The Secretive World of Bunker 24 & the Cold War
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- In this video, The Secretive World of Bunker 24 & the Cold War, Kevin Hicks takes you on a journey back to one of the most tense periods in history. Shot on location at the Tunnels of Moose Jaw, explore a recreation of a secret military installation built deep underground to protect key officials and personnel in the event of a nuclear attack. Sharing some stories of the Cold War, including his own experiences, Kevin offers a fascinating glimpse into a pivotal moment in world history.
You can learn more about the Tunnels of Moosejaw here..... tunnelsofmoose...
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Iron Curtain Map © Kseferovic CC BY-SA 3.0
Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas: Photo courtesy Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan
I was a Naval Intelligence Officer through the 80s & 90s at the end of the cold war. I know exactly how you feel about having all your best stories TS/SCI. More than a few of my work locations had no windows and Marines at the front door. Take care Kevin.
👍🏻
It is always so eerie to hear stories from this era. Imagine the specter of absolute destruction hanging over your head at all times for so many years.
You see, this is why I'm a subscriber. You are a true historian. Whether you take us on a tour through the 1500s or the mid-twentieth century or wherever your fancy may roam you make the trek fascinating and easy to follow. So enjoyable to be a part of your tour group.
That's really kind of you RJ, thank you 👍🏻
It is always a pleasure to hear your real life stories. Great selection of topics. In grade school we did the duck and cover drills. Out teacher said it was to protect us from flying glass in case the school was hit by a tornado! We were in New Jersey…so even as kids we were skeptical of the tornado reason.
😜
I grew up on SAC USAF bases in the 50’s and 60’s. The Cold War was very evident to me. My dad was up in the air in B-52s much of the time. It was a scary time.
So cool seeing all this history from the province I grew up in on your channel. We would go to the tunnels on field trips when I was in elementary school
They're still cool to visit 👍🏻
Getting up into my era. As a child of the late 50's/60's I lived in Miami, not far from Cuba, and remember the monthly drills and practicing the " Duck and Cover " in school. My older brother was in the US Air Force back then and was in electronics repair. One time while at a SAC base out west to do some repair work, he got caught in the bunker when a alert sounded and the base was locked down. He was really worried as he had no where to go but the commanding officer noticed him and gently and quietly told him to just stay out of the way as this was just a drill and to not worry. That sure gave him the scare of his life back then. My brother is passed on now but had many interesting stories from those days.
Wow, what amazing stories. Having grown up during Cold War, it is fascinating to learn what was going on "behind the scenes" with the military. The story of picking up sounds from the past is thought provoking. Who knows with modern technology what is possible and what already might be happening in a secret bunker somewhere. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge with us.
It's a pleasure, thanks for watching 👍🏻
Enjoy your stories Kevin, I too remember a few times in the early 1960’s where the schools instructed us on taking shelter. Also remember some of the town buildings designated as fallout shelters and having the symbol next to the entrance.
I’m 70, and I’m acquainted with an elderly neighbor, he’s 92, he worked for a defense contractor in the 1960’s throughout the 1980’s. As an inspector of the missile silos in the Midwest states. He is an interesting fellow to talk to about those times. Much of those silos are now empty and abandoned
Re: Radio messages from the past - there's a term for them, "Long delayed echo" (LDEs), that I picked up from reading about the Titanic of all things... there was an old story of a radio enthusiast in Croydon in 1936 who encountered the Morse distress messages from the sinking, and in looking into it there are several other similar stories (each one a little less documented and verifiable...), but yeah, an example of LDE if true.
Fascinating 👍🏻
@@thehistorysquad I always assumed it was paranormal rather than LDE, but I have my grandfather's radio from WW2. One time in the 90s I was bored and kicked it on to see what I could find in shortwave, and came across a station in English that was signing off for the night, something along the lines of: "This is Radio Tokyo signing off" followed by some music. The problem: Radio Tokyo only existed during the war (Tokyo Rose is one of the more infamous personalities from the station). After the war Japan was kicked off shortwave for quite some time and when finally allowed to return to the air, came back as "NHK." I quickly got a shiver, thought "okay that's enough with that" and turned it off. The radio had been in both theatres (him having been in the only American regiment to serve in both) and lived to tell the story. Paranormal, LDE, or somebody's prank? Who knows. But its not the only story out there from hams who have experienced something they could not explain. And it still works, more than 70 years later.
