The False Nuclear Bomb Alarm in Hawaii, and how the Federal Government managed to scare all the kids in the 1950's

  I was raised during the 1950's and 1960's, just like any other two-decade period a lot of things happened. I entered the first grade in 1957, that makes me an old geezer I guess although I don't feel old, and I have never been able to figure out what a "geezer" is. It kind of sounds like a tool a person would use in a furnace or something of the like. I suppose it's just one of those words someone somewhere started using and it caught on like wildfire. The education I received during those long ago days was different than what the kids are taught today, for example just think of all the "new" countries and governments that have changed around or in fact, are no longer in existence.

A photograph of the Bikini Atoll Nuclear Bomb test, it very
nearly destroyed the world.

One big change that became evident during and after the "false" alarm of a nuclear bomb headed for Hawaii, is the way we react to the threat. Parents were lowering their children into the drainage system of the cities. A seemingly bogus alert was sent out, as the Washington Post reported it read:

“BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” (Link)

A little less than two months ago Hawaii brought its early alarm system back from the dead, something I don't understand why it was ever de-activated. Testing was scheduled to begin the following first business day of each month, but they did not align the cell phone alerts to the antiquated system they were trying to restore. Normally the procedure follows this protocol: The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency receives a message from the U.S. Pacific command stating there is a "verified threat", then there is a checklist that is followed to be certain the report is accurate. If it is deemed true, a human sounds an alarm for phone and television, then a separate person flips the switch to the Nuclear Warning siren, that did not happen on Saturday. It was reported the alarm was triggered for the cellphone and television during a shift change by mistake. The agency stated in response to the mistake that an investigation would begin by examining their procedures and protocols for such an event. The Pacific Command in Hawaii received a message nearly immediately that it was not an accurate alarm, then they were tasked with how to handle it. These systems have not been activated in over 30 years, the tests in most locals ended when the "cold war" supposedly did. Once it was confirmed there were no "incoming" ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead attached to it, officials in Hawaii had to be consulted prior to issuing a message to be certain they did not confuse the situation even more. They had to go through exactly what happened with assistance from the State Department. The warning message of the impending attack was sent at 8:07 am Saturday morning, it took until 8:48 am to report it was a false alarm. It took about 40 minutes, meanwhile, people were in a panic. I have faith the system will be fixed and most likely a similar incident will not be repeated. We will probably have false alarms, but it won't happen exactly like that again. (Link to how the alarm system is supposed to happen)
  I brought up being raised in the 50's because I am very well versed in evacuating for a "nuclear attack", it was part of our school curriculum believe it or not. We were trained or instructed on how to react to the threat of a nuclear attack, we called them "ICBM" missiles in those days, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles to be exact. In fact, I remember some of the adults joking about it, the joke went something like this: One person would say "ICBM", another would answer with "where?", give it a little thought it will make sense. In grade school we had "Nuclear Bomb Evacuation" drills, there was a distinct set of rules we had to follow. If we did not follow those rules and practice them, yes as homework sometimes, and we had tests on the subject matter, this was serious stuff, if we did not follow the protocol we would DIE if a real missile ever was launched.

Everyone was involved in politics in the 1950's, they kept us scared that's
for sure. 

