Remember these? (if you're an old fart that is)

[nini]

Now.. who was the enemy again?

Funny how some folks think it's ok to let them in now.

[maveric]

1. Yep. First grade

1962 in Boston.

[Liberal_in_LA]

48. About 1968 for me

[JoeOtterbein]

64. Kindergarten in Baltimore, also in 1962

[RKP5637]

2. Yep, like it was going to do any good. n/t

[braddy]

9. Duck and cover is still what you need to do if you see a blast, or tornado, or explosion, etc.

Duck and cover would have prevented deaths and lessened or prevented countless injuries in Japan.

Never just stand and look out the window at, or at the event, if outside.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Unless of course, if you are within the total destruction radius of a modern nuclear weapon.

Which is CONSIDERABLY larger than the bombs dropped in Japan.

Then you're pretty much toast.


Literally

[braddy]

24. I think we all know that, but it doesn't change the fact that duck and cover is a huge life saver

and saves people from flying glass and debris, and burns, and blindness.

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. Yeah. Sure.

if you're 50 miles away. Otherwise it's utterly pointless

[braddy]

38. No it isn't, a bomb in a city is not a matter of only being vaporized, or unscathed. Countless

casualties can be prevented or made less serious, by telling people and children not to just stand there and look out the window and wait for the shock waves and burning flash, and flying debris.

Even the army teaches duck and cover, and no one has to waste time explaining why, or that it won't help those who are in the vaporized zone, the purpose is to reduce the number and severity of casualties.

[Augiedog]

52. I'm sorry but you really ought not kid people into thinking that if they are in range of a nuclear

weapons blast radius that 'duck and cover' will be of use. Duck and cover only has use for those who are not in the target area. Meaning, these days, NO ONE. It's my thought that this era is when the "bend over and kiss yer ass goodbye" saying came into fashion. And is/was much more practical and useful.

If Russia drives one of its submarine drones into Los Angeles' waterfront and sets it off, the people in Death Valley might want to take your advice to duck and cover. Nobody in LA will be around to duck or take cover from anything, cause there won't be any anything.

[braddy]

62. As a veteran you should remember some of your own training in duck and cover. We were trained in

nuclear survival during the Vietnam war when you and I were in, I also had a nuclear weapons clearance at the time, and if I see a blast, I won't be merely standing there watching it, I will be diving for cover.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/policy/army/fm/3-4/Ch4.htm

" In either case, the dose to a prone soldier would be about one-half the dose to a standing soldier. The lesson here is to seek shelter in an underground structure and lie in a corner. If an underground shelter is not available, lie in the center of a shelter under a sturdy table (see Figure 4-9). Other options include lying inside a fireplace, under a stairway, or in a bathroom where the plumbing and relatively close spacing of walls might provide increased structural strength."

[Plucketeer]

72. I was in Nam in 65 & 66

They didn't teach us anything other'n how to shoot an M16

[braddy]

75. Army basic training should have covered much more than shooting an M-16, mine did at

Ft. Polk, home of Tigerland, it taught us to not stand up in the open, or at the window looking at bomb explosions, including nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons.

Stand and watch, and wait for the window to hit you, if you want, I won't, and I when there is a threat of a terror attack, or a missile hitting a city, I want people trained as I was.

[Augiedog]

74. If you see a "blast" it literally will be the last thing you ever see. Yes, I am a Vietnam vet and I

had extensive training. Including nuclear security protocols. Having said that I would remind you that even pilots of B-52's wore eye patch helmets that protected one eye from the consequences of seeing a nuclear detonation. This was so that they could continue flying if their aircraft wasn't promptly wiped out of the sky. If you are at a survivable distance then you survive, period. And that is likely a temporary condition at best.

I understand the wish to believe that the unimaginable is somehow quantifiable and therefore manageable but when it comes to nuclear war it will be an extinction level event, as the popular vernacular likes to say, and no amount of ducking and cover will help.

[braddy]

77. Do as you please, but please don't push it onto the general public, let people try to

Last edited Mon Dec 12, 2016, 01:27 AM - Edit history (1)

save as many lives as possible, and reduce as many injuries and their severity as we can.

