Posted on 11/20/2013 5:22:17 AM PST by Carriage Hill
PEANUT ISLAND, Fla. — The dingy, cavernous steel fallout shelter hastily built on a man-made island off Florida's east coast is a stark reminder of the harsh realities President John F. Kennedy faced from the first days of his presidency at the height of the Cold War.
As the Kennedy family vacationed minutes away at the Palm Beach compound known as the Winter White House, the shelter's main chamber sat ready at a moment's notice with 15 sets of bunk beds, a desk for the president and a conference table.
The heavily protected hideaway, fully stocked with military K rations, barrels of water and radiation detection kits, could serve as home for 30 of Kennedy's family and key staff for a month in the event of a nuclear attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Exactly my first thought! Too funny!
I would think that at the outset of a nuclear war the enemy would target our command, control and intelligence (C3I) capabilities, so the bunker would be a prime target wherever it was located.
Like Moltke said, this was intended to be a quick and dirty bolt-hole if the ballon went up and there wasn’t enough time to get the President somewhere better, but further away.
Raises the question of where the other Presidential (and even VP) bunkers are. Ike had Raven Rock/Site R near Camp David and his Gettysburg farm. But we can assume that LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush (if not Clinton and Bush) had ones near their Summer White Houses as well.
I'm no student of the assassination but I have done some shooting and it looked like an easy shot to me.
During the height of the Cold War, leading up to the Cuban missile crisis, I was in 4th-6th grade, and on the way to school I walked by a house that had a bomb shelter in the back yard. It was half-buried, black, round, and about 20-25 in diameter. It looked kind of like a giant hockey puck, with a vent or two sticking out the top, and a short, protruding entrance hatch. Seeing it there was kind of creepy, and made the threat of nuclear war seem very real.
During the same period, Democrats and media threw rocks at “paranoids” for building their own survival facilities.
The Cold War was wasted. We fought off the Communists, only to elect one. Half the people in this country are politically rotten to the core.
The “secret” Presidential bunker on Peanut Island wasn’t much of a secret in the mid to late 1960’s. I went there several times to snorkel the north shore collecting shells. You could do anything but land on the south side.
As for staying inside for 30 days - not hardly pilgrim. The shelter was designed to ride out the initial attack and shelter the Presidential party until they could be evacuated to a more secure location. Look at the interior dimensions of the shelter then figure how much food and water it would take to feed and water30 people for 30 days.
“MR PRESIDENT! WE MUST NOT ALLOW A MINE SHAFT GAP!”
“MEIN FHURER LOOK! I CAN WALK!”
Peanut Island, any idea how the shelter would work in the face of a massive wall of water, caused by an offshore nuclear blast?
Pat, is that you?
While the article says the island sits off the east coast of Florida it actually lies inside the Palm Beach Inlet.
Additionally, the bunker and its entrance don’t face the inlet.
The inlet is fairly narrow, about 600 feet, and the island is about 2,000 feet inside the inlet. Given these approximations any large wave resulting from an underwater explosion would have minimal affect on the “secret” Presidential bunker on the island’s south side.
I remember seeing a few, too, in our suburban neighborhood in NW Chicago, in the 60s.
I’ll have to try to find that one; missed it.
Those ended in ‘58, replaced by these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal,_Combat,_Individual_ration
and then MREs, according to Wiki. I don’t have any military backgrond, so I don’t know. We ate some military surplus “stuff” in the 50s in the Boy Scouts, on camping trips.
Post of the day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/14/books/14jfk.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Vincent Bugliosi, a trial lawyer, wrote a book also that goes into detail and leaves nothing uncertain.
Great movie LOL!
That place has got to be HUGE inside, and probably had redundant life support systems. I can’t imagine the stockpile of food/water/etc for 30+ people for 30+ days. Just amazing.
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