# You who who grew up tall and proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022 "2014-10-21T13:29:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FXMastermind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fxmastermind/32/7289_2.png) [@FXMastermind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FXMastermind)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/21 "2014-10-21T14:58:25Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Were you living next to a Minuteman silos, or were you far from where the strikes would have been? Right next to where we tested the actual missiles that would have been used, so pretty much dead already. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/22 "2014-10-21T14:59:05Z")
Another person from the Chicago suburbs. For various reasons I can’t believe that Chicago wouldn’t have been on the first strike list. So it would either be A or B depending on how accurate the missiles were and where exactly you’d aim it (no reason to waste half the radius ‘blowing up’ the lake) ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/23 "2014-10-21T15:00:00Z")
Norfolk VA. I would have been vapor except that our elementary school desks were designed to withstand the blast, we just had to duck and cover. During the drills, I always worried that my ass was sticking out from under the safety of the desk top. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/24 "2014-10-21T15:03:51Z")
> [@Reverend\_Meade](#): > > If you mean Cecil Field, that was a Navy facility. Unless you mean somewhere else, I believe the Marine base on Blount Island is just a logistics center. I don’t think they do training there. I was thinking of Cecil Field – and my bad, it was Navy. I’d forgotten. (I could picture the entrance to the place, but damned if I could remember its name.) Part of it is a nice equestrian center now. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/25 "2014-10-21T15:15:02Z")
_(effin’ quote system, broken again…)_ [quote] From 1975 to 1978, though, my dad was stationed at Fort Carson (U.S. Army) in Colorado Springs – home of Peterson Air Force Base (Falcon AFB, now Schreiver AFB, wasn’t built until the early '80s), the aforementioned Fort Carson, and the Air Force Academy (home of many future Air Force officers). Oh yeah, and NORAD (which is under Cheyenne Mountain, but if I’d been the Russians I’d have sent a missile there anyway). My World War III experience during those years would have been brief[/quote Heinlein fans mostly know it, but it’s worth noting that RAH moved to Colorado Springs around 1960 to be in a nuke-safe zone… then they built NORAD in his back yard, guaranteed to bring on the biggest and best Russia could send. Which is why he went to such great lengths to beat Cheyenne Mountain into a crater in MIAHM… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lorene89095](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@Lorene89095](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorene89095)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/26 "2014-10-21T15:18:06Z")
About 30 miles from Bergstrom AFB… Dead.☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/27 "2014-10-21T15:28:09Z")
San Diego. Dead (unless for some reason the Russians didn’t want to anger the Mexicans by taking out Tijuana as a casualty of war). This was something we knew and discussed as kids. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/28 "2014-10-21T15:29:51Z")
Outside Milwaukee during my childhood, so probably OK (in the sense of “not immediately blown up”). I would have to be one of the plucky survivors battling mutants for gasoline and rifle ammunition. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/29 "2014-10-21T15:30:27Z")
What, are you kidding? Out in the middle of West Fucking Texas, a nuclear blast would have improved the place. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/30 "2014-10-21T15:36:16Z")
I grew up less than a mile from Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Permanent orange afro. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/31 "2014-10-21T15:40:58Z")
I grew up in spitting distance of Niagara Falls power plant, a ground zero as it supplies a huge amount of electricity to the east coast. We were still doing duck and cover drills in 1975 in school. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/32 "2014-10-21T15:41:56Z")
Arlington, VA. Poof! ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/33 "2014-10-21T15:46:21Z")
Grew up in the suburbs on Washington DC. Dad worked at the Pentagon. Between the capital itself, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, Fort Meade, etc., I’m sure I would have died on the first day. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/34 "2014-10-21T15:47:21Z")
I live in a large enough city that I’d probably be killed. I’ve always had the belief that regardless of what both sides claimed, given the ideological/holy war nature of the conflict they’d both go out of their way to kill as many of the other side’s civilians as possible, which means they’d kill all the large cities. So, anything on [this list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population) would be destroyed, at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/35 "2014-10-21T15:52:46Z")
Tucson, AZ, home to Davis-Monthan AFB which at the time, was a B52 SAC base (70’s) and the town was surrounded by Titan 2 missiles. Los Poofos. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/36 "2014-10-21T15:54:16Z")
I grew up around 7 miles away from O’Hare which was the busiest airport in the world. 20 miles from Chicago proper. Always figured I’d be dust. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/37 "2014-10-21T15:57:10Z")
I was living near Oak Ridge Tennessee, people are getting too much radiation now and there wasn’t a bomb drop. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/38 "2014-10-21T15:58:16Z")
Oh, dead, dead, dead. Grew up in Utah, near where much of the testing was going on in Southern Nevada, and Dugway Proving Grounds wasn’t that far away, either. And no, I’m not one. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/39 "2014-10-21T16:06:52Z")
The site seems to run by people selling fallout shelters/survival gear so take it with a grain of salt but they claim to have [maps of nuclear targets](http://www.radshelters4u.com/index3.htm#a2) based off 25 year old FEMA response maps. Targets based on population centers, other important infrastructure, military bases, etc. I don’t vouch for any of this (I’m not about to go verifying old FEMA maps) and post it just for curiosity’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/40 "2014-10-21T16:08:39Z")
> [@dba\_Fred](#): > > NAS Glenview? Home of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing - their Reserves. I think the base in particular and Chicago in general would have been on the target list. > > I was a Marine brat, Dad was a pilot, so except for the year he went to college, we always lived on/near a Marine or Navy air station or major port. Then I went to college in Tucson - Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, joined the Navy and was on an aircraft carrier out of Alameda/the Bay area, then moved to Las Vegas - Nellis Air Force Base. Yeah, I was a marked man :eek: Yes, Near Glenview. Even as a kid I knew I’d rather suffer a direct hit and get vaporized than live through the aftermath with radiation sickness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022.md?page=3)