posted on May 27, 2001 08:22:44 AM new
I swear this is true.
In October 1962 we were living in Bogota and we had come to the states for a month long vacation. The first leg of our vacation was New York City. My greatest joy was TV, we had TV again, cartoons! Yippee! So there I am in a trance watching Bozo one afternoon. Between cartoons Bozo takes on a serious tone, "Kiddies, remember to tell your parents to watch the President's speech tonight." I was young enough to need a cartoon fix, but I was also old enough to think that was a strange message from Bozo.
That night Kennedy gave his famous broadcast detailing the situation and the ultimatum that had been delivered to the Soviet Union. I don't remember the broadcast, but I've always remembered Bozo telling me to have my parents watch the President's speech.
I have few other memories of the Cuban missile crisis except for looking out the plane window flying from Miami to Caracas on our return home. The memories of passengers pointing to some ships at one point is still with me, but little else.
Anyone else have any personal memories of the Cuban missile crisis?
posted on May 27, 2001 02:43:31 PM new
I was living with my Aunt and Uncle in Columbus Ohio. I was 14. We lived right between Port Columbus airport and the Lockborn airbase.
My Aunt had to take her plates and knicknacks down because of the jets. All night long it was rumble - rumble - rumble, because they were keeping a third of the SAC bombers in the air. Your would get to sleep because it was even - then wake up because it was louder and had changed pitch. You knew they had lauched alert fighters and then in about 30 seconds there would be a crack /crack as they went over you transonic and the shock cones followed them across the ground.
When we went to the civilian airport to fly out they had several nuclear bombers parked at the ends of the runways with the starter carts attached to the engines and the crews sitting in the aircraft. They had a security perimeter around each end of the runway with guards with automatic rifles. It was scary knowing they had a dozen live nuclear weapons exposed there at a civilian airport and if we saw them crank up and climb out of there you could figure we all had about 10 minutes to kiss our butts goodbye because if Port Columbus was not a big enough bulls eye Lockborn was only a few miles away and they would cream it with a ballistic warhead for sure. When we took off and landed it was right over the bombers sitting there. That was rather risky exposing them to the air traffic arriving and departing right over them. They dispersed all over the US like that to whatever airports had a long enough runway for them.
In another thread some people are sort of mocking being concerned about being nuked. We expected it anytime for a couple weeks there and I can not fault anyone who has contingency plans. There are several tens of thousands of those weapons in the world and anyone who thinks the two used in anger so far are the last that will ever be lite off is a fool.
posted on May 27, 2001 02:57:32 PM newanyone who thinks the two used in anger so far are the last that will ever be lite off is a fool.
I do believe that there are a couple places where it is possible for the use of nuclear weapons. The middle east, the use of a nuclear weapon there wouldn't be much of a shock to me. India and Pakistan, I think the use of nuclear weapons there is possible, sometimes I've thought it probable.
I do believe the two that were used were used wisely. I think they saved more lives than they cost.
posted on May 27, 2001 04:24:22 PM new
I remember one of the kids in my 5th grade class went home for lunch and heard on the noon news that a Soviet ship had been stopped by the US blockade around Cuba. He came back to class and announced to the class that WWIII had started. Geez, was our class scared. It took the teacher forever to get us calmed down and explain what really happened.
posted on May 27, 2001 04:40:05 PM new
I was junior in HS when the Cuban missle crisis happened. As a silly high school girl, all my friends and I could think of was that our boyfriends would get drafted. Little did we know VietNam was in the making and soon enough that worry would be realized. The sobering reality came when we realized that we were living next to Boeing and McConnel AFB (Wichita, KS) and everything was on alert. I remember my mother was ashen when Kennedy made his announcement. Every day we were glued to the TV for reports and the presentation to the UN by Ambassador Stevenson. Thank goodness that Bozo wasn't in the White House then. Thank goodness that Khruschev blinked first.
posted on May 27, 2001 06:04:54 PM new
I was in the 3rd grade, but I vividly remember how tense all the grown-ups were. The teachers, my dad, other kids' parents. My dad kept saying, "this is it, this is it". The absurdity of the whole thing, as I look back, were the weekly "air raid" drills. The sirens would go off, and we all had to scramble to crouch under our desks and with our arms covering our heads. Like a fat lot of good that was gonna do us in a nuclear attack. But being kids, we didn't know that. And the sound of those sirens were creepy. It made me feel like I was in a science fiction movie.
posted on May 27, 2001 07:32:02 PM new
I do remember my parents being concerned that we were staying in a hotel in the middle of Manhatten at the time. I guess they had little doubt that they were dancing around in the bullseye. I did appreciate that the situation was serious, but being on vacation in NYC distracted me a great deal from the reality of things.
And the sound of those sirens were creepy. It made me feel like I was in a science fiction movie.