles. Surprisingly, this is not the case. CONELRAD recently acquired a copy of Protection in the Nuclear Age, a 16mm motion picture produced in 1978 by Trio Productions, Inc. for the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (the DCPA was one of the many successor organizations to the FCDA). It is, if anything, even more misleading than the first generation of official survival movies.
Like Survival Under an Atomic Attack before it,Protection in the Nuclear Age began life as a government pamphlet. The 68-page booklet, published by the Government Printing Office in 1977, takes the reader on a heavily illustrated journey to a place called hope. Some of the helpful information imparted includes the following:
A twenty-five megaton nuclear blast is substantially worse than a one megaton explosion…
A cabin cruiser is a perfectly acceptable fallout shelter…
Don’t bring guns, booze or drugs to your civil defense relocation area…
Know where your public shelter is…
Don’t use the telephone during an attack!
The pamphlet does not concern itself with what life might be like after the nuclear war. Like a fine novel, it leaves the reader with something to ponder. Actually, the booklet ends rather abruptly—not with a closing dose of optimism, but with a page declaring that radiation sickness is not contagious.
The 23-minute movie adaptation of Protection in the Nuclear Age is an understated affair. Its narrator dispenses the “facts” of attack and survival in a subdued monotone that is complimented by a very minimalist music score. By contrast, Survival Under an Atomic Attackbegins with the booming voice of Edward R. Murrow and music from what sounds like a World War II movie.
Certain segments of the animated Protection in the Nuclear Age are acted out by stick figures. In the early 1980s, an employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA is the agency that replaced DCPA in 1979) explained to author Edward Zuckerman that the decision to forgo live action was made, in part, to prolong the shelf-life of the film. Zuckerman quotes the spokesperson in his essential 1984 book, The Day After World War III, as saying simply: “Stick figures don’t get obsolete as fashion changes.”
Protection in the Nuclear Age begins with a view of the planet earth from space. The narrator intones:
“We live in a world of tension and conflict. And peace, even where it does exist, does so without guarantees for tomorrow. We must therefore face the hard reality that someday a nuclear attack against the United States might occur. And—equally important—we must also realize that horrifying as that prospect may seem, destructive as such an attack might be, we can survive. It would not mean the end of the world, the end of our nation. And you can greatly improve your chances of survival if you’ll remember these facts—about Protection in the Nuclear Age.”
Oddly enough, this introduction echoes the words scripted for Mr. Murrow more than a quarter century earlier for Survival Under an Atomic Attack:
“Let us face without panic, the reality of our time: The fact that atom bombs may someday be dropped on our cities. And let us prepare for survival by understanding the weapon that threatens us.”
Protection addresses many of the same points as its source material does, but for some reason, does not include a scene with stick figures seeking refuge from the A-bomb on a boat. It does, however, show plenty of them rushing into a public shelter marked with the familiar black and yellow sign. Left unsaid is that, while many of these shelters remain marked, they were last stocked in the 1960s.
The biggest howler in the film comes during a recitation of a government assessment of the worst case scenario of a nuclear war:
“Defense Department studies show that even under the heaviest possible attack, less than five percent of our entire land mass would be affected by blast and heat from nuclear weapons. Of course, that five percent contains a large percentage of our population. But, even in these high risk areas, if there’s sufficient time to permit evacuation, many millions of lives could be saved. The other ninety-five percent of our land would escape untouched. Except possibly by radioactive fallout.”
The movie ends as it began with words of encouragement delivered as the earth is seen from space:
“The greatest danger is hopelessness, the fear that nuclear attack would mean the end of our world. So why not just give up, lie down and die? That idea could bring senseless and useless death to many, for protection is possible. And your own chances of survival will be much greater if you remember these facts about Protection in the Nuclear Age.”
In a strange subtextual reminder that the government is looking after the viewer like some sort of guardian angel, the animated globe morphs into the DCPA seal as the narration comes to an end.