I can't understand this obsession with standing up and watching debris and heat coming at you and at school children, it almost seems like a political, or ideological, or spiritual position.

Here are two Wiki links that will explain the usefulness of seeking cover.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_Cover_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_and_cover

[canetoad]

88. Ever heard of Tsutomu Yamaguchi?

There were 165 survivors of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bombs, he is one of them. I don't know how many of them actually saw the blast, but he did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi

Hiroshima bombing

Yamaguchi lived and worked in Nagasaki, but in the summer of 1945 he was in Hiroshima for a three-month-long business trip.[4] On August 6 he was preparing to leave the city with two colleagues, Akira Iwanaga and Kuniyoshi Sato, and was on his way to the station when he realised he had forgotten his hanko (a stamp allowing him to travel), and returned to his workplace to get it.[5][6] At 8:15 am, he was walking towards the docks when the American bomber Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb near the centre of the city, only 3 km away.[4][7] Yamaguchi recalls seeing the bomber and two small parachutes, before there was "a great flash in the sky, and I was blown over".[6] The explosion ruptured his eardrums, blinded him temporarily, and left him with serious burns over the left side of the top half of his body. After recovering, he crawled to a shelter, and having rested, he set out to find his colleagues.[6] They had also survived and together they spent the night in an air-raid shelter before returning to Nagasaki the following day.[5][6] In Nagasaki, he received treatment for his wounds, and despite being heavily bandaged, he reported for work on August 9.[4][8]

[TheBlackAdder]

89. In the two Japanese bombings, odds are 1:1000 on living. Today's are thousands of times powerful.

.


Pretty much, if you see the blast today, or even during Vietnam era, you were toast.


The gamma rays, heat and radiactive wind will determine death, based on distance and obstacles.


.

[RKP5637]

27. I grew up by a munitions plant, the department of defense, a major aircraft company

and major air force base. Smack in the middle, within miles. We were a direct target during WWII and afterwards, We all laughed, duck and cover under a desk wasn't going to be much help for a nuclear blast. Other things, yes, you are quire correct!

[Warpy]

25. Nor was being told daily that the world could end in a flash of unbearable

heat and light and that it could happen at any second, so be ready to hide under your little desks, kids.

Even in Kindergarten, most of us knew that wouldn't do jack shit if the nukes flew.

[RKP5637]

32. See #27, that was my life as a little kid. Also, we used to hear explosions from the munitions

plant, unstable munitions expositions and deaths, kids fathers killed.

[mercuryblues]

3. Yes.

More and more lately I have heard people, some my age, why we don't get along with Russia. Of course they are all trumpeteers.

[nini]

6. They need to read some history books and even current events for that matter

But that would take a bit of effort and would make sense

[rzemanfl]

4. I sure do. I had a teacher who would drop a book on your head if it stuck out

from under your desk.

The U.S. had overwhelming nuclear superiority until the mid-60's.

[nini]

5. I went to Catholic school

Those nuns would use a pointer to get us in there better LOL

[rzemanfl]

7. I have a one question test I use to tell if a woman went to Catholic school.

How does your refrigerator work? It has never failed me and I am 69 years old.

[nini]

14. You got me..

I remember the crank call 'Is your refrigerator running? line though haha Can't get away with that anymore with caller ID etc.

[rzemanfl]

19. No grade school science classes.

A gas cools as it expands is the basic principle.

[nini]

29. We had some science though

The nuns I had were more liberal thankfully. I remember doing biology type things, the planets etc.. but nothing hard core. I am a geek so math and science were my favorites.

[rzemanfl]

39. I remember we learned stuff like how refrigerators work, the ways houses

are heated, light bulbs etc. I was pretty young, third or fourth grade maybe.

[Best_man23]

8. Yep, October 1973 (Yom Kippur War)

Elementary school, I remember the teachers herding us into the cafeteria to show us the Duck and Cover movie. Afterwards, we went back to our classrooms and proceeded to drill getting into the positions the children are doing in the picture above.

That was not a good time for the world or the US (and we had a criminal in the WH then).