@@sgath92 How lovely. We have equipment in our museum which we've been cleaning up and looking at and much to our surprise some of it still works and can send out a signal 👍🏻
Love to hear your stories. Always exciting and interesting. I guess I will be giving my age away but there is no forgetting October 27, 1962 . I came home from school, I was in the 5th grade and pops said he was going to the grocery to see if he could pick up some food to stock before the stores ran out. He said Kennedy will be on TV tonight. It was a lucky accident that WWIII did not start.
I remember it well as I was 12 years old at the time. Here in England we were waiting to see if those Soviet ships would turn back, and dreading another and even worse war.
Thanks for the tour, Kevin. I was stationed at multiple bases during my time in the military that had nuclear weapons and can certainly agree that it could make one wonder what would happen in the event they were actually used. Thank God we have not found out yet, and I say yet, as things are pretty shaky right now. Cheers from Texas.
Yep, as you say, pretty shaky 👍🏻
I mean, we do have some idea of what happens when they're used. Ask Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I've been to Hiroshima before actually and you'd never guess that such a pretty, clean city was once an irradiated inferno.
@@fartingforkeeps I know what you mean, but I was referring to present tense, world wide use. Cheers.
Maybe more people should consider all the planning and preparation for a potential attack that was once important. I think it's fair to say it's just as relevant now as then.
You always learn from history so you can move forward without making the same mistakes.
Thanks Kevin for another informative episode. Kids today have no idea what is was like. I was born in '54. We had "duck and cover drills " on a regular basis. Also, the USA had public service announcements (PSA) featuring Tommy the turtle who would go deep inside his shell when the siren went off.
During our assignments to Germany, the Army just used to kid about the "whistle going off or the balloon going up ". Family members attended regular meetings about where to go/what to bring/how we would be evacuated. Like the Soviets wouldn't notice a 200 mile long convoy of privately owned vehicles (POVs) all headed for the Swiss border. Some women really believed it. Most realized it was just to make us feel good and was a pipedream of some general.
Thank you for your service. My hubby served in the U.S. Army for over 24 yrs with 3 tours in Germany.
A lovely comment Sharon, thank you. I served with the US army, I was attached to them for a while, a good bunch of guys 👍🏻
Any thoughts of fleeing or survivors has been put forward to raise moral in civilians.
There will be no escaping a full on NBCW attack.
Best wishes.
Fantastic work!
I live about 45 min from Moose Jaw and had no idea that they had this display.... now I can't wait to go. Great video and thank you for your service.
Excellent! Have fun 👍🏻
Thank you for making this video and an even bigger thank you for standing with us during the Cold War. We (US) are so fortunate to have you (UK) with us from the very beginning until the Cold War ceased. What a wild time it was.
Addendum- I was a child of the late 1980's through the 1990's. We were also taught to hide under our desks during a nuclear attack. I always thought (even as a child) that they did this to make it easier to count the dead. Grim.
As a soldier in the SSF in Petawawa, back in the '70s one of my jobs was a NBC Supervisor. Such an optimistic job that was. The whole idea was to prepare for the inevitable strike, not if but when, to protect as many "assets" as possible, dig out, clean up and prepare to fight back. Frankly, I think it was just an exercise to keep us going right up to the actual strike: nobody was really expected to survive. But we planned anyway. One of my favorites was having to calculate the radiation levels and then determining the time each member can remain outside to do necessary tasks, so everyone would get there share (measured by our little black dosemeters we wore with our dog tags). The idea is we would happily follow orders to accumulate deadly radiation because it was shared equally: good thing THAT part of human nature was never tested. But, as absurd as it all seems now, we all took it very seriously. We were convinced, at the time, it wasn't a game. It's still not, but nobody really expects to survive after the next time one is used. Truly MAD!
So, thanks Kevin for the walk down memory lane. It's certainly a bit different than your usual, like extracting arrows from nobles heads.
