At midnight I switched the TV over to PBS. I were just check'n, before I turned in for the night, what program they would show this late. OH my god, "the Cuban Missile Crisis".....I'm gonna watch this. I was part of that ya know...1962. USS DuPont DD-941. Shipboard electrician 3rd class. Change light bubs....stuff like that.
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The first hour was about a Russian elusive submarine what slap refused to surface from their hidyholes under the sea. Not even to recharge their batteries after they had been detected and their location pin pointed by aircraft. On board was a nuclear warhead torpedo what would have blowed a ship clean slap out the water a hunnert feet in the air.....and start a nuclear war between Russia, Cuba and the United States. They had no radio contact with Russia, so they had no idea what to do when they were finally located by the US Navy. The Russian submarine fleet commander was on board, stop'n the ships captain from firing of that one deadly torpedo. They surfaced and were sent on their merry way back to Russia. Shortly after, Russia removed all their missiles from Cuba. It was over....thanks to the Russian submarine fleet commander.
When I joined the Navy in Oct. 1961, I didn't know nuttin bout Russia send'n missiles to Cuba. I didn't no nuttin bout Cuba neither. Nobody tole me. My first shipboard mission was to Cuba, chas'n them dad gum submarines, right bout the time the crisis was at a head......bout to pop like a festered pimple. Even while we were chasing submarines all over the Caribbean Sea an' drop'n little hand grenades on 'em to signal them to surface, I still didn't know what was go'n on. Us peon sailors weren't supposed to know nuttin. Just do the job what we was trained to do.We weren't never informed that tomorrow we may be blowed to smithereens. To us, it was just a game of cat an' mouse.
That face mask thingy I was tell'n ya bout not long ago, what I ripped slap to pieces, that was part of a chemical/nuclear defense outfit we would wear if'n it came down to a attack.....or something like that. No part of human body parts were exposed to possible chemicals or nuclear radiation....duck taped tighter an a drum. The mask thingy (OBA) made "generic" oxygen to breath.
Durn'n those times of chas'n them dad gun Russian subs, we slacked up on work time......nuttin to do but smoke cigarettes, take naps an' stand ready for battle stations. I breaks out my camera and movie camera an' start tak'n gobs pictures an' movies. Had me some good ones too. Jet aircraft land'n on carriers, ships refuel'n an' grocery shop'n, helicopters, hunnerts of US Navy ships bounc'n round in the sea, Russian cargo ships try'n to sneeks into Cuba.....stuff like that. Well hell, ain't nobody tole me I couldn't take no pictures. They was all confiscated an' destroyed. I got me a good ass chew'n.
Ain't many left what remember how close we was to nuclear war back in 1962. One day.....it's gonna happen. Just not today.
_off_Lebanon.jpg)
The first hour was about a Russian elusive submarine what slap refused to surface from their hidyholes under the sea. Not even to recharge their batteries after they had been detected and their location pin pointed by aircraft. On board was a nuclear warhead torpedo what would have blowed a ship clean slap out the water a hunnert feet in the air.....and start a nuclear war between Russia, Cuba and the United States. They had no radio contact with Russia, so they had no idea what to do when they were finally located by the US Navy. The Russian submarine fleet commander was on board, stop'n the ships captain from firing of that one deadly torpedo. They surfaced and were sent on their merry way back to Russia. Shortly after, Russia removed all their missiles from Cuba. It was over....thanks to the Russian submarine fleet commander.
When I joined the Navy in Oct. 1961, I didn't know nuttin bout Russia send'n missiles to Cuba. I didn't no nuttin bout Cuba neither. Nobody tole me. My first shipboard mission was to Cuba, chas'n them dad gum submarines, right bout the time the crisis was at a head......bout to pop like a festered pimple. Even while we were chasing submarines all over the Caribbean Sea an' drop'n little hand grenades on 'em to signal them to surface, I still didn't know what was go'n on. Us peon sailors weren't supposed to know nuttin. Just do the job what we was trained to do.We weren't never informed that tomorrow we may be blowed to smithereens. To us, it was just a game of cat an' mouse.
That face mask thingy I was tell'n ya bout not long ago, what I ripped slap to pieces, that was part of a chemical/nuclear defense outfit we would wear if'n it came down to a attack.....or something like that. No part of human body parts were exposed to possible chemicals or nuclear radiation....duck taped tighter an a drum. The mask thingy (OBA) made "generic" oxygen to breath.
Durn'n those times of chas'n them dad gun Russian subs, we slacked up on work time......nuttin to do but smoke cigarettes, take naps an' stand ready for battle stations. I breaks out my camera and movie camera an' start tak'n gobs pictures an' movies. Had me some good ones too. Jet aircraft land'n on carriers, ships refuel'n an' grocery shop'n, helicopters, hunnerts of US Navy ships bounc'n round in the sea, Russian cargo ships try'n to sneeks into Cuba.....stuff like that. Well hell, ain't nobody tole me I couldn't take no pictures. They was all confiscated an' destroyed. I got me a good ass chew'n.
Ain't many left what remember how close we was to nuclear war back in 1962. One day.....it's gonna happen. Just not today.
I graduated in the spring of 1962 and decided to go on active duty in the fall. Headed off to the USS Wakiakum County (LST 1162)and reported on board just as we we leaving for Cuba. Wasn't sure I'd made the smartest decision for a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of "just out of school" kids what didn't know if'n they made the right decision or not. I'm thankful it all turned out OK.
DeleteAs close as I ever want to be, let me tell ya!
