1963 ... room for six!

... notice that instead of trying to incorporate a heavy radiation proof door, this shelter incorporates a 'trap'. Radiation, like light rays, travels in straight lines so it will not go around the corner of the entrance hallway.

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

1954 ... 'Geiger Counter'

... this is the radiation measuring instrument you want to use to check out folks in the shelter to see how contaminated they are. It's a 'low-level' device; so if the meter pegs than out they go!

1962 ... Titan ICBM complex

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-25C_Titan_II

1963 ... Protestants win!

1953 ... Nike Ajax

... the first of the family of US Army Nike anti-aircraft missiles. Designed to shoot down enemy bombers attacking the continental United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_missile 
 

1950 ... MIG- 17 'Fresco'

... in North Vietnamese markings; having mortally wounded a US Thunderchief.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mig-17

1961 ... Tupolev TU-28 'Fiddler'

... world's largest operational fighter/ interceptor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-28

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

Atlas: The ICBM

Tour a Cold War Era Atlas Missile Silo

Minuteman - From Design To Delivery (1963)

1958 ... 'The Army's Workhorse' !

 ... another fine Chrysler product; the Redstone Missile was a direct descendant of Werner von Braun's WWII V2. The Redstone was concieved as a 'theater weapon' to be launched in a nuclear battlefield (presumed to be Europe against advancing hordes of Russians). It also served to lift the first 2 sub-orbital Mercury- NASA flights.

1956 ... war by television!

... whenever I see imagery touting the value of television viewing from the 1950's; I remember what I hard time I had even getting a clear picture of  Capt. Kangaroo back then!

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

1981 ... Big Boomer!

... largest of the series of US Ballistic Missile submarines the Ohio Class has a total of 18 'boats'.

... Soviet 'Boomers'

... 'Boomer' is navy talk for a submarine that launches nuclear missiles.

... Bag Man!

... a brief interlude during what appears to be a photo-op at the Hanford Nuclear Plant, WA. Some sort of mobile protective solution for the manufacture of plutonium?

1955 ... Republic XF-84H

... nicknamed the 'Thunderscreech' - this last hurrah of prop driven fighters used what was essentially a jet engine to drive it's propeller at supersonic speeds. The noise was unbearable and could be heard for twenty miles!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-84H

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFhSzReWTgs 

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

1953 ... jet ace!

1949 ... jet-sub!

1947 ... safety!

... safety posters [1947] from the Hanford, Washington atomic weapons facility.

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

1945 ... Nagasaki

... retrieving the dead.

1964 ... 'Dr. Stranglove'

... director Stanley Kubrick checks camera angles on Sterling Hayden and Peter Sellers.

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

... Atlas ICBM

... sometimes a rocket is just a rocket

1957 ... 'Operation Survival'

1985 ... checking the list!

... the modern, generic silhouette family checks over their supplies and preparedness list.

1950 ... 'sword of Damocles!'

... from a 1950 booklet "Atomic Bombing- How To Protect Yourself'

1951 ... 'George' shot- Operation Greenhouse

...'George' was a research experiment that studied deuterium-fusion burning when heated by thermal radiation. Item was the first test of the principle of fusion boosting of fission devices. Enewetak Atoll - yield 225 kiloton.

all images- Right click- open in New Window= super colossal size!

1951 ... 'Survival Under Atomic Attack'

... one of the first widely distributed Civil Defense films. With a 'less face the facts' narrator. 

   (Edward R. Murrow?)

1951 ... 'Survival Under Atomic Attack'

... selections from an informative booklet during the early years of the Cold War. Such a publication from 1951 may seem overly optimistic to our modern, cynical minds. Nuclear arsenals at this point were relatively small Hiroshima sized fission-weapons. Stockpiles and delivery systems were still underdeveloped. With the advent of the Hydrogen 'Super-bombs' - civil defense officials seemed to drop the emphasis on raincoats and a nice warm bath.

1962 ...do your children know?