The thing that makes Protection in the Nuclear Age somewhat unsettling is that, according to Zuckerman, it was the “last movie” many Americans might have seen if the Cold War had not ended peacefully. During the course of his research for The Day After World War III, the author learned that copies of the filmhad been distributed to civil defense field offices and that some of these prints had, in turn, been given to local television stations. FEMA had also distributed fifteen informational articles to local civil defense officials to provide to local newspapers in the event of an escalating international crisis. In his book, Zuckerman captures the government’s intended strategy:
“The newspaper articles would be supplemented by the twenty-five-minute television film [Protection in the Nuclear Age]…” FEMA has explained. “The cost of such materials is very low, and we estimate that the emergency newspaper articles and television films could add survivors amounting to perhaps eight to twelve percent of the U.S. population.”
Thankfully, there never came a time whenProtection in the Nuclear Age needed to be broadcast. It gathered dust on the shelves of television tape libraries. The only evidence that CONELRAD could find of the movie ever being publicly screened is from an item in the October 4, 1979 edition of the Iowa Democrat newspaper. The article mentions that it was to be shown at an open meeting of the Emmelsburg Junior Civil Defense group, The Pacers.
Now, while we wait to see what the A/V specialists at the Department of Homeland Security come up with, we can sit back and watch Protection in the Nuclear Age .
THANK YOU TO CONELRAD ADJECENT FOR THE FILM HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION CHECK OUT THEIR MAIN SITE CONELRAD.COM FOR EVERYTHING ON ATOMIC AND CIVIL DEFENSE HISTORY AND EVERYTHING ELSE PROBABLY THE FIRST WEBSITE DEALING WITH THIS GREAT HISTORY AND THEIR LOVE OF IT HAS HAD THEM UNCOVER LOTS OF MISSING INFORMATION AND ATOMIC PROPAGANDA MAKING THEM ONE OF THIS GENRE's GURUS.
Flight was a television show from 1958, and this episode is entitled THE DERELICT. It was directed by Jean Yarbrough, written by Arthur Brown, Jr. and features a cast that includes Robert Christopher, Patrick Waltz, Christopher Dark, Ray Montgomery, Ed Perry, William Cassidy, Steve Ihnat. Flight ran from 1958-59 and was hosted by George C. Kenney. In this particular episode a B-47 bomber catches fire in mid-air, and its pilot decides that the 3 men onboard should eject from the crippled B-47. The pilot ejects and the Co Pilots ejection seat fails so he and the observer are left to bail out through a escape hatch but the other crewman who happens to be a pilot who was just catching a ride in the Radar/Navigator position and acting as an observer.tries to bail out his parachute catches on the escape hatch prematurely opening, leaving him no choice but to unbuckle it and stay on board, all alone and with his radio only recieving not transmitting due to the electrical fire,The airmen learns a group of F-89s from a Alaskan ADC base are scrambled to shoot down the crewless bomber. the airmen has to somehow let the incoming jets sent to shoot down the pilotless aircraft he is alive on board before it crashes in mother Russia with its top secret equipment. Badly burned and suffering from the high altitude he must somehow make his way into the cockpit and get control before he is shot down into the Bering Sea just at the last moment the lead F-89 sees the B-47 acting erratic and wagging its wings and the pilot decides to take a closer look and sees our lone airmen in the Co-Pilots seat flying the crippled B-47.A happy ending ensues as our doomed airmen takes control of the B-47 and flies the crippled bomber to the Alaskan AFB with the alert interceptors leading the way home.**There is a goof the F-89 scorpion is a two seat fighter but when the Blue flight leader is shown on closeup he is seen in the cockpit of a F-102/106 not the F-89 This is a great movie and shows the B-47 and also F-89 Scorpion fighter(s) that are scrambled to shoot the derelict B-47 before it can crash in enemy (soviet) territory with its classified equipment on board, Great film im not sure if flight is a series on true stories or just fiction not much info was available. just great cold war period television that has some great footage from those Cold War days at its best so sit back and ignore the commercials and give it a go.
