Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

July 12, 1957: the annual civil defense drill known as Operation Alert [1954-1961] commenced. The New York Daily News front page coverage of Operation Alert. Here is the July 13, 1957 edition.



Operation Alert 1957 marked the first publicly distributed photograph (not 100% sure it's the first, but very likely one of the earliest photos) of the Nuclear Football. Eisenhower's military aide Captain Evan "Pete" Aurand (June 10, 1917 – June 7, 1989) carries the satchel. Captain Aurand, naval fighter pilot from WWII later went on to become a Vice Admiral.



"The chief executive participates in Operation Alert - a major deterrent to complacency." 1 min newsreel on OPERATION ALERT '57:



On July 12, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first US President to fly in this Bell H-13J-BF Sioux, serial number 57-2729. Eisenhower's personal helicopter pilot, Air Force Major Joseph E. Barrett, flew the rotorcraft with special anti-glare tinting to the huge plexiglass nose bubble and a Secret Service agent occupied the left seat. The chopper is on display at the Steven V. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA.

Although Capt. Aurand accompanied President Eisenhower, he did not fly in the same helicopter as the president because the Bell H-13J had only three seats.



Man in shades is James Joseph Rowley (October 14, 1908 – Nov 1, 1992) was the head of the United States Secret Service between 1961 and 1973, under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Rowley began working for the Secret Service in 1938 during the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, after first joining the FBI in 1936. On June 18, 1964, Rowley provided testimony to the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of John F. Kennedy.



After this first trip, Eisenhower began to use the helicopter almost weekly to fly either to Camp David or to his farm, which was located just north of there in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Fun fact from a presidential historian: There was no AC in the Air Force helicopter and it was a hot summer DC day, and Ike hated the glass bubble USAF helo. Next time, he flew a Marine troop transport helo. And the Marines installed AC.


Atomic Platters recording artist and actor, Peter Scott Peters (Peter Sikorski) [July 12, 1930 - 1994] in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada. Listen to his 1961 pop song "Fallout Shelter":





Of all the songs ever written about Cold War panic (many songs), Peter Scott Peters amazing 45 single "Fallout Shelter" may well be the coolest. The two-minute, 33 second opus begins with a driving jazz beat that leads the listener to a slightly menacing spoken word refrain: "I’m not scared, I’m prepared, I’ll be spared." The hepcat singer then brags about his bachelor pad bomb shelter being fully equipped for the atomic duration:

Lyrics:

I'm not scared
I'm prepared
I'll be spared

I've got a fallout shelter, it's 9 by 9
A Hi-Fi set and a jug of wine
Let the missiles fly from nation to nation
It's party time in my radiation station
A 14 day supply of multi-purpose food
Water,  medicine, be sure to include
Build your bomb bungalow, you needn't postpone
With no down payment and an FHA loan

Let the tests go on in the atmosphere
In my fallout shelter, I'll have no fear
My baby and me, cozy we'll be
Away from radioactivity

Of course, what respectable "bomb bungalow" would be complete without a female companion to help re-populate the post-attack world? Peters has that covered: “My baby and me, cozy we will be, away from radioactivity.” The style of the song then abruptly shifts away from that of a weird spoken word jazz tune to a more conventional early 1960s pop rock ditty:

Twenty megatons is the size of the boom
And if they let it go, I'll feel no doom
Let the cats run about, helter-skelter
I'm gonna, live, live, live in my fallout shelter

Finally, how could we not love a song that ends like this?

So if you want to be full of confidence
Get survival jazz and civil defense
You'll live like a king in your fallout pad
'Till the all clear sounds on CONELRAD.
Dial six-four-o, twelve-four-0 - CONELRAD

Here's a wiki List of songs about nuclear war - the oldest from 1950, many in the 80s, to the latest "Does Anybody Care" by Alex Hirsch in 2022.


Belfasts Hidden Nuclear Bunker - Located in a leafy residential area sits the Mount Eden Park Regional War Room. From 1953 this building would have been the place that Northern Ireland would have been run from after a Nuclear War.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r9r0UOkCGQ


Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.




Elon & that consciousness thing again...


https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1679183676113059843




Tapped out..."Say Good-bye to Anchor Steam Beer" - Anchor Stream Brewery has closed after 127 years... Ha, no surprise.