[braddy]

11. In 1973, many of us in the military were packed and ready to go, during that global alert.

[FarCenter]

10. 1989 USSR 286,730,819 inhabitants; 2013 Russia 143.5 million inhabitants

1989 USA 248 million inhabitants; 2014 USA 319 million inhabitants.

The Warsaw Pact is no more, and most of the central and eastern European nations are now EU and/or NATO members.

A number of the former Soviet Republics are now members of NATO, and many are anti-Russian to a great extent.

Russia's political and economic systems are very different from the days of Stalin, Khrushchev, and even Brezhnev.

Russia is hardly an adequate boogeyman anymore.

[nini]

18. "Russia is hardly an adequate boogeyman anymore."

Well, current events may question that. It's a different threat now but they're still interested in taking us down.

[sarisataka]

23. Pretty damn good boogeyman to me

Russia:
Russia is modernizing its strategic and nonstrategic nuclear warheads. It currently has a total inventory of 7,500 warheads. Of these, 1,780 are deployed strategic and 2,720 are in reserve.

Intercontinental ballistic missiles: Russia is continuing to test and modernize its SS-27 missile.

Submarines: Russia has reduced its operational nuclear submarines from 62 in 1990 to 17 in 2001. All Delta I and Delta II subs have been withdrawn from service. Russia continues to produce SS-N-23 SLBMs to keep the Delta IVs in service.

Non-strategic forces: Russia agreed to remove tactical nuclear weapons from surface ships in 1991, but there is no confirmation that this has happened. Russia keeps a large stockpile of additional tactical weapons in regional storage sites. There has been a strong call from sectors of the government and military to increase reliance on tactical weapons in response to NATO's eastward expansion and to offset NATO's superior conventional forces. In addition, Russia is also updating some of its nonstrategic forces, phasing out its Soviet-era weapons and replacing them with newer but fewer weapons.

http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/basics/nuclear-stockpiles.htm

[pintobean]

26. Agreed

and, I don't think anyone will be hiding under their desk over hacked emails.

No, wait...
I take that back.

[nini]

45. Do you really think the OP was supporting the desk thing?

The whole Russian hysteria triggered that memory and I think it's funny looking back.


Feel free to keep rolling your eyes at me though if it makes you feel better.

[pintobean]

47. "hysteria"

Good choice.

[HockeyMom]

12. Are those some kind of school desks?

I went to Catholic school in NYC in the 50's and 60's. Yes, we had to hide under our desks but they were individual wooden things with inkwells in them and nothing like this picture. BTW, even as a child I thought it was totally stupid to hide under a desk when families around the country were building underground Fallout Shelters. If you lived anywhere in Manhattan, you were pretty much doomed to a Nuke Attack. Imagine thinking this as a CHILD?

[nini]

16. I remember that type of desk in my early years.

They switched to individual ones later. My mom got one of the ones you described. we used it to put the phone on so you could sit and talk on it. Of course that was when the phones weren't cordless etc.

[llmart]

70. LOL

So glad I'm not the only one who felt the same way. I was in 1st grade and remembered thinking to myself, "What the heck good is this going to do?" But then I was always a bit wiser than most 6 year olds

My father also taught me that I didn't have to say the Pledge of Allegiance. He said, "Just pretend you're saying something and mumble because pledging allegiance is for followers." He said the same thing about lunchtime prayers. Yeah, I come from a family of rebels.

[HockeyMom]

92. Yep, all that praying in Catholic school

What am I having for lunch? Will I pass that test in Geometry? Will Steve ask me to the Prom? This is what most of thought of during forced praying.

Probably the most unreligious adult people in this country are those who went to Catholic school.

[llmart]

94. Funny but true.....

although I'll have to add a disclaimer that we weren't Catholic. I lived in a small, rural community with very few Catholics, so the praying was done by everyone. My father was an atheist.

[tenderfoot]

13. They had us go into the hallway and stand facing the wall.

Last edited Sun Dec 11, 2016, 08:58 PM - Edit history (1)

As if that would stop radiation poisoning.

[nini]

17. It is really idiotic when you think about it

I'm sure my desk would have protected me from radiation at that level.