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing
Operation Chrome Dome The Alert Years a USAF Production
OPERATION CHROME DOME MAP SHEPPARD AFB
1966 overview of Operation Chrome Dome related or derivative flights
OPERATION HEADSTART WAS A EARLY NAME GIVEN TO THIS OPERATION
Operation Chrome Dome was a United States Air ForceCold-War era mission from 1960 to 1968 in which B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft armed with thermonuclear weapons remained on continuous airborne alert, flying routes to points on the Soviet Union border.[1]
By 1966, three separate missions were being flown - one East over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, another north to Baffin Bay, and a third over Alaska.
** the film quality is poor and these two reels of once classified information that only Curtis LeMay and the Joint Chiefs and the POTUS only had access to these reels, they were saved and a effort was made to make them viewable. This history was almost lost before it was DECLASSIFIED for PUBLIC Viewing.**
PART ONE
THIS DECLASSIFIED FILM OF THE OPERATION HEADSTART PROJECT THAT KEPT B-52s COMBAT READY AIRBORNE ON 20hr FLIGHTS WITH A NEW FLIGHT AIRBORNE EVERY SIX HOURS CARRYINGFULL CREW AND BOMB PACKAGE AS WELL AS TARGET CONFIRMATION ORDERS LOCKED UP IN A SAFE ON BOARD THE BOMBER A HOLLYWOOD VIEW OF THIS WAS IN DR STRANGELOVE WITH SLIM PICKENS AS THE PILOT READY FOR "TOE TO TOE NUCLEAR COMBAT WITH THE RUSSKIES" THESE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED LORING AFB IN MAINE AND FLEW PRE ARRANGED PATTERNS FOR 20 HRS EATING SPECIALLY SUPPLIED MEALS AND WORKED AND RESTED IN SHIFTS. THE FOOTAGE SHOWN WAS FOR BRIEFING THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF AND EVEN THE PRESIDENT ON THE OPERATION. THE NARRATOR IS COMPLETELY CONVINCED THAT A RUSSIAN STRIKE VIA ICBMS AND BOMBERS IS GOING TO HAPPEN AND THE UNITED STATES CAN ONLY BE READY FOR THIS. FOOTAGE LIKE THIS IS PRICELESS AND IT MAY SHOW A LITTLE WEAR BUT IT IS COMPELLING TO WATCH AND SEE THE TANKERS REFUELING B-52s WITH ONE EYE COVERED IN CASE A NUCLEAR DEVICE WERE TO GO OFF AND BLIND THE KC-135 REFUELING OPERATOR HE COULD REMOVE THE EYE PATCH AND USE THE ONE COVERED AND IT HAS THE B-52 CREWS FLYING WITH THEIR PROTECTION FROM FLASH AND RADIATION WINDOW SHIELDS FLYING BY INSTRUMENTS, THE THING THAT MAKES THIS SO SPECIAL IS THESE CREWS WERE FLYING REAL MISSIONS WHILE BEING FILMED. GREAT COLD WAR HISTORY, AND THIS IS PART ONE>
PART TWO OF OP HEADSTART
PART TWO "OPERATION HEADSTART"
1959 STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND LORING AFB
B-52 FLIGHTS COMBAT READY WITH THERMONUCLEAR
WEAPONS ON BOARD AND LIVE AMMUNITION THIS TYPE
OF FLIGHT HAS GONE BY OPERTION CHROME DOME AND THAT OP FLEW COMBAT READY AIRBORNE ALERT TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY 365 DAYS A YEAR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS COLD WAR TACTIC AND OPERATION CAN BE FOUND BELOW IF YOU WERE A PART OF THIS PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PART IN THIS, YOUR MEMORIES ARE IMPORTANT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE JUST E-MAIL ME @ FALLOUTSHELTERNYC@GMAIL.COM
BELOW IS SOME PAPERS ON THE GOLDSBORO BROKEN ARROW AFTER AN ALERT AIRCRAFT WENT DOWN AND CRASHED IN GOLDSBORO N.C.