Indeed, gotta keep it fresh now and again. Thanks for watching and your comment 👍
I remember the Cold War, and Duck and Cover and the Sirens. Part of the Time I lived near a military base near Washington D.C. We did a lot of Duck and Cover drills. It was a scary time.
Once again Kevin really enjoyed, the radio signal from ww2 was very interesting if its true what they said it could explain away some of the ghost stories with things getting trapped and repeating itself. 😊
While the populace of the world went blindly on the reality of just how hot the cold war was well hidden by the guardians at the gate like yourself. The stress of knowing just how hard and dangerously the espionage games were being played in the shadows must have weighed heavy upon yourself and your colleagues; especialy when you were sworn to secrecy and could not share with friends and relatives.
[0:59, 1:04] I have a Royal typewriter and a green phone just like those. But then, I'm an old Cold Warrior, too.
I have wanted to see one these bunkers ever since I was a kid, Ive always had this unexplainable fascination with cold war era bunkers. Sadly most of them are in very poor condition nowadays.
When I was quite young, we had an excursion in the.local atomic bunker. I believe it is still there.
@@PieterBreda There aren't any near where I live, Not high enough above sea level for them to be practical.
@@ColonelBragg Most these bunkers in the Netherlands got flooded. Ours is wet country.
I've been down into some of the Cold War bunkers in an ex Eastern Bloc country that were built by the Soviets. They are sobering places for sure.
Great video Kevin.
Cheers 👍🏻
I would love to visit Moosejaw, but she's far away from me.
My work mate & best man was in the Territorial Army in the 1980's and had to deliver fuel to a secret nuclear bunker that had the outside disguised as a transport depot. He got a little lost and asked a local if he knew where the army depot was. The local said "Oh, you mean the secret bunker? Just follow the roads with the perfect tarmac and you'll get there".
🤣
The largest nuclear explosion that can (theoretically) be made is able to vaporize an area roughly the size of France...🤯
Isn't that scary, most people just have no idea 👍🏻
Eagerness to fight socialism has very often created sympathy for communism and that makes you wonder who is the real enemy...
Corporate media funded by right-wing governments and greedy billionaires. The ones scared of socialism the most. And rightfully so. Quite a few examples of people demonised by media just because they wanted to somewhat improve people's lives and society in general.
There’s nothing like a genuine primary source. I love your stories. Thank you!
Glad you like them!
What a superb post Kevin. And you made a very good point about certain things not making much progress from the 50’s to 60’s.
Being probably of a similar age to yourself, I well remember growing up in the Cold War, it made an impact on many of us at that time.
The cold war was always one of those parts of history that I never really knew much about, just little bits here and there. So thanks a lot for these videos.
I honestly don't remember that period of time being taught in school, but I do remember the monthly air raid siren tests and our random "drop drills" while in grade school. Class would be going along as usual and without warning, the teacher would yell out "DROP!" and we kids had to dive under our desks (oh, yeah. . . like that would protect us from a nuclear blast 🙄 )
Thank you for all of the great videos! I especially liked the one about how soldiers traveled with their horses and all of their equipment at sea. :-} Very practical knowledge if that bunker becomes necessary with today's politics. :-{
I read a couple of years ago that they discovered a bunker in my hometown Breda that everybody had forgotten. It was in a spot that was inaccessible for the public. It was flooded and I believe it was dug out.
I had lots to say about living through the Cold War (and being in one of the hot parts of it!) but decided not to say so much. Except that I had a classified briefing while in the service that I said nothing about...until I saw most of it on the History Channel a few years back!
Whoa 😳
@@thehistorysquad I also remember duck and cover drills in school, and the neighbors putting in a fallout shelter...which they later filled in because it kept flooding when it rained! I guess this issue wasn't confined to civilians, because many years later I lived briefly in a town which was near missile silos. Driving by one day, I saw the door open and a plumber's truck parked next to it. I later heard that the silo was leaking, and the civilian plumber was called in to fix it.
Brilliant, natural presenter, and always fascinating to hear of things that we would know nothing of but for this man.
