When I was a child I remember Civil Defense Drills and Air Raid Drills.

[Bandit]

My mother was a Red Cross/Civil Defense volunteer. She would participate weekly in Civil Defense Drills. IOW practice for bombings and attacks from a real honest to God enemy. These volunteers would meet in Civil Defense facilities like basement rooms and underground rec halls where food and water supples were stored for the people. They wore armbands and helmets indicating who they were. They would practice getting all the people from their prospective neighborhoods into the Civil Defense Shelters, how to start and run the generators etc. We also had Air Raid Drills at least once a month. Sirens would go off and everyone had to pull their shades and shut off lights and even cars back then had what they called blackout lights. America had faced a very severe threat and had prevailed, yet these Drills went on for many years after the War (WW II) ended. We also had "Duck and Cover" Drills in our class rooms. Americans all worked together with sacrifice and determination to prevail but we still kept our Moral Identity. We didn't feel the need to Torture anyone. During the paranoid Bush* years I never witnessed any true sacrifice and determination from an American people that truly feared for their country. The Cabal pushed the Fear factor at every opportunity but even the most devoted Freeper never really believed the USA was about to be overrun by an attacking army and our neighborhoods were going to be bombed and strafed. It has all been purely Political and very nasty..and you know what, with all their bluff and bluster they still LOST their "War". They did get away with the plunder of the US Treasury and Reputation of America but they LOST at their supposed greatest strength...WAR...Bin Laden is still out there somewhere and Iraq just had the largest single day death toll in over a year. The taliban is actually gaining in strength and territory..There truly was a time America was Great...and then came the Republicans....

[Mari333]

1. we ducked and covered and said the rosary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I

[napi21]

2. I remember that too. My dad was a CD volunteer. I was in grade school,

and along with pulling the shades and turning the lights out, we all were marched across the street to the church basement and had to stand up against the tiled concrete wall with our arms shielding our heads. There were no windows in that basement and I guess it WAS the safest place to be. I remember thinking at the time...If a bomb is really as bad as they show on TV, what good does it do to hide in the basement???

[Blecht]

3. Formatted so I could read it

My mother was a Red Cross/Civil Defense volunteer. She would participate weekly in Civil Defense Drills. IOW practice for bombings and attacks from a real honest to God enemy.

These volunteers would meet in Civil Defense facilities like basement rooms and underground rec halls where food and water supples were stored for the people.

They wore armbands and helmets indicating who they were. They would practice getting all the people from their prospective neighborhoods into the Civil Defense Shelters, how to start and run the generators etc.

We also had Air Raid Drills at least once a month. Sirens would go off and everyone had to pull their shades and shut off lights and even cars back then had what they called blackout lights.

America had faced a very severe threat and had prevailed, yet these Drills went on for many years after the War (WW II) ended. We also had "Duck and Cover" Drills in our class rooms. Americans all worked together with sacrifice and determination to prevail but we still kept our Moral Identity. We didn't feel the need to Torture anyone.

During the paranoid Bush* years I never witnessed any true sacrifice and determination from an American people that truly feared for their country. The Cabal pushed the Fear factor at every opportunity but even the most devoted Freeper never really believed the USA was about to be overrun by an attacking army and our neighborhoods were going to be bombed and strafed.

It has all been purely Political and very nasty..and you know what, with all their bluff and bluster they still LOST their "War". They did get away with the plunder of the US Treasury and Reputation of America but they LOST at their supposed greatest strength...WAR...Bin Laden is still out there somewhere and Iraq just had the largest single day death toll in over a year. The taliban is actually gaining in strength and territory..There truly was a time America was Great...and then came the Republicans....

[Blecht]

4. please don't take offense, but without separation, i couldn't read it

i like what you wrote

[Bandit]

5. Some people can do things other people can not

:shrug:

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. I remember the school drills.

They really should have told us to bend over, put your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodby.

[madrchsod]

7. ahhh.... the memories of grade school in the 50`s

at least some of those years we had may day celebrations on the playground.

[floridablue]

8. It was a chance to

squeeze into a dark place with the prettiest girl in the school. Enough for fantasies when you were pretending to be reading assignments for at least a month or two

[Captain Hilts]

9. I remember them practising the air raid sirens in DC. We did 'tornado' drills in school. nt

[Howardx]

10. once a month at 3 am

the sirens went off

[IDemo]

11. It was every Friday morning at 10:00 am where I lived

I used to think all the Russians had to do was launch the missiles at 9:30 Pacific time and nobody would be the wiser.

Duck and cover drills until about 3rd grade. 10 megaton blast versus sturdy 1/2" thick American particle board school desks? No match!

[Dappleganger]

12. That was back when citizenship was taken more seriously...

giving back to your country was respected, people pulled together for the COMMON good.

Nowadays it's everyone for themselves.

[NNN0LHI]

13. I more remember the Nike Missile base my cousins and I used to play outside of

http://ed-thelen.org/loc-i.html#Illinois

Locations of Former NIKE MISSILE SITES

-50 Homewood C - W of Il. 1, H of 187th St. ((P)IL ArNG recruiting

{{Burgess, P} (3/2002) ... . The ING abandoned the site several years ago and it has only just been demolished and converted into a public park. I am trying to get the local park district to erect a plaque remembering the site, but so far no go. I am a US navy vet and thought that the efforts of the Army here should at least warrant a plaque. We'll see how it goes. }

L - Il 1, S of 187th St ((P)Mercy Health Care/USAR Center)


The idea behind the Nike's was to fire nuclear weapons into the sky at the moment Soviet missiles or bombers were approaching large population centers such as Chicago in hopes of knocking them down. The people in the less populated suburbs where we used to play were considered expendable for the greater cause as we would have all surly died from radiation poisoning due to the nuclear air bursts detonated above our homes.

My cousins and I used to go and get the guard dogs protecting the base from behind a tall fence all stirred up until the soldiers would have to come out with their machine guns to see what was going on.

Don

[MADem]

14. It's a BOMB!! Duck and COVER!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y43Ldl5XQ8

Now that's some propaganda!

[JimGinPA]

15. I Had A Friend Who Worked The Overnight Shift At The Civil Defense Office

We used to visit him sometimes in the wee hours & get him a buzz.

On a side note, his older brother was/is the keyboard player in a famous rock band.

[ensho]

16. my father was an air raid warden, went out each night to make sure no light

came from any house on our street. we had to hang black cloth over windows and doors to hide the light.

the wardens could not even light up to smoke.