(1968) USAF SURVIVE TO FIGHT ATOMIC WEAPON HITS ADC BASE JETS SCRAMBLE INTERCEPT SOVIET ATTACKERS
THIS IS A CLASSIC UNITED STATES AIR FORCE TRAINING FILM THAT IS BASED ON SURVIVABILITY OF USAF BASE OPERATIONS IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES AFTER A NUCLEAR ATTACK,BASES LIKE THIS ONE WERE SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES DURING THE COLD WAR PERIOD THE AMOUNT OF PRESSURE AND RESPONSIBILITY THESE MEN HAD HAD HANDLING NUCLEAR WEAPONS THAT WERE USED ON INTERCEPTOR AIRCRAFT ,THE # AM SCRAMBLES INTO THE WINTER NIGHT NOT KNOWING IF THIS WAS FOR REAL AS BASE AIRCRAFT PEELED OUT LAUNCHING IN PAIRS SC REAMING INTO THE WINTER NIGHT WAITING FOR WORD OF WHAT WAS GOING ON. THE AIRMEN AT THESE BASES KNEW ANY ATTACK ON THE US THEY WOULD BE AMONG THE FIRST TO KNOW AND FIRST TO GO WHILE THE COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE THE GATES NEVER KNEW HOW CLOSE THEY WERE TO WAR AS THE BASES WENT TO DIFFERENT DEFCON LEVELS, THIS WAS NOT INFORMATION FOR THE PUBLIC.
THE FILM STARTS AT NIGHT AND THE SAC AIR DEFENSE COMMAND LAUNCHES ITS F-101 INTERCEPTOR AIR CRAFT AND PREPARES TO RIDE OUT A NUCLEAR STRIKE AS CONFIRMATION OF INCOMING MISSILES IS CONFIRMED. THANKS TO A CLIMATE OF GUARDED DEFENSE THE AIR FORCE BASE IS ABLE TO BUILD DEFENSIVE AND SHELTER FACILITIES TO SURVIVE AND FIGHT AND AS A NUCLEAR DETONATION IS CONFIRMED ON BASE THE AIR FORCE BEGINS TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS SO ITS AIR WING CAN COME BACK AND RE-ARM AND RE-FUEL A GREAT SUBJECT THAT U.S. MILITARY FORCES HAD TO PLAN FOR AND TRAIN AND THIS FILM SHOWS WHAT THEY EXPECTED, THE REAL QUESTION IS IT REALISTIC IN ITS EXPECTATION?
THE ONE THING IS THAT IT IS PRICELESS THAT THE USAF MADE THIS TRAINING FILM AND ITs QUOTES LIKE "HAVE NO UMBRELLAS,IF IT STARTS TO RAIN WE WILL LET YOU KNOW." AND "YOU CALL US BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T WE WILL BE CALLING YOU" WEIRD,.. BUT STILL GREAT PROPAGANDA!FILMED AT A SAC AIR DEFENSE INTERCEPTOR BASE LOCATED IN OXNARD, OXNARD AFB CALIFORNIA 1967 THIS IS BASICALLY WHEN CLOSING OF SAC ADC BASES WAS GOING ON ALL OVER (SUFFOLK COUNTY AFB LONG ISLAND NEW YORK) RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NYC AREA FOR MOST OF THE COLD WAR.DURING 1968- EARLY 1970s MOST OF THESE AIR FORCE ADC UNITS WENT OVER TO FIGHT IN VIETNAM AND THAILAND AS FORWARD AIR CONTROL AND MUNITION LOADERS FOR USAF STRIKE PLANES USING IRON BOMBS INSTEAD OF ATOMIC MUNITIONS BOMBING NVA BASES AND NORTH VIETNAM AND THE ADC PILOTS AND BACKSEATERS WENT OVER ALSO, TO ME THESE GUYS REALLY SERVED THEIR COUNTRY PLUS ONE AND DESERVE BIG RESPECT , MY HATS OFF TO THE USAF AIRMEN OF ADC/SAC AND VIETNAM/THAILAND/LAOS
NYC EMERGENCY BROADCAST PLEASE STAND BY FOR OFFICIAL INFORMATION (1980-1984)
USAF/SAC AT DEFCON ONE AND CONFIDENCE IS HIGH! "EXECUTIVE DESCISION" USAF'S NUCLEAR POSTURE
PROBABLY THE MOST TELLING STORY OF USAF MIGHT AND POWER AS WAR IS UNLEASHED ON THE AGRESSOR NATION WHO IS LATER IDENTIFIED TO BE THE SOVIET UNION, THE STOCK FOOTAGE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS BEING DROPPED BY B-47 STRATOJETS and B-52 BOMBERS ARE FROM ONCE CLASSIFIED USAF NUCLEAR TEST OPS. MOST OF THIS ENTIRE FILM IS FROM CLASSIFIED WARPLANS AND SPECIAL OPERATIONS, THIS HOMAGE TO SAC AND STRATEGIC AIR COMMANDS DEDICATION TO MISSION IS A JEWEL AND FROM A TIME WHERE THE WORLD WAS A TINDERBOX READY FOR SOMEONE TO STRIKE THE SPARK AND IGNITE A WORLDWIDE NUCLEAR CONFLAGRATION WHERE LIFE MOST LIKELY WOULD OF WENT THE WAY OF THE DINOSAUR AND ONLY MILLIONS OF YEARS LATER A FOSSILIZED REMAINS OF MAN WOULD BE DISCOVERED BY THE NEXT GENERATION THAT CAME FROM THE ASHES OF THE OLD, THIS FILM IS NOT KNOWN IF IT WAS EVER SEEN OR VIEWED OTHER THAN A HANDFUL OF HIGH RANKING USAF OFFICERS, SEE THE DESCRIPTION AND INFORMATION FROM THE NUCLEAR VAULT.COM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Power of