Thanks really kind, thanks 👍🏻
Nice little snippet of quite modern history Kev 🤘🏹
Cheers Mick 👍🏻
Thanks as always for interesting and illuminating stories Kev.
I visited a decommissed bunker near North Wales a few years back. Our guide informed us in the main stairwell it was painted yellow to cheer people up that might be considering suicide....
I bought a thermonuclear war snow globe which I still use as a paperweight to this day, much to my wife's chagrin.
Funny enough, the mess area in Bunker 24 I visited, the walls were painted yellow too, probably for the same purpose 👍🏻
I went to school on the opposite side of the field to Leavsden Aerodrome (now Harry Potter Studio) and my teacher said that it would be a target and the Russians would kill us all. It was 1984/5. Many years later meet and marry a pretty girl from USSR; still the words of my teacher ring in my head! She has stories not unlike my own. We live literally on the doorstep of Bletchley Park and have spent many sunny afternoons there ... my kids are very good at cracking codes :) When we go to Tallinn, where my wife was born, we visit the USSR museums to see how she lived and the other side of the curtain - if you do ever go to Estonia I recommend the KGB museum in Viru :)
It is scary.......there are alledged such situations even today. Who knows who may be gathering information
I love the cold war video's they make me think of Germany in the early1980's ,I remember driving to HOF border for the Cavalry to replace an engine when I took a wrong turn ,It was an eventful day ,Thomas and I had to take a break shall we say and stepped into the woods as you do,Well 10 seconds later we hear these girls start giggling ,Apparently they were there for the same reason and spotted us,We zipped and took off while they laughed louder,Embarrassed we head out ,We come to this stretch of road I didn't recognize,Shrugged and went on,Next thing you know we are passing two guard towers and the biggest hound I have ever seen,They stared at us and I looked back,Figuring if they were gonna shoot might as well had fun,So I waved to them, One smiled and them stopped as the other saw him ,Nothing happened and I didn't stop,Only thing between us was a barbed wire fence,Just kept waving and drove off,Interesting day though.
That's a really cool museum, whenever I go to Saskatchewan, I'll definitely check it out. My great uncle was in the Canadian military and he was stationed up in the Arctic with NORAD.
😜😂, my sister lives in Moose Jaw!!! Good place for a bunker, there’s not much worth bombing in the middle of Canada, other than the airfield.
I find it VERY hard to believe that story about picking up sounds from El Alamein years later - they were winding Kevin up!
Oh gosh you had number 10 there too.!! LOL I'm a Californian forever and humor only disguised the intense fear and anxiety particularly during the Cuban Blockade. California is a prime target because of all the military bases here on the west coast
Outstanding video. I remember when JFK did the blockade. We used to do duck and cover drills in grade school. That was a very very real bit of history I grew up in.
Reminded me of the time I got to go Inside NORAD as a kid. I live next to the old Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, now home to the Olympic Training Center and a call center. But, your video got me thinking of what secrets are hidden in these buildings.
at the video's end, you are sitting in front of a typewriter. Same model (it appears) that I spent so much time at as a youngster. My Gran brought it home with him from the service... he never spoke much of the Cold War, but seeing that brought back a lot of memories for me.
Thank you Sir.
The end of WWII gets me so ill sometimes. The whole thing kicked off to protect Poland from Germany but ended with the USSR keeping it.
May I ask UK to return Gibraltar to Spain? Thank you. Of course you can tell how it was taken in a dinasty war... Thank you for your videos.
Really interesting stuff, what an interesting Life you've had mate. If they had gone to war I'm thinking your archery skills might have been the state of the art again afterwards. Keep doing your thing 😊
Fascinating stuff, your brilliant. What an exciting time. The closest I ever got to espionage was working as a contractor on a Naval ship in the radio control room, everything was covered with curtains even the entrance after the main door and we were watched all the time. I learnt a new word in there danger ...... Beryllium!
Today, many will not even be able to use typewritwers and phones.....
😜
@@osakarose5612 I said "manY". And yes, I've still got my old Remington typewriter. However, I still doubt many know how to load paper and write on it....
Mobiles have been around for some years, so I guess the younger generation knows how to pick up the phone, get the tune, then dial a number.....
