# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/41 "2014-10-21T16:23:39Z")
I grew up in Tampa, close to MacDill AFB… so yeah… probably in trouble. ---
**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, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/42 "2014-10-21T16:29:28Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > And no, I’m not one. Well played sir, well played. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/43 "2014-10-21T16:48:07Z")
Toast. South Jersey close to Fort Dix and McGuire AFB. Even if they weren’t targeted, I would think so much shit would be lobbed at New York and Philly that those portions of the east coast would be glowing. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/44 "2014-10-21T16:54:12Z")
Kansas City, Mo. (as depicted in the movie The Day After). Surrounded by missle sites and the home of the Bendix plant which made/makes non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons, and Richards Gabaur Air Force base. I picked option 2. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/45 "2014-10-21T16:54:13Z")
Probably dead here, but it depends. I grew up in San Luis Obispo, CA. I used to joke that we’re half an hour east of the Diablo nuclear power plant, half an hour south of the Atascadero mental hospital, half an hour north of a big prison (forget the city/name now) and half an hour east of Vandenburg Air Force base. So if the nukes didn’t get us, the serial killers would. On the other hand, prevailing winds would have sent most radiation away from us and we weren’t big enough to be a direct target. So we might actually have stood a chance; it would largely depend on how the commies prioritized their targets. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/46 "2014-10-21T17:03:01Z")
Chattanooga, TN: could have gone either way. The map in the article linked by **Mr. Kobayashi** shows as likely dead in the blast, at least in the 2,000 warhead plan. while the 500 warhead plan would have it less so, and probably wind dependent. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/47 "2014-10-21T17:14:45Z")
Before I was quite old enough\* to understand nuclear war, we lived next to a SAC base. Later, we lived one mile from Ellington AFB–which was still pretty active. Also not far from a shitload of petrochemical plants… - I read every magazine that came through the house. _Alas Babylon_ appeared in Good Housekeeping in 1959–so I got the word quite young. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/48 "2014-10-21T17:28:35Z")
It’s going to really depend on how many and what kind of bombs the Soviets were going to throw. Due to the hills around where I grew up, (coastal Central CA) smaller airbursts would probably be detonated at a height below the skyline between me and the likely targets. If big bombs (1-5MT+) were going to be used, they’d be detonated higher, and I’d likely end up a crispy critter. 15 calories per cm^2 would be really unpleasant. And then there’s all of the fires from the oaks and manzanita catching… Groundbursts from the Bay Area would also probably make life unlikely in the days to follow. **Ethilrist** , the Sci-Fi author Dean Ing wrote [a novel](http://www.amazon.com/Pulling-Through-Dean-Ing/dp/0441690505) about one of his characters having to survive a nuclear exchange with the Soviets. (That’s a cheetah next to our protagonist.) The character lived just on the other side of Mount Diablo, and the novel is just a vehicle to illustrate all of the survival techniques and gadgetry used to “pull through.” (I still keep meaning to try and make a Kearney Fallout Meter.) Anyway, fallout was a giant concern for his troupe. An interesting read if you are into the subject matter. It would be a giant mess. It may yet still be. Edit: Oh, I picked mostly dead, including thermal radiation in the poll’s “radiation would probably kill me.” ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/49 "2014-10-21T17:39:12Z")
Lived just up the hill from the Renton, WA Boeing plant–I seem to recall they made cruise missiles there. About the same distance in the opposite direction was a Nike Ajax missile site. Certainly some worthy targets, we’d have been dead if one was hit, properly dead if both were hit. Always curious about the all out nuke war scanario, though. Doesn’t seem to make sense–in a war that’s supposed to last only a few minutes, why target industry at all? Anything that’s going to get used is already made. If you’re going for deterrent horror, then wouldn’t you focus on cultural & population centers with little regard for military value? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/50 "2014-10-21T17:43:46Z")