Decision" may be the first (and perhaps the only) U.S. government film dramatizing nuclear war decision-making. Commissioned by the Strategic Air Command in 1956, the film has the look of a 1950s TV drama, but the subject is the ultimate Cold War nightmare. By the end of the film, after the U.S. Air Force has implemented war plan "Quick Strike" following a Soviet surprise attack, millions of Americans, Russians, Europeans, and Japanese are dead. The narrator, a Colonel Dodd, asserts that "nobody wins a nuclear war because both sides are sure to suffer terrible damage." Despite the "catastrophic" damage, one of the film’s operating assumptions is that defeat is avoidable as long as the adversary cannot impose its "will" on the United States. The film’s last few minutes suggest that the United States would prevail because of the "success" of its nuclear air offensive. Moscow, not the United States, is sending out pleas for a cease-fire.
The conviction that the United States could prevail was a doctrinal necessity because Air Force leaders assumed the decisiveness of air power. The founding fathers of the U.S. Air Force came out of World War II with an unshakeable, if exaggerated, conviction that the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan had been decisive for the Allied victory and that air power would be crucial in future conflicts. (Note 1) The film’s title: "Power of Decision" embodies that conviction. The title itself is a reference to a 1948 statement by General George C. Kenney, the Strategic Air Command’s first commander-in-chief: "A war in which either or both opponents use atomic bombs will be over in a matter of days...The Air Force that is superior in its capability of destruction plays the dominant role and has the power of decision." (Note 2) A confident statement made by one of the characters, General "Pete" Larson, near the close of reel 6 flows from that assumption: the Soviets "must quit; we have the air and the power and they know it."
The story begins with Colonel Dodd, standing in the underground command post of the "Long Range Offense Force" (oddly, the Strategic Air Command is never mentioned by name). Dodd discusses the Force’s strike capabilities, its mechanisms for keeping track of its strategic assets, and its war plans. That hundreds of bombers, based in U.S. territories and overseas bases, are ready to launch at a moment’s notice is the "surest way to prevent war." Dodd does not think that the Soviets are likely to strike, but if deterrence fails and the Soviets launch an attack, "this is what will happen."
What "happens" is the initial detection by U.S. air defense network of the approach of Soviet bombers over the Arctic Circle. That leads to General Larson’s decision to launch the SAC alert force under plan "Quick Strike"; airborne and nuclear-armed alert bombers fly toward the Soviet periphery, but stay at position until they receive an attack order (this was the concept of "Fail Safe" or "Positive Control" although those terms were not used in the film). About an hour after the alert force is launched, General Larson receives reports of attacks on U.S. bases, followed by more information on Soviet nuclear attacks on cities and military bases in Japan and Western Europe. "That does it," General Turner (one of Larson’s deputies) exclaims. He soon receives a call on the red phone from the Joint Chiefs, who with the President, are in a protected command post. The president has ordered the execution of "Quick Strike," releasing bombers and missiles to strike the Soviet Union. This simultaneous bomber-missile "double punch" is aimed at "all elements of [Soviet] air power" [bomber bases] along with "war making and war sustaining resources," which meant strikes on urban-industrial areas and urban populations. To depict the undepictable, the film’s producers use stock footage of nuclear tests and missile and bomber launches.