A slightly different vibe but close enough thing would be the diefenbunker, out of the old CFS Carp in Ontario
I was ten when the Cuban missile crisis happened. No one knew if they would even be around to wake up next morning.
In the 80's I remember all my training in Army Cadets, we exercised every week on assault courses wearing NBC suits, gas masks, rubber gloves & boots. This was when the Falklands war was in full swing, so we reminded of nuclear war everyday.
Thanks Kev. A really interesting link to bletchley park. So many secrets from that place still no known
Alex Wellerstein has a site which you can specify a bomb and place it where you want to see the effect it has. i call it the Nuke map, I don't know if its allowed to promote another web site, so you will have to search for it.
I well remember the cold war. I was in the senior form at school at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and believe me we were scared. The headmaster walked into our class and announced that the Soviets had backed down and cheers and applause broke out in sheer relief.
I knew about the cold War but I was too young to realize the importance of it. Thank you.
Prevent fallouts. Wear Y fronts....
🤣
Excellent! Here where we live ( Montana ) it covered in missile silos- which outsiders have no clue of- in fact this part of Montana was #9 in priority on USSRs hit list for nuclear war. I had no idea about the Moose Jaw installations. Thanks!
Hey John.
We in southern Saskatchewan are very aware of the missiles just over our border.
As well we are aware that in the event the Balloon goes up. We are doomed. As the fallout from strikes at your facilities, will cover Saskatchewan up to Saskatoon and Manitoba up to Winnipeg. Within Hours. Fleeing will be futile.
Please try to make sure Trump or someone more insane never gets their hands on the nukes.
Thanks.
Thank you for your service Kevin. It's amazing how much people were willing to do back then to try to prevent another nuclear war. Now in the face of pandemics people won't even wear masks. Was there a sort of military discipline running through the whole society back then?
Hmm, I think there was definitely civil obedience and of course this was on the tail of the Second World War 👍🏻
Amazing job Kevin, so interesting. Well explained and narrated.
Hi Kevin, I'm not sure what's more terrifying this or your old timey spooky stories
When the stories you couldn't tell us now aren't a secret anymore, maybe you should make some cool videos about them
Really love these personal stories! You have a lot of cool stuff to tell I think!
Another fantastic video, I wish you were my history teacher in highschool.
Wonderful video. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and time!
Amazing video! I'd like to see more content on the cold war and a possible nuclear one.
A really different video. So many things we knew nothing about at the time.
Well done as always sir. Some things in the service do change ever so slowly. While others change every second. Lol
The best reason we should be careful who elect to the heads of our government. Scary what could happen
I have been to one near hull in the uk was very interesting and as I was with a couple of ex army friends we got to see more than the regular tour it was quite large and took a couple hours to go round one them admitted he was stationed there for a while when it was in use but would not go any further than that
Yes! Here in the US we did those drills as well. I was a kid in the 60's as well....I remember all that.
Excellent video Kevin. Really interesting stuff.
Will keep that in mind to go when I get back that way again, very interesting!
Man what a great storyteller you are. I'm sure you hear this quite a bit, but it's true. So grateful I found this channel. Fascinating stuff.
I appreciate that, thanks!
Well done Kev. Best of British. Keep 'em coming.
They have those on power stations still today they are a eye wash and douching station
Col Steve Austin? :-P Great video!
Great work again! I love hearing these little stories. The part about the signals gave me chills.
It was quite incredible to listen to them at the time
Thanks Kevin - a great presentation. Yes, I well remember the concern over a possible attack on us by the USSR and the conflicts that the Soviets supported in various parts of the world. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a particularly uncomfortable time. We're still living in very uncertain times with the present conflict in Ukraine, though one would hope that lines of communication between Russia and Nato remain open enough to prevent something disastrous occurring. While I find levity in bad taste on this subject, I did enjoy Mark Felton's well-presented and eye-opening You Tube video 'When Britain Nuked America.... Twice!' The two American Operations Skyshield and Skyshield 2 the following year were salutary lessons of what could have happened if our Avro Vulcan nuclear Bombers had been Soviet aircraft attacking the US. Worth a view for those who are unaware of the video, or Google Operation Skyshield.
