Strategic Air Command reaction to movies - 60's

Slim Pickens with old-style H-Bomb - Dr. Strangelove

The old feeder grew up under the threat of imminent nuclear war. Folks reacted to the situation differently. Some families installed bomb or fallout shelters, some joined 'ban-the-bomb' pacifist outfits and some just grew ulcers. Many good Americans, like my Dad, myself and my wife Jean worked to prevent nuclear holocaust by fighting communism and helping the cause of "mutually assured destruction". Other cats made great movies about the threat. Especially in the 1960's.

My favorite nuclear war movie has always been Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. I never gave it much thought, but the folks at the Strategic Air Command, headquartered at Omaha, Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base were concerned that movies like Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe would give Americans the wrong idea. Sometimes such films made it appear that nuclear weapons could just 'go off' the way gun control nuts think handguns are apt to do.

To counter this notion, the US Air Force made a film to show how safe and secure our nuclear weapons systems really were. That movie, for one reason or another, was never made public and remained classified until recently. I caught an AP story about it in the Omaha World Herald* with a link to the movie and decided to check it out. You can watch it here.

JSTPS office door - from the SAC movie - click

It brought back memories. Jean used to work at the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff, (JSTPS) which is featured in the government movie. The cats in her shop referred to their outfit as Nukes R Us. I remember going to one of their Christmas parties. The mood was macabre, but fun. The theme of the party was "We're making a list and checking it twice" from the Christmas song Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I'll leave you to make the rest of the analogies to the song that were bandied about that night.

What great folks those service men and women were. Dealing with the most deadly weapons systems ever in the history of mankind, 24 hours a day, day in and day out, they still had a sense of humor about their mission. They never forgot, however, that their real mission wasn't world scale destruction, but peace. In those days the entrance to SAC carried this motto: Peace is our Profession. For the entire time SAC existed, from 1946 to 1992, there was no nuclear war, thanks in large part to the vigilance of these troops and their leaders.
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The mission of maintaining the peace with nuclear weapons is now carried on by the U.S. Strategic Command, based in the old SAC buildings at Offutt. It isn't just an Air Force job now.
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* The Omaha World Herald has a goofy notion that folks ought to pay to read their old news, so if the link is kaput, try this one.

White Swans to nest in Cuba?

Russian Strategic Bombers

Some folks have said that Russian political thug Vladimir Putin wants to tighten his grasp on power by reviving the cold war (see the feed trough). Recent news from Russia hints that they intend to base nuclear bombers in Cuba and Latin America. From the Mclatchy Report: Moscow paper claims Russian bomber crews visited Cuba. Here is the story as it appeared in Izvestiya, translated by Google. Russia seems ready to raise the volume of their nuclear saber rattling to a level not seen since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Reaction to the bomber story from the Russia's Cuban lapdogs, the Castro brothers, has ranged from cryptic to taunting. Who knows which "Latin American" nations might also be under consideration for Russian nuclear bases, but there is no shortage of Rooskie sympathizers in the region. Think Chavez and Morales. They would love to have another pin to stick into their voodoo dolls.

It takes two superpowers to make a cold war, so General Norton Schwartz, newly nominated to be the US Air Force's chief of staff, has issued a stern warning to the Russians. Now we are in the game. Its an ugly, dangerous business. Get your fallout shelter plans right here.
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The old feeder recalls the Cuban Missile Crisis all too clearly. On the US side, JFK was hopped up on amphetamine shots he got from Hollywood's Dr. Feelgood. Holding down the Soviet side was Khrushchev, a Ukrainian boor with a bad commie attitude and a raft of H-bombs.

The kids in school had to practice ducking under their desks. Farmers built fallout shelters for cattle, one of which is near the feedlot. It was a bad time for all, and the final resolution had so many secret rooms that some have yet to be discovered. It wasn't just the Soviets that blinked.
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I wonder how a president Barack Obama would handle this threat to US security? Actually, I don't so much wonder as worry about it.
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Hat tip: Ben Dare