Once it is evident that the Soviets have launched a surprise air attack, Colonel Dodd observes that "By giving up the initiative, the West must expect to take the first blow." This statement is not developed, but for Air Force planners, "initiative" meant a preemptive attack or a first strike. By the early 1950, senior military planners and defense officials had begun considering the possibility of pre-emptive attacks on the basis of strategic warning; that is, if the United States intelligence warning system collected reliable information on an impending Soviet attack, decision-makers could approve strikes against Soviet military forces to disrupt it. Consistent with this, Strategic Air Command war plans assumed "two basic modes" for executing strike plans [See Document One below]. () One was retaliation against a surprise attack; the other "plan was based on the assumption that the United States had strategic warning and had decided to take the initiative." The SAC strike force would then be "launched to penetrate en masse prior to the enemy attack; the main target would be the enemy’s retaliatory capability."
In the last part of reel 6, Air Force intelligence briefings review the destruction of the Soviet military machine, including destruction of air bases, weapons storage centers, and government control centers, among other targets. "Target M," presumably Moscow, has "been destroyed" by a nuclear weapon which struck 300 yards from the aiming point. The Soviet attack has done calamitous damage to the United States, with 60 million casualties, including 20 million wounded, but evidence was becoming available of the "success" of the U.S. air offensive. The Soviet Air Force has been reduced to a handful of aircraft, it had stopped launching nuclear strikes outside of its territory, and SACEUR [Supreme Allied Commander Europe] reports the "complete disintegration of resistance" by Soviet ground forces. Moreover, cease-fire requests are coming in from the Soviets. In this context, General Larson’s certainty that the "Soviets must quit" conveyed prevailing assumptions about the value of strategic air power.
Around the time when "The Power of Decision" as being produced, a statement by SAC Commander-in-Chief General Curtis LeMay made explicit what was implicit in Larson’s observation. In an address before the Air Force’s Scientific Advisory Board in 1957 [see Document Two], LeMay argued that U.S. strategic forces could not be an effective deterrent unless they were "clearly capable of winning under operational handicaps of bad weather and no more than tactical warning." And by winning, LeMay said he meant "achieving a condition wherein the enemy cannot impose his will on us, but we can impose our will on him." Larson’s statement about control of the air dovetailed exactly with LeMay’s assumptions about winning.
Little is known about the production and distribution of "The Power of Decision," or even if it was actually shown. According to the history of the Air Photographic and Charting Service for January through June 1957, on 28 May 1956, the Strategic Air Command requested the service to produce the film, which would be classified Secret. SAC leaders may have wanted such a film for internal indoctrination and training purposes, to help officers and airmen prepare themselves for the worst active-duty situation that they could encounter. Perhaps the relatively unruffled style of the film’s performers was to serve as a model for SAC officers if they ever had to follow orders that could produce a nuclear holocaust. In any event, the script for "Power of Decision" was approved on 10 May 1957 and a production planning conference took place on 29 May 1957. The contract productions section of the Air Photographic and Charting Service was the film’s producing unit.
The next step was to find actors with security clearances because even the synopsis of the film was classified secret (although later downgraded to "official use only"). As the Air Force was not in the business of hiring actors, the production unit engaged the services of MPO Productions, a New York-based firm which produced commercials and industrial films. [References to MPO, Inc. are on the index cards and on "The End" frame at the close of reel 6]. What happened next, when the work on the film was completed, SAC’s assessment of the project, and whether, when, or where the film was shown, cannot presently be determined, although the information may be in the living memories of participants or viewers from those days.
