"They Thought the WAR Was On!"

October 30, 1962, Miraleste Elementary School in Los Angeles County, California.

The school was located on a crest overlooking the San Pedro Harbor and no one really thought about the school becoming a target until the previous two weeks. Our country was in the midst of a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union – the Cuban Missile Crisis.

8:40am - Ten minutes after classes had started for the day, Mrs. Acuna, secretary to the principal, was in the school office opening mail. Suddenly the civil defense disaster alarm flashed a yellow warning signal and sounded an ear-splitting alarm. She looked at the clock. It was only 8:40am, the daily test wasn’t supposed to happen until 9:30am!

Then Mrs. Acuna also noticed that only the yellow-alert signal – warning of a nuclear attack within the hour – was ringing. Normally the daily test pattern was all colors together - blue (expect trouble soon), yellow, red (imminent attack) and white (all clear). It had never shown just one alert. 

The principal, Mr. Armitage, was administering a standardized test to fifth graders in the cafeteria. Mrs. Acuna immediately buzzed the intercom and asked him to come to the office. The alarm was audible over the intercom.

Mr. Armitage arrived in the office and told her to call the phone company that services the alarm system to check if the system was malfunctioning. Then she was to sound the “long bell” for a drill which meant the school was to be evacuated to the playground.

He turned on the office transistor radio which was already set for 640 kilocycles, the CONELRAD civil-defense wave length (precursor to our current Emergency Broadcast System). Music blared through the radio! Was this alert for real?

Meanwhile, Mrs. Acuna was speaking with the telephone company who stated they could find no malfunction and she should assume the alert was real.

Mr. Armitage called the Superintendent’s Office and was told that no other schools had reported yellow alarms. Again, the telephone company insisted that there were no malfunctions.

At 8:42am, two minutes after the alert first sounded, Mr. Armitage grabbed his portable electric megaphone and headed for the playground where the students and teachers were gathering. The alert was still sounding. He wondered, “Did the Cuban crisis erupt overnight? “

The students were being gathered into their 10 dispersal groups which were determined by the direction they would walk to arrive home. Some children lived just down the street, while others lived as far as two miles away. 

Mr. Armitage knew a submarine could surface in the harbor below and open fire in the direction of the school. He grabbed his megaphone and shouted, “Teachers, take your students home!” They were WALKING home during a nuclear alert!

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8:48am -Seeing that the children and teachers were on their respective ways, Mr. Armitage went into his office intending to call the sheriff when suddenly all was silent. The alarm stopped!

8:52am - The telephone repairman who had Mrs. Acuna stay on the line throughout the alert told her calmly that malfunction in equipment at the San Pedro office had allowed the signal to slip through all protective measures. The school was to excuse the alert.

Within 12 minutes, it was all over.

“My God!” cried Mr. Armitage. “I’ve got to get those children back!” He dispatched two teachers in their cars and then jumped into his car to head off the walkers.

9:15am – The 24 children who had reached home were back in school.

9:30am – Classes were again in session.

How did the children fare during their WALK?

In spite of their fears, the children were orderly and well-behaved. The older children helped and sometimes carried younger children. Some even sang songs as they WALKED – during a nuclear alert!

Afterwards, some children shared their thoughts -

Terry Thomas, 6 years old:“I didn’t think it was funny. Everything would’ve been destroyed if it had been real. Then it wouldn’t have been a very good place to live.”

Pam Patterson, 10 years old: “I thought about my dog and cat. They always wander away, and maybe, if it was real we wouldn’t get them back again.”

Joy Bowman, 9 years old: “I thought the whole school was going to fall down any minute. I felt kind of like this – wavy – all the way.”

Mark Hollingworth, 10 years old: “I was busy all the time answering the little kids’ questions. They asked me – ‘Are we going to live any longer? Are we going to be safe? Is this real, or is it just a drill?’ We all wanted to get home real fast.”

A few days after the false alert, Marla Dirks, 7 years old: “I was playing school with some of my friends. Sherry rang an alarm clock and yelled, ‘Go home!’ And we all rushed to the front door.”

And the adults ...

The experience left the adults more aware.

Mrs. O’Neil, First Grade Teacher: “Things seemed so different when we got back. I couldn’t help thinking: Why do we teach them to read? Are these children going to grow up to use all this?”

Mrs. John Barrett, Mother: “Ever since, every school day one mother is on duty to meet the children at the end of our street. If she leaves home, even for an hour, she must find a replacement and notify the school. “

Mr. Armitage, Principal: “I discovered a number of children would not be able to walk home in an hour. Thirty-two parents have requested that their children should remain at school. I also requisitioned planks to cover the windows. From now on, teachers are to ensure that students take lunches and wraps with them for the WALK. Finally, I recommend that teachers keep flat-heeled shoes handy.”

Parental letter to Mr. Armitage: “Johnny should stay with the Joneses, and if they’re not home, he should go to his own house and pray.”

(Los Angles Times, November 1, 1962, pages 37 and 38 and McCalls Magazine, Vol. 90, No. 7, April 1963, pages 96-97, 201-203.)

In this true story what we are left with is a sober meditation on the absurdity of how we thought we could just “duck and cover” or simply WALK away from a nuclear threat.  As current events unfold, we are still, unfortunately, under a nuclear threat from a variety of nations. Are we any better prepared? 

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On this 60^th. Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, I highly recommend the docudrama, Ladybug, Ladybug (On YouTube) based upon this actual event. The film is a commentary on the psychological effects of the threat of nuclear war.

 

Time is Running Out ...