 The government had every grade school kid in the country scared to death one day a month, while we were evacuating to our homes. The way it would work is this, and I hope I remember all of what we were suppose to do.
  We would bring home a note from the school telling our parents the school was going to scare us half to death on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 1959, the parents had to sign it. I would like to remind everyone that just over 10 years earlier WWII had ended and all of our parents were veterans, including a lot of the mothers as well, (I want to make certain the ladies get their credit, they were instrumental in the war effort) and they were all extremely serious about the nuclear drills. After bringing the "permission slip" back to school, everyone brought them back, I don't know what would have happened had we not have, then we would wait for Wednesday.
  Wednesday rolled along, all the little kids, of which I was one, would bring all kinds of weird stuff to school, I did not want to die without my stuffed tiger, so I brought him along, I suppose they encouraged us to bring that stuff to comfort us or something. (Who said we can't take it with us?) We showed up at school on the dreaded morning of the drill, anticipation was high, nothing got done. Of course, the drill was set to take place around lunchtime, so we did not get an entire day off. At the designated time the alarm would go off, two alarms actually, the school alarm and the teacher's alarm. One was a loud air raid siren, the other was the teacher hollering "Children! Children! Move swiftly!" or something in that order. Where did we move to? Under our desk, of course, we had to crawl under the desk, curl up in a fetal position and cover our heads with a book, yep, that was it. We stayed under there for a while, just how long I don't recall, but some kids fell asleep, I wanted to just leave. After we marinated for a while under the desk the teacher would clap and announce "Children it's time to evacuate to your homes", it was like the last day of school, kids were overjoyed. We all stood up, got in line (yes everything we did was in a line) then we filed out of the school as if there was more dignity in dying in an orderly fashion. However as soon as we hit the door all bets were off, Kids were running everywhere, we were not quite as serious as our WWII veteran parents were. I never could figure out why the Communist Russians would want to bomb Bloomington, Minnesota, perhaps to cripple a small segment of the corn crop? There is a large veterans cemetery in the vicinity, but those guys were already dead, we were the targets, but why us? All of those types of questions swirled around in our heads, in fact, the nuclear threat was most likely zero, or we were so far down on the list of targets it did not matter. Anyways, we walked home, we had a time limit to get there, our parents were supposed to report to the school how long it took, most of them were less than truthful about it. All the kids that normally took a bus had to walk home, so some of them had a long walk, I took the bus but the walk was only a mile or so, in those days all we did was walk. Well, we drilled, practiced, studied, and feared the Russian bombing of my small town, we all felt it was just a matter of time until we all died from a nuclear explosion. I'm here to say it did not happen, I personally don't believe it ever will.

The WWII vets didn't mess around when it came to getting
equipment, especially when it was to "save the children".

  At the end of all of this, I understand the reaction of the people of Hawaii, especially after years of not exercising the drills, alarms, or warning systems. I won't point a finger at the people whose jobs it is to warn people, or the total and complete failure of the governmental entities to educate the people on how to react or what to do. It surprises me how passively we have accepted the threat of Nuclear Destruction, since the 50's we have had many Nuclear accidents, all at the fault of mankind. The power of a Nuclear Blast now is much greater than it was when the Hydrogen Bomb was "tested" in the Bikini Atoll in the early 1960's. 10,000 people were sent to the atoll to set and detonate that beast, the largest ever assembled up to that point, this was still a top secret until about 10 years ago. When the bomb was set off, monkeys on distant islands, 200 miles away went blind, but that was not the worst of it. That bomb blew a hole through our atmosphere and jetted into outer space taking a giant chunk of the ozone layer with it, that bomb destroyed the ozone layer. It burned up the atmosphere from horizon to horizon, about a 75-mile diameter, and caused the giant hole in the ozone layer. It is my belief we are still dealing with that hole today, sure it's said that it is closing up, I have no dought after all of this time. Some of the Nuclear Scientists thought they had destroyed the world, most jumped on an airplane and flew home, never to work in the Nuclear field again, it scared the ever living dickens out of them, as it should everyone. Atmospheric testing of Nuclear bombs was no longer allowed after that incident, they almost destroyed the world.
  Hopefully, we never experience another Nuclear false alarm, I think there will be more, especially now when craziness in government is the rule of the day. I told my wife if there ever is an ICBM launched at our island, (tell me again how we could be a military target), I am going out on the levee and hope it hits me between the eyes, I don't want to live through a Nuclear winter, or a lot of human suffering.
(Link to a pre-assembled evacuation kit)
  Thank you for reading and sharing, I'm not sure what if any value I have added to your life with this blog, but a little history of things never killed anyone but ignoring history has.

jacquesandkate   emergencykitsplus.com