ReplyDeleteWe were glued to the tvs. My friend said she didn't know if she should get religious or go out and do everything she wanted. I remember like it was yesterday. That's when everybody started building bomb shelters. We were told where to go in our district.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I did watch it not too long ago on tv, too. .
I went off into the USAF the end of May 1960, I was 6 months less than18 yrs old. That was a week or so before the prom and graduation ceremony. The teacher next door brought my diploma home a few weeks later. By the time of the Cuban missile crisis I was in 'in the field' across the Atlantic taking care of a bunch of nuclear weapons. We had many alerts over the 3 years I was over there but for the missile crisis we were on the highest alert there was and had numerous planes loaded and crews sitting around waiting for the horns to go off. A number of planes were loaded, crewed and engines where running and some were in the air. That went on for days.
ReplyDeleteI don't recall many of us talking about what it all meant to us but I resigned myself to the fact that the other side probably knew where we were and what we were doing (spies were said to be everywhere, we were not allowed to tell even family what we did or where we were), even though we were remote and detached from host nation bases and the governments denied any of us were there, I was sure we were targeted and if things went hot we probably wouldn't even see the flash of any missile with our location plugged into it. The worst part of it was after a number of 24 hr days we had to go over each of the weapons to put them back in prime shape and into storage, that took many long days. This is one of the very few times I've ever mentioned it. It was just something we had to live through. Like when I was in England and had to eat in the English mess hall. Damn they were poor cooks; everything but cucumber sandwiches was greasy. Things like beef stew, oxtail soup, tripe, etc., they couldn't brew anything but warm beer'n tea. But remembering it, some of that beer was really good, Fish'n chips off base was a favorite though, wrapped in newspaper and very hot right out of the fryer....
Yup Gary, the Cuban missile crisis weren't only in the waters around Cuba. Our entire military was on alert around the globe. Armed B52's fly'n 24 hours a day within hours of Moscow. Nuclear missiles in Turkey. US missiles here in the states pointed at Russia.
DeleteI heared that if just one Russian nuclear missile was shot at a major US city, 1/3 of our population would have gone done the tubes. That's some scary shit.
I graduated high school in 1961 ... went to Dallas and was working at Blue Cross Blue Shield downtown ... we had drills. This was a scary scary time. then a year later ... JFK's assassination and Robert's and MLK's and so forth and Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteI was in San Francisco when our Indians took over Alcatraz ~ loved it and lots of women and civil rights movements and what ... I say, WHAT an era...
Hadn't a clue I would live to be 70. what a shocker
and thank you for serving... I know you didn't have a choice then and that's one good thing about that era... elimination of the draft. … hope you escaped vietnam
I too had no idea I would live to be 70. That was really really old back then.
DeleteYes I did have a choice....or I suppose I did. Hell I don't know. I was 20 when I joined up to see the world.
Yes, I was still a rowdy little sailor at the start of the Vietnam conflict. My dismissal from active duty was extended so I could get a close up upfront look at jungle warfare. A two month hospital stay left me stranded in the good ol' USA....chas'n wimmins an' stuff. I didn't have to go.
Carolyn, everyone had a choice, either wait for the draft or enlist in any branch of service of your choice. Well of course the draft didn't include females, yet they wanted equal rights..... I think we should go back to the draft and everyone, including females, should do two years service after going through the current basic training.as volunteers do today.
DeleteI got out of the AF in Feb 1965 with all but 5 yrs in service. About 1968 the phone rang one evening and the Army offered me the rank of Warrant Officer if I would sign on to go to helicopter pilot school. I was working on a private pilot's license at the time and married to a native of Holland. I knew that if I took the offer I'd be singing up for an all expenses paid trip to 'Nam and probably flying gunships. I really wanted to accept the offer but after a few days of thinking it over, I turned it down mostly for my wife's sake. I just thought it wrong to leave her alone in a foreign country with a real risk I wouldn't make it back. Plus I had a good job in upstate NY with GE. Just less than a year later the wife left to go back to Holland. I'm 71 this fall and I've done many things in my life with some things not turning out very well but that decision is the only one that I regret.. Mentioning it now makes me feel bad, sad really.
Women wanted equal pay for equal work primarily. The Equal Rights Amendment wanted no discrimination based on gender. My DIL is in the National Guard. that's a whole nother todo ~
DeleteYou were drafted to the Army in those days. If you didn't want to go to the army, then you needed to sign up, right? My two older brothers didn't want Army, they went into the Air Force. How I remember the draft dodgers and what a messy awful bad war... the way the Vietnam vets were treated when they came home was abominable.
A lot of guys came back totally screwed up. My generation ~ lots of sad sad shit.
And, thank you for serving too. Sorry about your wife and your career regret... Your GE job along with upstate New York sounds like a real winner to me. but then what do I know… ;)
Lots of now 70 year olds made a bunch of wrong decisions. I sure did.
BUT we did what we did based on what we knew and felt at the time. So regrets are futile ... they are there but when I go to lie down at night and those blasted thoughts of past thises and thats start raining down... I have a mental broom that baps em ... ha
I, too, remember it. One of my friends was put on guard patrol of a beach in Florida. He said he didn't mind that at all.
ReplyDeleteHubby was in SAC, stationed in Spain. He says they were on 24 hour call during this time, ready to hit the plane at any time. Did make a few trips in the southern direction, and practice bombings over fake targets. But I wasn't there (still in jr high school)and remember those tense days back home. Didn't really know what was happening, just that it was close to TEOTWAWKI. Thanks to all of who served - God Bless America, and pray that we might return to our former respect and glory.
ReplyDelete