This memorable episode aired less than two months after President John F. Kennedy—in a nationally-televised speech as the Berlin crisis rapidly escalated—urged Americans to start making plans for fallout shelters to save themselves and their families in case of a nuclear attack.
Almost overnight, Kennedy's address set off a nationwide fallout shelter frenzy. Heated debates ensued on the morality of turning away or even shooting neighbors trying to enter a family shelter in an emergency. Here's an article in TIME from August 18, 1961: “Gun Thy Neighbor?”
Harshly criticized (incl. by Eleanor Roosevelt and the Rev. Billy Graham) for triggering the hysteria, JFK subsequently pleaded, “Let us concentrate more on keeping enemy bombers and missiles away from our shores and concentrate less on keeping neighbors away from our shelters.”
When the fallout shelter frenzy ended in December 1961 (after tensions over Berlin had diminished), Congress had appropriated more than $200 million (then-year dollars) to clearly identify and restock existing public shelters. But only about 200,000 families had built their own.
Before that happened, however, Rod Serling and “The Twilight Zone” dramatized the ethical and moral quandries presented by the family fallout shelter in the now-classic episode simply titled, “The Shelter,” which was first broadcast on September 29, 1961.

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More from @AtomicAnalyst

17 Sep
Today in 1955, a specially-modified B-36 bomber—the NB-36H—made its first test flight out of Carswell AFB, Texas, carrying (but not powered by) an operational 1-Megawatt air-cooled nuclear reactor. It would make 46 additional flights over Texas and New Mexico through March 1957. Image
The NB-36H flew directly over Lake Worth, the principal water source for Fort Worth. A B-50 carrying specially-trained paratroopers escorted each test flight. Had the NB-36H crashed, they would jump into the impact zone to prevent any unauthorized entry.
A 12-ton lead-and-rubber-shielded cockpit with windows 10-12 inches thick protected the flight crew from the otherwise lethal amount of radiation emanating from the reactor hanging in the bomb bay. Special water pockets installed aft of the cockpit also absorbed radiation. ImageImage
Read 13 tweets
15 Sep
Tonight in 1980 at Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, the number five engine on the right wing of a B-52H on ground alert caught fire during a drill. The aircraft was loaded with 8 Short-Range Attack Missiles (armed with 170-200-kt W69 warheads) and 4 B28 bombs (70 kt to 1.45 Mt).
That night, a southeast wind gusted up to 35 mph. The B-52 pointed in that direction. That alone kept the flames away from the fuselage. Had the nose been facing west, the fire would have incinerated all six crew members as they evacuated and burned the weapons in the bomb bay.
Because the crew did not follow the correct procedure to shut off the fuel lines before evacuating, the fire burned for three hours. Eventually, a crew member broke through the fire line, climbed into the B-52, and properly engaged the shutoff valves, extinguishing the blaze.
Read 12 tweets
14 Sep
Alarmed by Trump's irrational behavior and the insurrection, Gen. Mark Milley took the extraordinary step of ordering officials at the National Military Command Center not to accept any orders—incl. to launch nuclear weapons—unless he was directly involved.cnn.com/2021/09/14/pol…
While somewhat reassuring given the circumstances, Milley's Jan. 8 actions were arguably extralegal because the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff only advises the president and others and does not have the legal authority to impede or override a president's military orders.
Flashback to Trump's State of the Union address on January 30, 2018:
Read 4 tweets
14 Sep
OTD in 1954—for its ninth nuclear test—the USSR staged a live-fire nuclear wargame near Totskoye, ~600 mi. SE of Moscow. At 9:33am (local), a 40-kt atomic bomb exploded 1,150 feet in the air between two groups of soldiers, some just 2 miles from the blast.
The roughly 45,000 soldiers were then ordered into mock battle under highly radioactive conditions for the remainder of the day. Most had no protective equipment and were not warned about the dangers. Some who were issued gas masks removed them in the oppressive 115F (46C) heat.
Exposures that day were reportedly ten times the maximum allowable level for US soldiers for an entire year. The 1,000,000 people who lived within 100 miles of the blast were given no warning at all. For more about this "monstrous" exercise, see washingtonpost.com/archive/politi….
Read 9 tweets
13 Sep
White House Military Office Coast Guard aide Lt. Cdr. Jayna McCarron was on “Football” duty in Wilmington this morning at the start President Biden’s trip to Idaho and California. The ~45-lb. briefcase follows Biden 24/7, enabling him to authorize a nuclear strike at any time. ImageImage
His briefing at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise over, President Biden heads next to Sacramento, California, for a briefing on California's recent wildfires and to survey some of the damage from the air. Lt. Cdr. McCarron still has the Presidential Emergency Satchel. Image
At Sacramento Mather Airport (Mather AFB, until 1993), Lt. Cdr. McCarron descended the aft stairway on Air Force One and handed off the satchel to—could it be—her Space Force counterpart? If so, this would be the first time I’ve seen an aide from Space Force with the “Football.” ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
11 Sep
Twenty years ago today, US Strategic Command was one week into its annual Global Guardian nuclear command and control exercise. Bombers had been armed with nuclear weapons, ICBMs and several SSBNs were on alert, and three E-4B command posts were airborne. omaha.com/local/on-strat…
Which is why, when Air Force One landed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana (carrying President George W. Bush from Sarasota, Florida, to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, and, finally, back to Washington, DC), this is the first thing that happened: politico.com/magazine/story…
In 2016, William Arkin and Robert Windrem reported that three dozen live nuclear weapons were aboard strategic bombers at three US Air Force bases that day. The other bases were almost certainly Minot AFB in North Dakota and Whiteman AFB in Missouri. nbcnews.com/storyline/9-11…
Read 9 tweets

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