I grew up in the north Bronx during the 1950s and 60s. Probably not enough of a direct target so that the blast would have gotten us (unless they were aiming to take out some of the bridges), but the NY metropolitan area would no doubt have received enough strikes that radiation would have been fatal to almost anyone there. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/51 "2014-10-21T18:02:59Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Right outside Washington DC. I’d survive by crawling under my desk and covering my head. My high school is almost exactly 20 miles from the White House. So yeah, I wouldn’t be going back to Rockville. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/52 "2014-10-21T18:08:42Z")
According to that blast chart, I’d have been toast. Raised on the East Coast, not too far from a state capital. So assuming that they’d lob one into each capital city just as a matter of course, we’d be somewhere between instantly dead and instant radiation poisoning. Which I guess is just as well, because the continuous clouds of fallout hitting the East Coast on the prevailing winds would not have been good for the gardens. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/53 "2014-10-21T18:13:08Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > 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. Pittsburgh’s toast. Well, even if it’s not that reliable, it’d be a pretty good guess. The mills were closing down in the 80s, but we were still the big steel capital of the nation. The commies would want to knock us out. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/54 "2014-10-21T19:50:44Z")
I was only alive for the tail end of the Cold War but tensions were high enough in the early '80s. I have no clue whether I would have been okay or not. I suspect fall out from Britain would have snuffed most Irish people out regardless of whether the island was directly targeted or not. I am not sure what Soviet policy was on neutral countries but Belfast (in the UK) is only 85 miles from where I grew up and may have been a target. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/55 "2014-10-21T19:57:37Z")
Very dead, what with Windsor being a few miles one way and Aldermaston a few miles the other way. ---
**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, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/56 "2014-10-21T20:00:41Z")
It’s funny now to find that nobody on either side, after about 1964, ever planned on actually setting off even a limited number of H bombs. Even during the Korean War they knew using atomic weapons wouldn’t work. (they wanted to, but the science showed it wouldn’t have won the war, or even shortened it) ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/57 "2014-10-21T20:20:15Z")
Growing up, I always lived near or on major Navy bases. I’d have been toast. ---
**Author:** ![Ispolkom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@Ispolkom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ispolkom)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/58 "2014-10-21T20:33:43Z")
> [@FXMastermind](#): > > It’s funny now to find that nobody on either side, after about 1964, ever planned on actually setting off even a limited number of H bombs. > > Even during the Korean War they knew using atomic weapons wouldn’t work. (they wanted to, but the science showed it wouldn’t have won the war, or even shortened it) Huh, what was the [SIOP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Integrated_Operational_Plan), then? It planned for the use of hundreds of thermonuclear bombs. I grew up in Minot, ND, which is still surrounded by 150 Minuteman silos, and still hosts a wing of B-52s. When the sirens went off we’d listen to see if the signal was for a tornado (take cover), or an attack (don’t bother). We never bothered with “duck and cover.” I always thought that the world would end with first the sirens, then the roar as the silo covers were blown off, the missiles launched, and the alert bombers took off, and then the sudden, silent bright light… ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/59 "2014-10-21T20:42:15Z")
I grew up in Silver Spring, a suburb of DC. I assume, as Tom Lehrer said: > [@](#): > > When the air becomes Uraneous > We will all go simultaneous ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-who-who-grew-up-tall-and-proud-in-the-shadow-of-the-mushroom-cloud/702022/60 "2014-10-21T20:43:59Z")
I grew up outside of Idaho Falls, Idaho, home of Idaho Nuclear Engineering Laboratories, which was a gigantic reactor complex about 50 miles out in the middle of the desert west of town. It was also a navy base – that’s where the reactor operators for the nuclear powered ships and subs trained. Though none of the work there was specifically for nuclear weapons, there were plenty of military projects (that’s where they were designing the nuclear powered bomber that Kennedy cancelled), and I had always assumed it was on the hit list if the buttons got pushed. It’s not listed as a target on either of those linked maps, though, so maybe it wasn’t. I know we never did duck and cover drills in elementary school. We did get a couple weeks off school in the fall for spud harvest, thought. [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=2) [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=4)