[doc1019]

Do people still laugh when children are taught to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear war?

Flashback

I remember practicing this back in ’53 or ’54 when I was in first grade. LOL!

;-)

[Hunble]

I remember practicing this back in ’53 or ’54 when I was in first grade. LOL!

Growing up in California, we would do that every week in grade school.

[Sawdring]

I remember practicing this back in ’53 or ’54 when I was in first grade. LOL!

Wow, that dates you. ;)

[mkjessup]

Do people still laugh when children are taught to duck and cover in the event of a nuclear war?
Flashback
I remember practicing this back in ’53 or ’54 when I was in first grade. LOL!

What many people do not understand, were not taught, or simply never realized, is that the 'duck and cover' drills were never intended to save anyone from the direct blast effects of a nuclear detonation. When students were given the 'flash' signal (simulating the sudden flash of an atomic bomb going off), climbing under the desks and/or tables was to reduce the possibility of flying shards of glass and debris from cutting us to pieces when the blast wave hit the school building, and nobody was stupid enough to think or suggest that the typical student desk made of wood and light steel tubing was going to save anybody from a direct hit.

Civil Defense was a vital part of our overall national defense strategy, and that is why the Soviets placed so much emphasis on civilian preparations should a nuclear war occur.

50+ years later, our Cold War strategies and tactics are often the fodder of comedians, know-nothings and pacifists who would rather have been "Red than dead", when the fact is that if there had been no Civil Defense preparations at all, the odds are that many Americans would have been both "Red" AND "dead".