Fallout

In late 1961, at the height of the Cold War, President Kennedy was recommending fallout shelters for all Americans. Unknown to the public the government built two shelters for JFK - one in Florida near his Palm Beach estate - which is now a museum - and one in Nantucket near Hyannis port. The Navy Seabees completed construction in two weeks. In the Florida unit there was a replica of JFK's rocking chair. It was also outfitted with decontamination showers, gas masks, K rations, fifteen double cots to accommodate thirty persons (cozy). It was a very tense time. Eleven months later in 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted. One of my colleagues was in the Navy reserve and he went off for his two weeks training exercise but after two weeks he did not return to work and his family had no word from him. It turned out that he was on a destroyer participating in the naval blockade of Cuba. It was very scary at the time until Khrushchev blinked.
tjs
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