Anniversary of the end of the Cuban missle crisis

chic

chic

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The Cuban missle crisis ended Oct. 28, 1962 after lasting for 7 days and pretty much changing the world.

Do you remember where you were, how you felt and how the crisis influenced your life and the lives of those around you? Do you think the president and the political leaders of the day handled it well?

During the missle crisis, I was just a little kid and was sick and home from school. My parents never let on that there was anything wrong at all for which I am grateful because I was way too young to process such information. But I've heard it was especially frightening for some of my friends who were sent home from school because it was believed a nuclear attack was imminent. I can't imagine the fear I would have felt.

I've seen countless documentaries on the subject and feel President Kennedy did handle the situation very well. We might not be here if he hadn't.

What are your memories of this time?

How, if at all, did the Cuban Missle crisis affect you?
 

I was in 5th grade and I remember there being a tension at home and elsewhere. Didn't really understand at the time, but I remember a kid in my class asking the teacher if we were going to have WWIII. Can't remember what he said but it did make me worry. My dad was still in the navy at the time.
 
I had started a career in education at a rural elementary school and we were supposed to stay with the children until their parents picked them up should an attack occur. A very unreal period in everybody's life...
 

I was on a front line operational base wondering whether to send my wife to a place that wasn't on Russia's primary target list.

It was academic anyway - she refused to go!
 
I was thirteen... and I was just about convinced I was going to die from a nuclear bomb..I just knew Chicago was on their short list.. I imagined being huddled in our basement with radiation burning me.. It was very frightening..
 
I was on an AF base in Germany during that time. We were on Full Alert for about 3 days, and when the Russian ships were nearing the area of concern, we had every operational F-105 armed with a nuke in the bomb bay, and fueled, with pilots in the cockpit, ready to make what would have probably been their last flight. We had all written what would have been our last letter home, in the hope that there might be someone still around to read it. Those who were not old enough, or in a position to witness how close we came to annihilation, will never know just how close we came to the end of Everything. As I recall, we got down to 20 minutes from getting the word to launch.
 
JFK and Barry Goldwater

Didn't know it then, but news leaked after the crisis that JFK had extremely deep-seated fear of the consequences of whatever decision he was to make. He called in Barry Goldwater, known as a "war-monger" generally, to ask his advice. The result of the meeting we all know: he stood up to the Russians. imp
 
Don's Planes


Republic F-105D of 36 Tactical Fighter Wing based at Bitburg, West Germany, in 1962


F-105F with armament layout in August 1964; including 20 mm (0.79 in) cannon rounds, 2.75 in (70 mm) rockets, Bullpup and Sidewinder missiles, general purpose bomb, cluster bombs, LAU-3A Launchers, flare and chaff dispensers and drop tanks.The resulting EF-105F Wild Weasel III[SUP][N 1][/SUP] (the EF designation was popularly used but unofficial[SUP][50][/SUP]) supplemented its sensors and electronic jamming equipment with AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missiles and conventional bombs, giving it an offensive capability lacking in the F-100F. The first of these aircraft flew on 15 January 1966[SUP][51][/SUP] and they began arriving in Southeast Asia in May, flying their first mission on 6 June 1966,[SUP][50][/SUP] with five assigned to the 13th TFS at Korat RTAFB and six more to the 354th TFS at Takhli RTAFB.[SUP][49][/SUP]
In a typical early mission, a single EF-105F would accompany one or two flights of F-105Ds to provide protection from enemy ground fire. While this strategy was effective in reducing F-105D losses, the Weasel aircraft suffered heavy casualties with five of the first 11 lost in July and August 1966. Attacks into high-risk environments saw the Weasels operating in "Iron Hand" Hunter-Killer flights of mixed single-seat and two-seat Thunderchiefs, suppressing sites during attacks by the strike force and attacking others en route.[SUP][51][/SUP][SUP][52][/SUP] In the fall of 1967, EF-105Fs
 
Don M. said:
I was on an AF base in Germany during that time. We were on Full Alert for about 3 days, and when the Russian ships were nearing the area of concern, we had every operational F-105 armed with a nuke in the bomb bay, and fueled, with pilots in the cockpit, ready to make what would have probably been their last flight. We had all written what would have been our last letter home, in the hope that there might be someone still around to read it. Those who were not old enough, or in a position to witness how close we came to annihilation, will never know just how close we came to the end of Everything. As I recall, we got down to 20 minutes from getting the word to launch.
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Yes it was close. We had our maritime patrol aircraft in the air round the clock monitoring the position if every Warsaw Pact submarine (we hoped it was every one of them!) from Murmansk to the Denmark Strait and down to the Azores.
 
Yup, there were two bases in Germany with F105's...Bitburg, and Spangdahlem....about 20 miles apart. I was at Spang. I served Two tours, and when I left Spang, I went to N. Carolina for a few months before being deployed to Thailand to finish my 2nd tour. The pilots said that the Wild Weasel was the wildest Roller Coaster ride in the world, as that system would put the 105 into all sorts of gyrations as it tried to act as a target for the NV missiles. Most of the time, they were successful in drawing the missiles away from the rest of the flight...but Not always. We lost a lot of F105's, and young pilots, over Vietnam, in 1967.

