Operation Chico: I Survived!

[PosterChild]

Somehow the conversation devolved to civil defense - high/low sirens, fallout shelters, emergency broadcasts and, of course, duck and cover. I related my very vague memories of participating in an early 60s population dispersal excersize. We jumped in the car and drove to improve don't know where, and stayed in a strange home for the night with I don't know who. The landscape , in my memory was barren and desert like. All in all it's had a very low key, benign twilight zone feel to it.

So, my curiosity piqued by my vague memory , I did a little inner webz sluthing and found out that I had been part of Operation Chico:

In 1958 “Operation Chico”, a Civil Defense Exercise, took place. 1,008 people were moved from Solano County to Chico where they boarded with local families for the weekend. The maneuver was practiced because of the fear that an atomic bomb would be dropped in the county because of its strategic location. It was accessible from both Bay area bridges and the site of Travis AFB and the PG&E substation.

I was wrong about the early 60s. It was the late 50s. I was only three at the time. But I do remember it!

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

http://www.solanoarticles.com/history/index.php/weblog/more/operation_chico_was_only_a_test

[mackerel]

1. I lived in Vallejo for 20 years and I never heard this story. Funny I'm heading

up to Chico tomorrow for the day.

[PosterChild]

2. Say hi for me,.,.,

.,. Next time I'm in the area I'm going to drive over there and check it out.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Yes but did you ever have to "duck and cover"?...

[mackerel]

4. Duck & cover must've stopped by the time I hit school.

[PosterChild]

6. You bet....

.... and since I lived outside of Travis AFB, a strategic target, it had a special significance . We were given pamphlets that mapped out "zones of distruction" in rings around Travis. You could index your location to a probable damage / death profile : types and percentages of buildings destroyed , number of deaths and types of injuries , etc.

And during the duck and cover, there was always a good chance of a jet screaming overhead and causing a sonic boom! Very realistic !

[TexasTowelie]

5. My mistake,

I thought this was going to be about El Supremo's avatar, Chico, the mascot of the El Paso Chihuahuas.