Cold war bomb shelter discovered at my high school

[Daveroo]

This is a news story about my high school,i lived just down the street from 1962(my birth year,also i was born in the Highland hospital,which is a 1/4 mile up the hill)to 1969,and i remember being told there was a "bomb shelter" at the school...but this room is hardly big enough for the amount of people who knew about it,funny thing is,,no one knew where it was,,just athte school,,which at one time was two seperate schools,a colege ( now sierra college,in rocklin) and placer high,its now a large school,covers several acresand sever blocks,,spredout,,,

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/06/21/preserved-cold-war-bomb-shelter-discovered-at-auburn-high-school/

[Willy]

There was always a sea story floating around the Navy about one of the Midway class carriers having a machine shop (with equipment) that was found during an overhaul. The story is that the equipment was craned in and then the next deck above was laid over it. They forgot to put doors in the sides so it wasn't found until the 1970s when someone got to looking at the ship's plans.

[PRB]

When I was a wee lad growing up in Augusta, Maine, the huge stone Catholic cathedral style church, the basement of which was also the school's cafateria, served as our bomb shelter. It even had the "nuqular" symbol painted on the door. Glad we never had to find out if it would have worked.

[Tako_Kichi]

Before I emigrated from the UK in '92 I used to operate amateur radio systems as a Civil Defence Volunteer from inside a nuclear bomb shelter as part of a monthly drill. All the other bomb shelters in the county (over a dozen in total) also took part in the drill and we would pass training messages back and forth as if we were in a state of war. The shelters were all concealed and most of the local populace didn't even know they existed.

[Navy Chief]

When I was a wee lad growing up in Augusta, Maine, the huge stone Catholic cathedral style church, the basement of which was also the school's cafateria, served as our bomb shelter. It even had the "nuqular" symbol painted on the door. Glad we never had to find out if it would have worked.

The Episcopal church we went to when I was a kid (in Indianapolis) also had a shelter downstairs. I remember seeing a geiger counter to check for radiation exposure, and boxes of emergency supplies.....

NC

[Daveroo]

i was told today,a stair case was found in the old "state theater" in downtown auburn,leading to a huge room under the theater ,they dont have any idea what it was for,,bomb shelter or what...it was built before big bombs,the building was,but they dont know if this was dug out later?.or built then..

[Rich]

Was this part of the Royal Observer Corps set up ????


Before I emigrated from the UK in '92 I used to operate amateur radio systems as a Civil Defence Volunteer from inside a nuclear bomb shelter as part of a monthly drill. All the other bomb shelters in the county (over a dozen in total) also took part in the drill and we would pass training messages back and forth as if we were in a state of war. The shelters were all concealed and most of the local populace didn't even know they existed.

[Roger]

Before I emigrated from the UK in '92 I used to operate amateur radio systems as a Civil Defence Volunteer from inside a nuclear bomb shelter as part of a monthly drill. All the other bomb shelters in the county (over a dozen in total) also took part in the drill and we would pass training messages back and forth as if we were in a state of war. The shelters were all concealed and most of the local populace didn't even know they existed.

What was your call sign Larry, mine is G8VLR.

[Tako_Kichi]

Was this part of the Royal Observer Corps set up ????
No it was actually a side-shoot of RAYNET the Radio Amateurs Emergency Network, a national group of ham radio volunteers who provided communications equipment and personnel in times of natural or man-made disaster. Some of us who were members of RAYNET were also Civil Defence Volunteers and we operated the ham radios set up in the bunkers in that capacity as only licensed radio hams were legally allowed to use them.

During the Lockerbie air disaster ham radio was the only means of communication into and out of the town and in the surrounding area for many days due to the local telephone exchange being taken out by the falling wreckage and the fact that all cell phone comms were locked up due to all the broadcast media units using up all available connections (it was early days for cell phones back then and very few towers were available). The hams set up radio 'repeaters' on the tops of the surrounding mountains in order to provide the required coverage for all the search teams. The 'repeater' stations were manned 24 hours a day and were usually housed in a caravan/trailer or a tent on the top of the mountain powered by a generator. Each search team had a radio ham assigned to it and the hams handled all communications to and from the search areas and the command centre. That disaster also required a law change to be passed to allow hams to operate from search helicopters as prior to that time radio hams were prevented from operating 'aeronautical mobile' in the UK. Before the law change the hams could only transmit when the helicopter was on the ground so if something was spotted (wreckage or a body for example) the helicopter would have to land so that the ham operator could pass a message and then take-off again. The hams were in operation for three straight weeks before they were stood down and all the equipment in use could be retrieved.

[Tako_Kichi]

What was your call sign Larry, mine is G8VLR.
In the UK I was G1YET, here in Canada I am VE3YET (I was able to keep the same suffix) and my wife is VA3GRN.

[strikehawk]

There was always a sea story floating around the Navy about one of the Midway class carriers having a machine shop (with equipment) that was found during an overhaul. The story is that the equipment was craned in and then the next deck above was laid over it. They forgot to put doors in the sides so it wasn't found until the 1970s when someone got to looking at the ship's plans.

Same for the Saratoga, supposedly during her SLEP overhaul in Philly,81-83?, while I was there. I never saw it but I was told by friends that it was true.

[blazefox2]

the old barracks here at pendleton that we moved out of about a month ago were all fallout shelters, which is why we didnt get phone reception inside them :sheep:

[1pepito2]

I grew up in small, Minnesota town, the elementary school was the local bomb shelter. The basement hallway leading to the cafeteria was lined with big, dark green barrels with, I think black writing and maybe a dark red cross.. can't remember for sure. It was past the "duck and cover" drill days, but seeing those barrels everyday... and more at an area cave... kept the "red scare" prevalent in fertile little minds of k-6 graders. I look back with an odd sense of reassurance though, if the worst happened, at least (I felt at the time) we'd be safe.

[Willy]

We did duck and cover when I was in grade school up to the 3rd grade or so.

[Odie]

We did duck and cover when I was in grade school up to the 3rd grade or so.

So did we Willy. My elementary school was about 5 miles from Barksdale AFB's runways and we had regular drills where we'd go out into
the hall sit with backs against the wall and put our heads between our knees. In later years, they were termed as "tornado drills".

Had the worst happened, our close proximity to a major SAC base would have meant a quick end.

[Willy]

I was in Southern California then near Camp Pendleton Marine base.