What Pissed off everyone over there was the restrictions placed upon what could be targeted. The pilots could not target anything that might result in civilian casualties. The Doumer Bridge, in Hanoi, was a target that cost a lot of U.S. losses. The pilots could only hit the center span, and Not the main structures near shore...so as to avoid "civilian" casualties. They would hit the bridge one day, and blow out the center span....then 3 days later the North had it patched up enough to use, and a couple of weeks later, our pilots had to go back.

The most effective weapon or pilots were able to use was the Sonic Boom. The F105 was a big aircraft, and at low level supersonic speeds, its shock wave was massive. After a bombing mission, if they had enough fuel, they would make a low level pass over Hanoi at 900+ knots.....so as to avoid a missile, of course...wink, wink. The resulting shock wave was just like a huge tornado passing below and behind them. I think that tactic did more to bring N. Vietnam to the negotiating table than any armament the planes carried.
 
Ralphy1 said:
It really didn't matter where you lived as the fallout would eventually get you...
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Yeah, that's what I would think. Some people built bomb shelters, but how long would anyone live after a nuclear attack with no fresh edible food and no fresh drinkable water.

Those days sound really scary. I'm glad I was sick so nobody older than me in the house was permitted to talk to me about it.

The Cuban missle crisis may explain the plethera of acid rock music, hippydom, drugs, and alternate lifestyles that young people chose. Perhaps they were looking for a less terrifying way to live.
 
I was a senior in high school. I remember being a little nervous about it all, but not terrified. My dad said we should remain calm because being otherwise wouldn't do any good and there was nothing we could do about it anyway. He was an engineer working for the Army and I figured he knew all about that stuff -- in retrospect, I'm sure he didn't know any ore about it than anybody else, but thinking he did was reassuring.
 
"It really didn't matter where you lived as the fallout would eventually get you..."

At the time of Chernobyl I was on the Dutch/German border, a long way from Chernobyl, and against the direction of the prevailing wind.

Within a few days we were detecting increased radiation in outside grassed areas, and consequently also in high traffic inside areas.
 
That's what my dad always said -- that there was no sense at all in building a bomb shelter because you couldn't dig deep enough to be safe from a nuclear weapon, and even if you could, the minute you came up, you'd be poisoned by radiation. And any air intake would just suck in radiation and fallout anyway. He always figured that if the US was ever hit, New Mexico would have been a prime target anyway because of its ongoing history with development of the bomb.
 
I was in Teachers' College and I have absolutely no memory of the event at all. Of course I have since read and heard about it but it did not impact on my consciousness one little bit back then.
 
QuickSilver said:
I still see homes with that telltale little stack coming out of their back yard lawn... An old bomb shelter from the 50's and 60's to be sure.
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You know, I've never seen a leftover bomb shelter from that era. I'd be curious. Must google it.
 
Shalimar said:
Chic, many of us hippies, or otherwise, wanted more than a safer life, we wanted a life of purpose and service also. Some of us were fortunate in finding it. Peace out! Lol.
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Actually, I'm very proud of the counterculture of that time. They successfully ended a war (Vietnam) through non violence and protest.

I meant no disrespect to "hippies" or anyone who considered themselves such. I admire and relate to them. Their efforts got us back in touch with ourselves especially when it comes to nutrition and homeopathy, and this they accomplished during an era of frozen tv dinners and prescription meds for everything. No easy task.
 
chic said:
Actually, I'm very proud of the counterculture of that time. They successfully ended a war (Vietnam) through non violence and protest.

I meant no disrespect to "hippies" or anyone who considered themselves such. I admire and relate to them. Their efforts got us back in touch with ourselves especially when it comes to nutrition and homeopathy, and this they accomplished during an era of frozen tv dinners and prescription meds for everything. No easy task.
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Is that you on the first picture?

http://www.submission.info/perspectives/women/dresscode.html

[URL="http://abcnews.go.com/"]Home>

[h=1]Looking Back: The End of the Vietnam War[/h] March 29, 2013
By MICHAEL IP





Forty years ago, on March 29, 1973, the United States ended its military involvement in Vietnam. Although the war would continue another two years, the South Vietnamese would no longer receive American assistance.

The nearly 10-year war divided the nation, defined a generation and changed how the U.S. military would operate.
In all, 58,282 American soldiers lost their lives and another 303,644 Americans were wounded.



MAY 21, 1972 - PROTESTS DEFINE A GENERATION

gty_vietnam_protests_mi_130327_blog.jpg


(Archive Images/Getty Images)


By 1972, less than 30% of Americans agreed with the Vietnam War. Protests were a common site in Washington, D.C., as well as on college campuses across the country.


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