Note: The relatively poor quality of this digital reproduction reflects the condition of the original reels as turned over to the National Archives by the Air Force.
PROPAGANDA No.2 "Your New Sound Of Freedom"
PUBLISHED FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISSION OF THE USAF AIR DEFENSE COMMAND AND THATS TARGETED FOR LONG ISLANDERS WHO LIVED NEAR SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR FORCE BASE IT WAS A PRIMARY ADC SQUADRON THAT WAS TO INTERCEPT ANY SOVIET BOMBERS OR OTHER UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT OF UNKNOWN ORGIN, SUFFOLK AFB BECAME PRIMARY WHEN FLOYD BENNET FIELD CLOSED AND CEASED OPERATIONS, THE CONVAIR F102-F-106 DELTA DART AND DAGGER WERE THE MAIN INTERCEPT AIRCRAFT FROM 1958-62 WHEN THE USAF DECIDED TO USE THE F-101 VODOO ALL WEATHER INTERCEPTOR, THE F-102-106 WAS USED BY THE USAF AT SUFFOLK AS WELL AS MANY OTHER AIRCRAFT THAT WOULD COME THROUGH THE AIRBASE, EARLY POSTS ON THIS BLOG HAS NUMEROUS PHOTO'S OF THESE DART LIKE AIRCRAFT AT THE BASE, THE EARLIER AIRCRAFT WERE F-86 SABRES AND THEY WERE PHASED OUT IN 1958, THERE WERE A FEW LOST AIRCRAFT OUT OF SUFFOLK AND EVEN A FALCON AIR TO AIR MISSILE AND THE INFAMOUS 1966 "STRANGE LIGHTS MOVING AT HIGH SPEEDS OVER THE SOUTH SHORE OF LONG ISLAND" THE AD WAS TO DEFEND THE MISSION OF THESE AFB'S LOCATED IN SUBURBS AROUND THE U.S. WHO HAD THE JOB OF SCRAMBLING AND GREET ANY UNIDENTIFIED RADAR CONTACT.THROUGH THE END OF WORLD WAR 2 UP UNTIL 1970 THE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND HAD THESE BASES SCATTERED AROUND MAJOR CITIES AND VITAL US DEFENSE CONTRACTORS, SINCE THESE AIR WINGS WERE ON ALERT THEY FLEW OUT CONSTANTLY AND 6-7 IN FORMATION FLYING LOW IS LOUD SO SUBURBAN AMERICA COMPLAINED ABOUT THE NOISE AND THE USAF AND CONVAIR STARTED A ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN TO INFORM AND EDUCATE JUST HOW IMPORTANT THAT SOUND IS. AND HOW LUCKY WE ARE TO HERE IT. DURING THE 1970s to PRESENT USAF/ADC AND OTHERB MILITARY BASES WERE CLOSED BY THE HUNDREDS, IMAGINE A CITY LIKE NEW YORK HAS NO AIR DEFENSE THE NEAREST ARMED AIRCRAFT IS 30 MINUTES AWAY , AND MOST CITYS ARE NO LONGER DESIGNATED MILITARY PROTECTION, THIS MAKES NO SENSE SINCE OUR MILITARY IS TO DEFEND THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES AND I REALLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW OUR NATION CAN FORGET WHY WE HAVE ARMED FORCES. THEY ARE NOT FOR FIGHTING ON FOREIGN SOIL AND IF WE HAVE TO WE CAN SEND B-52S ON BOMBING MISSIONS, WE NEED TO LOOK BACK AT WHAT THIS NATIONS FOUNDATIONS WERE AND REBUILD IT, BECAUSE SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT!
- Meeting the Terrorist Threat, Produced by the Defense Nuclear Agency - Early 1970's - 7:30 - Color - Since the emergence of the terrorist threat, the U.S. Governments concern about the possible terrorism against nuclear facilities has intensified. This video is a dramatization. It shows how the Government has responded to this threat.
The video depicts nuclear security activities at an early nuclear storage site and how a small unarmed force of intruders easily enters under the security fence surrounding the site. The protective force subdues the intruders easily. In another scene, a well-armed terrorist team enters the base and kills a roving patrol with a well-placed sniper. Security forces finally overcome the terrorists after a superior counter-force arrives.
