LIFE magazine
1953 ... big-nose sub!
... USS Bonita of the 'Barracuda' Class.
all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!
1951- present day ... site 'R'
... super-hardened 'Alternate Military Command and Control Center' - Raven Rock- Fort Richie- near 'Camp David' Maryland. Here's a nice site about it- and probably where the black helicopters are headed before they come here!
... Trident 'ripple launch'
... proliferation!
1951 ... Korea- Air Force recruiting
1957 ... 'trash-can' bomb
... MK-39 hydrogen bomb. Four megaton yield. 700 produced. A distinctly non-glamorous design. Capable of being fitted inside the early guided missiles of the time. Also used as the payload in the B-58 'Hustler' weapons pod. The big- bruiser did not seem to suffer from an inferiority complex despite it's distinctly non-aerodynamic shape. Liked to go bowling on Saturday nights and drink lots of beer. Frequented strip clubs near the armories on the seedier part of town.
When used as a 'free-fall' weapon, released from a strategic bombers bombay, a slightly rounded nose and stubby fins were attached. The slightly rounded nose on these devices was filled with a honeycomb material. A parachute was deployed from a package on the rear of the weapon. In the 'lay-down' setting the bomb would would land on the ground at a stately pace, crushing the shock absorbing nose. There was a time delay fuze option.
... makes your imagination work overtime- seeing one of these things crunch into some Moscow backyard. A little old lady in a ba-bushka beating it with a rake because it ruined her plot of prize turnips.... '3,2,1,0.'
[ Scientist holding onto the front -optional ]
[ Scientist holding onto the front -optional ]
1945 ... doom sayers!
... the advent of Atomic Weapons did a lot for the hysterical religious hucksters!
1946 ... Nuke the Poles!
'Operation Plowshare' was the Atomic Energy Commissions attempt to find 'peaceful' uses for nuclear weapons technology. Between 1961 and 1973, twenty-seven nuclear detonations were conducted to test the feasibility of everything from creating harbors to extracting natural gas from rock. Some ideas seemed to work, others didn't. One problem persisted. Everything was wildly radioactive. There were dim promises of special designs for extremely 'clean' atomic explosives whose residual radioactivity would have been lessened. These 'kinder-gentler' bombs never came to be and the project fizzled out under the weight of it's own absurdity.
Here is Edward Teller, one of the most notorious 'Strangelovian' characters, explaining it all to us in a recently de-classified film.
1954 ... 'Warning- Star'
... before modern, long-range radar, aircraft
with large radomes flew constant patrols
watching for Soviet bombers. This augmented what ground based radar there was. It was not until the early 1960's and the completion of the DEW Line that North American radar coverage was 'complete'.
... this was a fun project- built this from a
photo of a scale model that a friend sent me.
... the basic aircraft was a converted
Lockheed Constellation airliner.
1951 ... Korean War
... or, as a Civil War officer said; wars are won by those who "get there the firstuss with the mostuss!"
1961 ... 'The Big Picture'
... great, and never-ending, series of Cold War documentaries produced by the US Army.
Rousing music and stern narrators. All in glorious black and white.