I miss the Cold War. As wars go, it was a good one because hardly anyone died. And yet it generated really cool stuff like nuclear submarines that could launch nuclear-tipped missiles from underwater, long-range bombers, ICBM silos in South Dakota farm land, Nike rockets perched on local hilltops designed to shoot down Soviet bombers, powerful radars searching for enemy bombers or missiles coming over the North Pole, and underwater listening devices to seek out Soviet subs. My lunch box featured nuclear ballistic missile sub USS George Washington. That sucker could launch 16 Polaris missiles at the Soviets in a matter of minutes! Good thing, too, because during the Cuban Missile Crisis a few Soviet sub commanders were minutes away from firing nuclear-tipped torpedoes at our ships blockading Cuba. And had they fired, well, we would have had to retaliate.
Just to make sure our bombs worked, there was extensive testing of those devices. More than one thousand tests. Seems like a lot. But how much fun would that be!! Code-names Trinity (first), Able, Baker, X-ray, Yoke, Zebra, Fox, Dog, George (first thermonuclear), Item, Sugar, Uncle, King, Nancy, Ruth, Dixie, Ray, Badger, Climax, Romeo, Hornet, Project 56, Kickapoo, Mohawk, Franklin, John (air-to-air missile), Saturn, Newton, Rainier, Argus I (300 miles altitude), Swordfish (anti-submarine rocket), Raccoon, Packrat…… you get the idea. Lots and lots of tests. Many air drops. In other words, not buried to contain the radioactivity. I had a thermos of milk in my USS George Washington lunch box. No doubt my milk was laced with Strontium 90 from all that fallout circling the globe, landing on the grass that our patriotic cows dutifully ate.
Remember fall out shelters? We had one at my elementary school. Maybe Dad dug one in the back yard. How about those sirens that went off every week at the same time on the same day.(some powered by hemi V8 engines….. very loud). Duck and cover kids! Don’t look at the flash.
And yet, we’re still here!!
Jet Cannon
