How many here lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis?
I did.
I was about 11 at the time and it scared the absolute piss out of me for a long time.
People who DON'T remember will find it hard to believe but we were doing air raid drills, bomb drills, stocking our basements with rations, building bomb shelters, etc.
Just like some in South Korea and Japan now.
I am always fascinated by documentaries that say we were close to nuclear war. I have learned that apparently we were closer than most knew.
Apparently, a Soviet Sub commander was given an order to fire a nuclear torpedo at an American aircraft carrier. After a lot of drama, he decided not to launch. I have heard that this true story was the basis for the movie, Crimson Tide - one of my favorite movies of all time.
P
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
John F. Kennedy
September 27, 2017, 05:50 PM
zoom6zoom
The main thing I remember is that my cousins, who lived in Southwestern NY State, thought it was all happening in Cuba, NY, which was about ten miles away.
I have my own style of humor. I call it Snarkasm.
September 27, 2017, 05:51 PM
PHPaul
I would've been 12, and I had no idea it was even happening. I don't recall ANY sort of stress at all either at home or in school.
Then again, I do tend toward the oblivious...
Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
September 27, 2017, 05:55 PM
erj_pilot
Well I lived through it, but I was not yet 2 years old. And as much as my mother discusses WWII history, she never discusses anything about those 13 days. And speaking of 13 days, I thought the movie was good, but the actors needed a little more work on their Baaaahston accents...ESPECIALLY Kevin Costner.
p.s. I do like that quote of JFK's.
"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
September 27, 2017, 05:56 PM
lyman
nope,
born that next year,,
was 2months old when JfK was shot
https://www.chesterfieldarmament.com/
September 27, 2017, 06:06 PM
sleepla8er
quote:
Originally posted by lyman: nope, born that next year...
Was it close to being 9 months after?
September 27, 2017, 06:06 PM
twodollarbill
I was on the USS Boxer off the coast of Cuba. Didn’t know what was going on just missed port call.
September 27, 2017, 06:08 PM
ZSMICHAEL
For many who did not live through the crisis. History lesson by Paulie;
September 27, 2017, 06:08 PM
ac26
quote:
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a non-issue to me at the age of 16. As a newly licensed driver, I was way more involved in making sure I had gas money to feed a 55 Oldsmobile.
September 27, 2017, 06:08 PM
amals
I did. Nine years old, but I remember well the standoff between Kennedy and Khrushchev, and the news coverage on black and white television.
September 27, 2017, 06:10 PM
bayouman
I was 15 and while it was scary there was dumb shit too. We had drills to get under our desks if there was a nuclear explosion.
I got in trouble by pointing out in class that we were in a major steel producing city and likely a major target with multiple missiles aimed at us and not likely to survive. My principal called my Dad and told him I was scaring the crap out of my classmates. My Dad said I was probably right but not to talk about it at school.
We had a stocked bomb shelter and the last few days of the crisis I stayed home from school so I could access it with the family.
Bayouman Never let the enemy pick the battle site.
September 27, 2017, 06:11 PM
Humbug
I was 12, had a paper route and was into watching news on TV.
Couple of families in the neighborhood built fallout shelters. Kind of scary!
September 27, 2017, 06:13 PM
NavyGuy
I was in the Navy at Kunia Hawaii intelligence center. (FOCCPAC) Yes, I lived it, and yes we were very close. All hands on deck for very extended duty. Thank God it turned in the last few hours.
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
-D.H. Lawrence
September 27, 2017, 06:19 PM
WaterburyBob
I was seven at the time. I didn't really know what was going on, but my mother was really scared by it. I do remember that she had my father put a mattress on the floor in their bedroom so my brother and I could sleep right next to them.
After that, in school we did the "Air Raid" drills, going to the basement of the school and getting down on the floor covering our heads with our hands (a lot of good that would have done).
"If Gun Control worked, Chicago would look like Mayberry, not Thunderdome" - Cam Edwards
September 27, 2017, 06:20 PM
downtownv
Nothing better than hiding under your desk, during drills. Like that was going to save you... There was CD/airraid shelters, what g=happened to them. The Russians have underground systems that accommodate entire cities. medical/food cots, they were better prepared than we are. And they still are! The politicians are well protected, however. On 9/11 they all bolted to W VA. and left us to hang out and dry.... Bastards. In te event of a nuke, THEY are the ones hit,I hope they do hit!
I was in 5th grade living a few miles from midtown Manhattan. It was real enough for us. We had the air raid drills to the basement of a school building built in the 30's.
My mother told us that if it went, we would never see each other again because my sisters and brother all went to different schools and my dad was probably going to die in the first strike.
Great memories... yea, I remember.
Cheers, Doug in Colorado
NRA Endowment Life Member
September 27, 2017, 06:31 PM
jbcummings
I was 12, but I don’t remember doing the drills. I clearly remember when Kennedy was shot. Of course being in junior high, I probably wasn’t paying attention to the news, but the 7 days off for JFK’s funeral, everyone took notice of that.
———- Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for thou art crunchy and taste good with catsup.
September 27, 2017, 06:34 PM
GWbiker
I was in the Army reserves who's Unit was called up to await train transport to Florida for deployment to Cuba.
Right about that time, Khrushchev "blinked" and the world was saved from Nuclear disaster.
Here is the Soviet Sub commander who probably saved us from a Nuclear war....
********* "Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them".
September 27, 2017, 06:39 PM
JALLEN
I did. I was in high school then.
I had not yet enlisted, but the local Navy Reserve guy was after me to sign up as a Radioman, which I did, the next summer.
I guess it was a pretty tense time. There were about 5 or 6 air force bases around San Antonio and Austin, so we got good practice hiding under our desks!
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
And as much as my mother discusses WWII history, she never discusses anything about those 13 days. And speaking of 13 days, I thought the movie was good, but the actors needed a little more work on their Baaaahston accents...ESPECIALLY Kevin Costner.