Hi Pete, thanks, I'll maybe take a look at that video 👍🏻
Fascinating, indeed!
Leaves me with a battle within myself though: I do equate compulsory socialism with Communism. The segue lacks demarcation that I can discern....
Yes, that's somewhat of a problem. 👍🏻
Kevin, I wasa member of the Royal Observer Corps from 1985 to 1991. Was your work in London connected to ROC/ UKWMO (United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation) or to someone else?
No I wasn't connected to them, ironically, our role had nothing to do with warning, ours came in after the fact. It was a strange reality of being trained to pick up the pieces after a nuclear attack.
Thanks for the tour of the bunker, very interesting. Here in England there is the York Cold War Bunker which was a Royal Observer Corps installation and which is open to the public.
I was born in 1950, so the "Cold War" was the background to my childhood and adolescence. My parents and I lived in Rotherham, Yorkshire. This meant we were about 14 miles from the V-Bomber base at RAF Finningley, a primary target for a first strike attack. Even as a child I realised that that we were not likely to survive an attack, but in that way humans have, you put such thoughts to the back of your mind. I will however admit to having had a recurring dream where I wake, look out my bedroom window and see a "mushroom cloud" rising in the distance!
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, I thought perhaps Europe had outgrown large scale wars, but here we are again with a new land war. Makes you wonder if it will ever end.
Thanks for your comment Michael 👍
During the early years of the Thatcher government I became a person of interest to the British Special Branch and MI5 as a potential Soviet agent. My phone was tapped, my mail intercepted and a file prepared about my details including my place of work*.
What had I done to warrant such suspicions? I was the branch secretary of the most mild trade union ever, NALGO, the Nation & Local Goverment Officers Association. It was so politically neutral that my branch chairman was a Conservative Councillor.
* How do I know this, I had a visit at work from a special branch officer to tell me that I was banned from going with 10 miles of Blackpool for the duration of the Conservative Party conference.
😂 crazy but I can believe it
Oh hi Kevin, Saskatchewan is a place I have many fond memories of, waterfowl and upland bird hunting. When I was a young hard charging Arctic trooper us in the 172nd light Arctic infantry ,us and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian light infantry were all that stood between the lower 48 and eastern Canada,2 brigades , from a 150 godless communist Russian brigades , they gave us about 48 hours to hold out until the 9th and 25 infantry divisions made it up to relieve us , I wasn’t very optimistic about this . We trained with the Princess Pats, great guys and very professional, we got to go to the range one time and familiarize with their weapons, they had FN’s and the squad leaders and the corporals had, sterling, light submachine, guns , I really liked the FN ,I tried to trade with a Canadian trooper,my M16 for his FN ,he didn’t bite , I didn’t think much of the M16 either, yes the Cold War was more serious than most people realize
Hi there and thanks for your comment. I was attached to the Americans for a short while and they issued me with my "army gun", and AR16 and I didn't like it one bit. It's way on the other side of the world in West Germany, I was the driver of a Landrover that was to probe the East German/Russian lines in the event of hostilities, me together with an honest sergeant practiced this drill many times and one day on a exercise eating our rations, we looked at each other and laughed, one Landrover, 2x 9mm pistols were gonna take on the Russians 😜
Great presentation as always, Kev and Mrs. Kev! I was in the intelligence business through the 1980s and 1990s, and even then, many of the secret stuff from Vietnam, Korea, WWII and earlier remained compartmented/need-to-know only. Seems kind of goofy to an outsider: why should perishable information collected more than 50 years ago remain so closely guarded? The reason is because the type and content of the information can reveal sources and methods that remain in use to this day. Reveal adversary information collected a certain way, and that source *will* dry up and blow away. Protecting historical information from public (and adversary) view helps guarantee continued collection. It's a chess game that *everyone* around the world plays and the stakes are extremely high.
You're spot on, what a great comment, thanks!
