... somewhere hot!

... it's possible that even the British ground crew for this RAF 'Vulcan'  didn't know where they were on a this practice forward deployment.

Someplace that had USAF F-100's!

 

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1960 ... child's play!


 ... I am always surprised by how early the original 'Polaris' submarines went into service!  (LINK)

 


 

 





 


 

 

 

1957 ... designs, tests, builds!


 ... because there are never enough probe and drogue pictures! 

 

 

1959 ... Cold - War staredown!


 

... Finishing School!


 

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1961 ... the Berlin Wall


 

                                                                 






1957 ... test shot Priscilla; 37 kiloton


 ... never paid much attention to this well-known photo of the detonation of 'Priscilla' during the 'Upshot' series. Then came across this clip from 'Twin Peaks' and somehow they fit together. Not that anyone has to go out of their way to convince us that nuclear explosions are scary.

 


 

 

 

1963 ... pointy pencils!


 

 

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1963 ... "a distinguished line of pumps!"

                                                                  LINK

 


 

1960 ... Doodads 'R' Us!


 

( mid 70's? ) Soviet ABM Radar-ski!



 ... now wonder they don't like us; look at the crappy job we do at illustrating their huge phased  array radar buildings!
 
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1963 ... come join the brain picnic!


 ... this is about the time the Rand Division (think tank) was putting the finishing touches on the   doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
 
 
 

1957 ... Hexcel Honeycombs!


 

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1948 ... Lockheed R6V 'Constitution'


                                                                LINK

 


 

 

 

1955 ... Redwood Fallout Shelter!


 

 

1960 ... copters are cool !

 

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1957 ... come design pointy stuff!

 

 

 

1960 ... Nuclear Weapons are SAFE!

 ... important PR for 'Operation Chrome Dome' ; keeping nuclear armed SAC aircraft aloft all of the time. This was a response to fear of a sneak missile attack. ( It is also the setting for both movies 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Failsafe')

 


                                                                    LINK

 

 

 

... Welcome!




LINK

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1949 ... atomic anxiety!




1962 ... SAC base security!




1957 ... "security with solvency"


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... Gen. Curtis Emerson LeMay!


... because a Cold-War website can never have too many pictures of the father of SAC.


 

... the latest in CBRN fashions!


... can't let the secretarial pool get nerve gassed! Sorta looks like the cheap model.

LINK

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1954 ... 'Scorpion' interceptor





 

1983 ... ZORCH!


... screen shot of a nice secretary person being disintegrated in the made for TV movie 'The Day After'. The initial television broadcast had an audience of over 100 million. Ronald Regan had a private screening which set him back on his heels and modified his understanding and viewpoints on nuclear deterrence.





... Econo-Crypt!


... who needs luxuries when you have the extra-large, king-sized issue of Civil Defense Valium?

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... Thrifty-Split Level (with look-out!)


... Skeeter kept hoping that Julie from the cheerleader squad would take him up on his invitation. But with the first blinding flash he knew his romantic hopes were dashed!

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... Deluxe Ranch-o-matic!


... this looks to be the sort of fall-out shelter that the salesman pushed as 'also a family room!'... underground. What sets this apart from the rest of the basement is the reinforced concrete roof covered with three to four feet of soil. Wonder what sort of music Dad is about to spin on the Hi-Fi. Maybe some of that tropical Tiki lounge music. Maybe 'Oklahoma' for a sing-a-long to keep everyone's spirits up!

Seems like the air vents are a little flimsy for an apocalyptic job? On the other hand; suburbia is not supposed to be ground-zero. The rounded shapes on a pole look like some of the objects I've seen ride out heavy over-pressures in the test films.




1971 ... if it ain't bombs; it's little bugs!






...'The Andromeda Strain' is a superbly made movie about Bio-Warfare. It was also, possibly., the germ of a thousand conspiracy theories to come! ( no pun intended).

TRAILER- 'The Andromeda Strain' 

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1963 ... "that's a nasty plague you've got there!"

... the concept of Bio-Warfare was a close science-fiction cousin to Atomic-War. With the current Covid-Crisis several readers have asked for some posts devoted to the topic.



 ... 'The Outer Limits; The Man Who Was Never Born'. starring Martin Landau and Shirley Knight


Having accidentally traveled through time, astronaut Joseph Reardon lands on Earth in the year 2148 A.D. to find it a desolate realm. He meets Andro, a mutated human stricken with a disfiguring disease for which there is no cure. Andro is one of the few survivors of a biological disaster brought on by an ambitious scientist named Bertram Cabot Jr., who isolated and developed a viral symbiont from an interstellar microbe. Cabot's symbiont physically altered the human race, precluding the ability to reproduce, and turned much of Earth's landscape into a barren wasteland. 

I hope I don't see these as 'proof' on some wacko's Facebook page - ha! 


... LIVE to you from SAC headquarters; Offutt AFB - Omaha.


... closed circuit TV of the 'big-board' sent out to SAC bases from headquarters. Notice 3 cameras for simultaneous views.

LINK 

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... roll 'em out!


... Boris and Natasha sold me this photo of Czechoslovakian Mig-21's in an underground hanger. 


... long, hard job!


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1954 ... shape of things to come!





1955 ... buy United!



 

... fast and pointy!


... sorry- but I filed this long ago with no info. 
So we will have to get by with the above description!

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1967 ... very Stranglovian!


"...USAF Command and Control Team is Observing a Combat Situation."
Artist Gordon Phillips  




1960 ... come visit our hole!






... B-47 in left turn - unfavorable weather!


... part of a new series of illustrations that I have been working on.


prints, posters, t-shirts etc 

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1947 ... and the winner is...!


... the foremost model is the shape for the Boeing B-47. The rest are also-rans.  Always amazes me that such a 'modern' design began flying in 1947 !


 

... Super - Sub!


... looks like some vaguely German scientist conjuring up a Nuclear Powered Sub for the delight of Adm. Rickover.

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1962 ... very cozy!


... trying to imagine salesman techniques for selling a family fall-out shelter(?) Was there a Wilford Brimley type who spoke gently of responsibilities and a divine duty to survive?
Alternatively was there was a maniac, beatnik George Carlin type; reciting Ferlinghetti poetry. Spouting beat " The End of ALL - Daddy-O! Not just the end of the movie or the end of the road - but the end of all things. The complete and total...POW!" 



1954 ... schlock by any other name!



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1960 ...Minuteman train!

 
 for this post

...a similar plan was advanced in 1986 for the Peacekeeper missile LINK