On a third entry, a terrorist team enters the site under the cover of a fellow terrorist, hidden in the forest, armed with a heavy machine gun. This terrorist team reaches and penetrates a storage igloo after the roving patrol is killed, and the rapid response force is destroyed. However, the terrorists do not escape. When the superior security force appears with helicopter support and an armored personnel carrier, the terrorists, including the machine gunner, are killed.
Since this film was made, the Department of Energy (DOE) has constantly improved the training and tactics of the security forces at each installation as well as the in-place security systems. With its modern day posture, it would be highly improbable that a small group of armed individuals could forcibly enter any DOE facility and escape with a nuclear weapon or any special nuclear
NEW!!!! ----GREAT FALLOUT SHELTER SONG 1961
(1975) RARE FOOTAGE OF ANG F-102s BASED AT SUFFOLK AFB (DECOM) FLYING OVER LONG ISLAND
THIS VIDEO SHOWS NATIONAL GUARD 2nd FIS FLYING F102s OVER EASTERN LONG ISLAND THE FLIGHT SCENES ARE DUBBED WITH A HORRIBLE MUSIC SOUNDTRACK "HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE" SO I ADVISE THAT YOU MUTE THE SOUND WHILE WATCHING THIS LAST OF THE CENTURY FIGHTERS BEING FLOWN AS INTERCEPTORS AND NOT TARGETS FOR MISSILE TESTS, THE SUFFOLK AFB NOW GABRESKI AIRPORT WESTHAMPTON HOME NOW TO THE 106th AEROSPACE RESCUE AND RECOVERY WING WHO OCCUPY AND USE THE OLD ALERT HANGARS AND USAF INFRASTRUCTURE THAT THE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND "ADC" LEFT BEHIND WHEN THE SUFFOLK COUNTY AIR BASE WAS DECOMMISSIONED, EVEN THEN A NATIONAL GUARD UNIT USING F-102s WAS BASED THERE FROM 1969 - PRESENT.RARE CAMOFLAUGE F102s
*UPDATE THE F-102 THAT SAT OUT FRONT TO PAY RESPECT TO THOSE THAT SERVED THE COLD WAR MISSION AND FLEW JET AIR CRAFT LOADED WITH LIVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS WAS SCRAPPED AND CUT UP ON BASE BY A SCRAP YARD IN A TOTAL DOUCHE BAG MOVE! I DONT CARE HOW BAD OF SHAPE IT WAS IN IT COULD OF BEEN SAVED AND SHOULD OF.JUST BECAUSE THE MISSON NOW INVOLVES HELICOPTERS YOU DONT FORGET HISTORY AND TRY TO TAKE THE LIME LIGHT BY DROPPIN A HELICOPTER IN ITS SPOT, YOU DISRESPECTED THOSE THAT SERVED A WAR COLD IN NAME BUT WAS A DIRECT THREAT AGAINST THIS NATION AND THOSE WHO FLEW THOSE JETS DURING THOSE YEARS WOULD OF GAVE THEIR LIVES TO KEEP THE POPULATION OF THIS COUNTRY SAFE, IT MAKES ME SAD TO SEE SUCH DISRESPECT AND PERSONALLY YOU CAN STICK THAT HELO UP YOUR ASSES!
COLD WAR PROPAGANDA No.41 (1951) USAF CARTOON RECRUITING COMMERCIAL
THIS USAF COMMERCIAL FROM THE EARLY 1950s MOST LIKELY WAS THE REASON AMERICA WON THE COLD WAR AND BEAT THE SOVIETS IN TO SPACE THE JINGLE IN OF FLYING DAH DAH DAH WITH CARTOON JETS AND PEOPLE PROBABLY CAUGHT THE EYE OF MANY YOUNG KIDS WHO TEN YEARS LATER ENLISTED AND HELPED KEEP THIS COUNTRY FREE OF ANY COMMUNIST AGGRESSORS, WE NEED MORE GOOD WHOLESOME RECRUITING PITCHES LIKE THIS ONE!