I was 5 yrs old during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and I can remember, where my family lived at the time in Southern Calif., that when my mother would drive along a major street, I could see 3 missiles (ICBM's?) out of their silos, aimed (Moscow?). Being that young, I thought it was exciting to see since I had NO concept / awareness of what was going on and was disappointed when they were no longer visible (they must have been lowered back into the silos after those terrifying 13 days) and I kept looking for them. Many years later, my mother told me that she was in a state of panic, bordering on hysteria, not knowing if we were all going to die and trying not to show her fear/panic to myself and my sister.
Yep, such tense times.
You are so well versed in so many historic topics.....thank you so much for sharing your wealth of information. You bring so many unknown facts to us......
You are so welcome
I have a funny story from this period. My father was a meteorologist and we were living in Brownsville, Texas during the Cuban missile crisis. One day he came home laughing…he’d just heard the Brownsville fire department had practiced putting out an atom bomb! I remember the drills in school…getting under the desk. I would stay awake at night worrying about it. That my mother told me in gory detail about the aftermath in Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not help. The propaganda was intense here in the US as well. I lost count of the number of times I was called a Commie and told to move to Russia or physically threatened because I believe government should exist to benefit the people and not the other way around.
They were strange times indeed. Loved the story about the fire department though - can you imagine 🤣
Interesting video as always, scary times
I recall the "Duck and Cover" drills in 4th and 5th grades in the California school system, the air raid shelter mania and later, as a student at UC Berkeley, the stockpiles of buckets of food and other gear at the bottom of all the stairwells in the class buildings. Young people, drunk on rock & roll, didn't really register the danger and life went on. A very small percentage of the student body was bothered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. My fraternity took a dim view of all the worry in the air and in the media. We threw a party, called it "The Blockade Bash", and were buried by the noisy throng of beer seeking adolescents that poured through our frat house as Kruschev eventually decided that they would have to live with the fact that an armed NATO with ICBM's on Russia's doorstep was business as usual, but try to even the odds and the Pentagon went berserk. Any President other than Kennedy, and the militarists would not have hesitated to push the button. So many instances in history of humans just barely pulling their nuts out of the fire. You are a good teacher and the love for your subject puts a shine on the matter.
Cheers, thanks for watching 👍🏻
Greetings once again from nova Scotia, another top shelf video, I enjoyed this little peak behind the scenes as it were, the D.E.W. LINE has many stories, most of them, never to be told. Thanks again Kevin, this was great. As always best regards, Arthur
Cheers Arthur 👍🏻
The big advantage of a mechanical typewriter is that it will keep on working as long as you have color tape and paper. No electricity needed. Often I prefer the older stuff above what we are using now (where I have to admit that, after decades typing on a computer keyboard, I had a catastrophic fail trying a mechanical typewriter, using ten fingers, again.)
More of this stuff please, Kevin, especially when binge watching, as I am currently doing, it is nice to dive into shallower waters of history from time to time. And when you explain it, it is not less interesting than the medieval period 🙂
Haha, did you ever get your fingers stuck? I did.
Glad to see you have some time for UA-cam on your hands again 👍🏻
hey kev great vid. i think i told you i was 15 yrs in the marines 42 bickleigh barracks joined 1986 and we had similar places and positions in case of a nuclear attack, and i remember ,im sure i can say this, but in an event of crisis there where lists of people, ie trouble, work, educated etc, who all had a position after times of war, i wont say much but i remember all looters where to be shot. If i dont comment on next vid yknow LOL. thanks for the insight .
🤣 Cheers Tom, good to jog some memories eh? Oh and thanks for the SUPER, most kind of you mate👍🏻
The love of the game from our man is un matched!!
Kevin: Good stuff. One observation, that green color on the walls must be some NATO standard. It is very memorable.
Yep, as soon as I walked in there I thought to myself....NATO standard 🤣
Excellent stuff. I spent the Cold War with the RA with the Lance SSM missile. Like yourself lots of thing that cannot be said due too the official secrets act but spent a lot of that time in nbc noddy kit hiding in factory’s, farms and anything under cover too hind from the eyes in the sky
Oh yes indeed, happy days, and people complained about a paper mask during COVID 😜
Great work. Thank you Mr Kevin.
Always awesome!! Have you ever done a video showing your memorabilia collection? I bet it is incredible!!
Not yet! 👍🏻