Washington, D.C. • January 23, 2020:  The Doomsday Clock was reset to just 100 seconds before midnight -- the closest we have ever been to the complete and total annihilation of the earth (well, at least metaphorically).

The Doomsday Clock has been maintained since 1947.

All is not lost, yet! In fact, the Clock hand has been moved away from midnight almost as often as it was moved closer. The threat of nuclear destruction might seem too big for us to handle, but the Clock isn’t used as a scare tactic, rather it is used to get people talking.

Likewise, movies can also get us talking about the possibility and prevention of nuclear destruction … before time runs out! 

Most people are familiar with the classic nuclear destruction movies such as: The Day After

Fail Safe

Dr. Strangelove

On the Beach

War Games; and Crimson Tide. 

However, there are lesser-known nuclear destruction movies worthy of your time. Most are available on YouTube, Vimeo, or the Internet Archive at no cost.

My Top Ten Lesser-Known Nuke Movies

 

1. Threads (1984) @ Internet Archive (archive.org) 💥💥💥💥💥

Documentary style account of the terrifying consequences of nuclear warfare upon an unsuspecting world. Set mainly in Sheffield, England during the height of the Cold War, “Threads” follows two families and other citizens, as they deal with the absolute destruction of their society and the eventual long running effects of nuclear war on civilization.  

 

2. By Dawn’s Early Light (1990) on YouTube 💥💥💥💥

Based on the 1983 novel “Trinity's Child,” by William Prochnau. It is one of the last films to depict the events of a fictional World War III before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It tells the story of the crew of a nuclear bomber attacking the Soviet Union while the President of the United States tries desperately to regain control of his military after his helicopter crashes during a limited nuclear exchange.

3. Kuroi Ame/Black Rain (1989) on YouTube, Japanese w/English Subtitles💥💥💥💥

The story of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing, based on Masuji Ibuse's novel. Survivors make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, just after the atomic bomb has dropped. Five years later, in a village containing many of the bomb survivors, they must deal with the legacy of the atomic bomb.

4. The War Game (1965), @ Internet Archive (archive.org), Academy Award Winner 💥💥💥💥

A docudrama about nuclear war and its aftermath in and around a typical English city. Although it won an Oscar for Best Documentary, it is fiction. It was intended as an hour-long program to air on BBC but it was deemed too intense and violent to broadcast. It went to theatrical distribution as a feature film instead. Low-budget and shot on location, it strives for and achieves convincing and unflinching realism.

5. Der Dritte Weltkrieg/World War Three (1998)– on YouTube, German w/English subtitles 💥💥💥💥

It depicts what might have transpired if, following the overthrow of Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet troops, under orders from a new hard-line regime, had opened fire on demonstrators in Berlin in the fall of 1989 and precipitated World War III. The film mixes real footage of world leaders and archive footage of combat exercises and news events, with newly shot footage of citizens, soldiers and political staff. 

6. Countdown to Looking Glass (1984) on YouTube 💥💥💥

Docudrama uses fictional reports of a crisis in the Middle East, which leads to a nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR. "Looking Glass" is the code word for the Strategic Air Command's control plane which is to be used in the case of nuclear war. 

7. Deterrence (1999) Buy or rent on YouTube, I borrowed the DVD from the Jacksonville Public Library  💥💥💥

The President is on the campaign trail to be re-elected. On a stop in Colorado, he is suddenly snowed in and he and his entourage are forced to take shelter in a small diner. There the President learns that Iraq has invaded Kuwait and slaughtered hundreds of American soldiers. Setting up temporary communications, the President announces that he will launch a nuclear attack on Iraq immediately if the country does not withdraw. 

8. Barefoot Gen (1983) on YouTube, Japanese w/English subtitles 💥💥💥

This animated version of the autobiographical manga by Keiji Nakazawa is a disturbing story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people. 

9. Special Bulletin (1983) on YouTube 💥💥💥

A TV reporter and cameraman are taken hostage on a tugboat while covering a workers strike. The demands of the hostage-takers are to collect all the nuclear detonators in the Charleston, SC area so they may be detonated at sea. They threaten to detonate a nuclear device of their own if their demand isn't met.  

10. Colossus Forbin Project (1970) on Vimeo, $ Amazon Prime & YouTube 💥💥

Thinking this will prevent war, the US government gives an impenetrable supercomputer total control over launching nuclear missiles. Shortly after being turned on, it detects the existence of Guardian, the Soviet counterpart, previously unknown to US Planners. Both computers insist that they be linked and each side agrees to allow it. As soon as the link is established the two become a new Super computer and threaten the world with the immediate launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached. 

Must Watch Documentary: Rich Hall’s Red Menace on YouTube💥💥💥💥

Miscellaneous:
[EAS] 8:17 A Real Time Nuclear Attack Simulation on YouTube 💥💥💥- Simulated Emergency Alert System broadcast of a nuclear attack, 8 minutes, 17 seconds.

The Last Broadcast on YouTube 💥💥💥- A radio play which reflects the chilling possibility of what could have happened if the superpowers of the world decided to go nuclear during the Cold War. Emphasis on “radio” play, hence the oldies music and commercials from the 1980’s. 

Fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000 (so bad, they’re “good”)
All are on YouTube:

Atomic Attack Motorola Television Hour (1954)
Day the World Ended (1955)
Rocket Attack USA (1961)
This Is Not a Test (1962)

In 2007 the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists added climate change and disruptive technologies to nuclear risk as indicators for setting the hands on the Doomsday Clock. Since the nuclear risk has decreased, perhaps we will be watching more movies about rising sea levels and cyber attacks on our power grids! 😬

 In the meantime, I'll keep running ...