[pipi_k]

85. Us too...stand

facing the wall with our hands folded on top of our heads.

Just in case the roof of the school came down on us. That magic pose ensured that we wouldn't be crushed to death.

I was terrified that my family wouldn't have time to do the same thing wherever they were, and they would all die and I would be an orphan.

So. Whenever anyone asks who the enemy was back then, at least part of my answer would be...

our own government, for terrorizing a whole generation of little kids.

And yeah...almost 60 years later I'm still pissed.

[pintobean]

20. This shit's getting silly.

[nini]

31. feel free to move along

nothing to see here for you.

[pintobean]

36. I'll comment as I please

Are you under your desk over hacking?

[nini]

41. LOLOL

yea.. I'm under my desk hacking as I type this.

Yep..that's it. You got me figured out.

[Norbert]

21. We never did this in our school.

I guess the nuns figured the desk provided little protection from nuclear fallout.

But they did give us the whole nine yards on the Red Menace. I would imagine a few of them are still alive and I'm willing to bet they support the investigation into Russian influence.

[ananda]

22. Yes

We had those drills when I was a kid.

Forty years later it was plastic bags and duct tape
and called Shelter-in-place. (after 9/11)

[nini]

33. Oh I forgot about that

Just as brilliant of a safety solution

[MineralMan]

30. Yup. All through grammar school in CA for me.

[RKP5637]

34. Many people living in the US today probably have no idea what we're talking about.

Where I lived all windows had to have blankets on them at night, no outside lights, hoods on car lights, etc., etc. It was scary times.

[tosh]

35. I sure do remember those...

along with these -

[RKP5637]

43. Yep, we used to also have these at designated spots in our schools. n/t

[Mike Nelson]

37. This is still done...

...today, and more frequently. We have earthquake, fire and "lock down" drills monthly. The type of bell, announcement and/or teacher lets you know which drill is being observed. For this one, you must hold on to the leg of your desk/table with one hand and cover your head with your other arm.

[nini]

42. That's so sad

My grandson was talking about the safety drills they have in middle school

What a world we live in

[Cooley Hurd]

40. Thank heavens for those bomb-proof desks!

[RKP5637]

44. ...

[nini]

46. And the underpasses under the streets

those woulda worked too. Wide open on both ends etc..

Crazy times

[iluvtennis]

49. Drop drills. I recall those from the the 60's. Teacher would yell "Drop" & you assumed the position

[leftyladyfrommo]

50. Yep. I was in grade school so would be 1950's.

We even had dog tags to wear.

I had nightmares for years about bombs falling from the sky.

[Iggo]

51. Duck!

And cover!

(AKA: Butts-up, squealing.)

[Useless in FL]

53. Yes, late 50's

We also practices going into the dirt floor dungeon in our very old junior high school....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

54. Oh, yeah. Duck and Cover.

Even when we were kids the joke was, "Put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye."

[NRaleighLiberal]

55. yup...I remember!

[malchickiwick]

56. I remember being shown this video in grade school in the 1970s: Duck and Cover Cartoon Turtle

[nini]

63. Wow.. I remember that!

LOL I hadn't thought of that for years.

[jack_krass]

57. Ill probably get a hide for this, but here goes: in the 50s/60s, those guys were a different country

The Soviet Union, who were pushing global communism.

Notwithstanding the current issues(Ill reserve judgement untill more facts come in) I see no reason for us to be enemies with Russia today. The Cold war is over.

[nini]

61. I agree they are a different type of enemy these days.

But they hardly have our best interests in mind. I just think we can't trust them still - Putin is a major asshole. They did want trump in so that's hardly giving me confidence they wish us well.

[Iggo]

90. Yeah, you probably oughta.

[WhiteTara]

58. During those years, every night I would check

under my bed for a communist...what ever those were.

[Ford_Prefect]

59. I remember October 1962. Dad drove us to the Philly airport and showed us the B-47s lined up,

ready to bomb Cuba or anyone else.

End of the world then could have been the next day or the next week.

