At the center of the convoy, an ungainly vehicle called a straddle carrier, whose driver sat in a cab high above the roadway, held precious cargo slung between its four wheeled legs. The vehicle resembled a giant spider protecting its eggs.
The convoy drove into Site King, a secret area in Medina where about a hundred humpbacked rectangular bunkers made of fortified steel and concrete, known as “igloos”—each roughly the size of four 2-car garages—served as one of the country’s largest nuclear weapons installations.
-WiscoDave
I was in the third grade, on the north side, and the Bang rattled every window in our school. Nothing broke, all the teachers turned white as ghosts, kept looking at the cloud climbing skyward to the south, tall and skinny. No one knew what to do, so the principal called on the PA for a tornado drill (yes, we actually trained for them). So we all filed out into the hallways, sat against the walls, and ducked our heads. Then we went to lunch. Third graders didn’t worry too much about global apocalypse...
ReplyDeleteCan't read the article.....blocked by some stupid service called Outline....
ReplyDeleteThat was my birthday.
ReplyDeleteOne of my uncles was a Air Force SMSgt, stationed at Kelly in the early '60's. My family paid a visit in the summer of '62.
They lived in a fairly new housing development, and from their back yard you could see these weird "humps" in the distance. I asked my uncle what it was, and he explained that it was the Medina weapons storage. I remember thinking how "nice" it must be to live next door to hydrogen bombs.
They were there the following year, and it scared the shit out of my aunt.
Grandparents house had cracks in the stucco from that day
ReplyDeleteI was two at the time and lived a few miles away in the Valley High subdivision. That day, I was with my mother and her friend at a neighborhood diner. After the blast we all went outside to look at the "mushroom cloud." At least, that's what my mother told me, I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteMy father was in the Air Force working at Lackland Air Force Base. His unit was later transferred to Medina AFB and he worked as a gunsmith in one of those igloos. I went with him to work a few times and got to look around the place. Those igloos were well built.
Son-of-a-### I was at Lackland in July 1964 at Officer Training School and remember the commotion when they would haul bombs from Kelly to Medina. Nobody mentioned the joint blew up some months previously...maybe would have gone over the hill.
ReplyDeleteBy 1980, Medina was considered part of Lackland AFB. I was a Security Policeman assigned to the 3700th SPS from 1980-1984 and got to patrol the Weapons Storage Area on a regular basis. By then, there were nothing but conventional munitions in the bunkers.
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