Now it looks as if next Jan 20 could be the last one we see.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

65. I missed it by a few years, thank goodness.

I'm also glad that JFK rejected "Operation Northwoods" back then!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation against the Cuban government, that originated within the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of the United States government in 1962. The proposals called for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or other U.S. government operatives to commit acts of terrorism against American civilians and military targets, blaming it on the Cuban government, and using it to justify a war against Cuba. The proposals were rejected by the Kennedy administration.

I wonder how Americans would've reacted back then if they'd known about it, rather than the documents being released many years later?

[spike jones]

60. A few people who ducked and covered

and survived the Atomic bomb blast over Hiroshima, fled to Nagasaki.

[onenote]

66. Once upon a time progressives questioned the country's paranoia about Communisms

and left that to the John Birch Society.


Times change I guess.

I understand that Russia, and Putin in particular, is a bad guy whose interests are contrary to ours.

But some of the rhetoric is rather strangely reminiscent of that from a era gone by.

[tclambert]

67. I've been under my desk ever since Trump got elected.

[montana_hazeleyes]

68. Ok. i couldn't help myself.

I know the seriousness of this whole situation, but that made me

[raging moderate]

69. This is why I feel scorn for US billionaires whining about uncertainty.

Shut up, preppie boys, and pay your taxes! I grew up with uncertainty, the captains of industry back then worked all day every day with uncertainty, the workers of all industries toiled ceaselessly in uncertainty. Uncertainty immobilizes you? Sissies! Do your duty to your country! The way five-year-olds did back then!

[dmr]

71. I remember doing those drills.

Then one year, when I was in 4th grade, they had us line up against the hall walls, sit down, then bury our heads with our arms & hands.

The next year it was back to hiding under our desks.

I was never scared, except in my kindergarten /1st grade years. I worried about my mom & dad. I 'taught' mom & dad how to duck & cover under the dining room table.

My dad was always reassuring, & told me I had nothing to fear. My dad was good at stuff like that.

[montana_hazeleyes]

78. I remember that they also told us if we we riding a bike to

get off, lay by the curb and cover our heads. None of this would help anything at all, of course.
But we were kids and believed the adults.

Your post reminded me of my dad being reassuring about things too. Maybe a lot of dads are. I remember being terrified by thunder and my dad told me it was just God and the angels moving furniture in heaven and I was instantly cured of my fear of it.

[TNNurse]

73. When I was a child, I learned to hide under my desk at school,

as an adult I learned to worry about terrorists from lots of places,

NOW, I have to worry about the next president destroying the country,

I never expected the biggest danger wold come from within. I am too old for this shit.

[RKP5637]

76. Yeah, I know, I NEVER dreamed the person I would have to fear most would be the

president of the United States of America! How times have changed!

[Thor_MN]

79. We didn't bother, but we had 24 nuclear tipped Bomarc missles a mile down the road.

[Texasgal]

80. What about all

the cans of tuna fish we were supposed to keep under our beds???

[napi21]

81. Oh I remember. Even in first grade, I remember saying to myself "How is this going to save us"?

I never said anything to anyone because we were all taught you weren't supposed to question authority. It's actually amazing that I grew up constantly questioning them, and got into a lot of trouble for it too.

[Ken Burch]

82. We did those up until about second grade(1968-69)

I often wondered what some alien archaeologist would have made of it if it had arrived on the scorching, lifeless surface of a post-nuclear war Earth and discovered thousands of crouching child skeletons posed in neat little lines.

Probably would have thought it was some sort of cultic sacrifice ritual.

Would have been right.

[doc03]

83. I have heard about that but we never actually did it where I went

to school, I am 68.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

84. I sure do.

[livetohike]

86. For years I had recurring nightmares over these drills!

Scary times when you think of the horror of it all .

[JI7]

87. in california i remember doing it in the 80s,90s, because of Earthquakes

[CentralMass]

91. Yes, i remember. I was born in 1960.

[alarimer]

93. I had such hopes following the breakup of the Soviet Union

But Russia never became a true democracy. Sure they have elections, but only to re-elect an autocrat. Worse, he's a former KGB agency who presumably knows where a lot of bodies are buried.