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Archive for the ‘Cold War’ Category

Cold War Cartoons – Duck and Cover with Bert the Turtle

Monday, August 27th, 2018

Written by Raymond J. Mauer and directed by Anthony Rizzo of Archer Productions and made with the help of schoolchildren from New York City and Astoria, New York, this cartoon was shown in schools as the cornerstone of the government’s “duck and cover” public awareness campaign.

According to the United States Library of Congress (which declared the film “historically significant” and inducted it for preservation into the National Film Registry in 2004), it “was seen by millions of schoolchildren in the 1950s.”

Duck and Cover lyrics:
There was a turtle by the name of Bert
and Bert the turtle was very alert;
when danger threatened him he never got hurt
he knew just what to do…
He’d duck!
And cover!
Duck!
And cover! (male) He did what we all must learn to do
(male) You (female) And you (male) And you (deeper male) And you!’
Duck, and cover!’

Posted in Cold War | 1 Comment »

School for Assassins

Friday, August 10th, 2018

Why? Because I hate Commies, that’s why!

This video was made by the US Information Agency in 1982, just when the pressure was being increased against Communism by the Reagan administration.

Posted in Cold War, History | 9 Comments »

Combat In Cities – Berlin

Tuesday, August 7th, 2018

Posted in Cold War | 7 Comments »

REFORGER 87

Sunday, March 11th, 2018

Return of Forces to Germany or REFORGER was an annual exercise in Europe during the Cold War. It featured units arriving in Europe and drawing equipment from Prepositioning Of Materiel Configured in Unit Set (POMCUS) sites and then rolling out to engage a fictitious enemy. European-based units conducted training based on their General Defense Plans. A Combat Photography unit captured III Corps’ portions of the 1987 REFORGER exercise on video. At the time there were two additional Corps (V and VII) already in Germany.

Since I am currently in Germany and participated in REFORGER 88, which was actually the last of the series to feature large maneuver, I thought it would be a cool share.

Part 1

Part 2

Posted in Cold War, History | 29 Comments »

The King’s Field Jacket

Sunday, November 19th, 2017

This is SGT Elvis A. Presley’s M-1951 field jacket on display at Graceland. Yes, that Elvis.

Elvis served as a scout in A Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Armor Regiment, 3rd Armor Division “Spearhead” at Ray Barracks, Freidberg, Germany from 1958 to 1960.

Photo by Thomas R Machnitzki

Edited to correct spelling of Friedberg; Western civilization is now secure.

Tags: Elvis
Posted in Clothing, Cold War, History | 9 Comments »

October 25, 1983 – Operation Urgent Fury

Wednesday, October 25th, 2017

On the morning of October 25th, 1983, we awoke to reports that US forced had invaded the small Caribbean nation of Grenada, in order to liberate American medical students from danger posed by political instability. Joined by Regional Security System troops from a variety of Caribbean partner nations, they swiftly overwhelmed the Grenadian and Cuban troops. While Operation Urgent Fury was in name, a joint force operation, and included the use of Special Operations Forces, it highlighted many interoperability challenges, such as use of joint operational overlays and communications issues.

Several stove pipe problems suffered by the pre-Goldwater-Nichols military were identified during this operation. Additionally, Urgent Fury was conducted with many systems dating from the Vietnam war.

Just six years later, during the invasion of Panama, saw the first employment of several new weapons developed during the Reagan buildup such as the F-117 stealth fighter and the Marine Corps LAV-25. Grenada was a great learning experience for the US military as it highlighted issues with joint service operations, particularly in the communications arena as well as interoperability between Special Operations and General Purpose forces. For example, SOF also took a much more prominent role in operation Blue Spoon during the Panama invasion. We’ve come even further in the past three decades.

Finally, as with any conflict, lives were lost. Let us not forget the 19 Americans killed in action and the 116 who were wounded. Unfortunately, there were also 24 Grenadian civilians killed in the conflict.

Posted in Cold War, History | 7 Comments »

Varusteleka Presents: Just a Jacket!

Saturday, September 9th, 2017

For all of you who don’t want to pay for frills like zippers and hoods.

Get yours at, www.varusteleka.com/en/product/soviet-winter-work-jacket-brown-surplus.

Posted in Clothing, Cold War, Tactical Fashion Police | 4 Comments »

Saturday Night at the Movies: “Friends and Neighbors-People You Know”

Sunday, June 4th, 2017

Here’s a fantastic 1970 USAF educational documentary covering the mobilization, trainup, and deployment of USAF Air National Guard F-100 units. Narrated by the late Bob Crane of the television show Hogan’s Heroes, the film chronicles the mobilization of four F-100 equipped ANG squadrons in response to the Pueblo Crisis during 1968. One particular two-ship mission is covered from pre-flight briefing to post-flight celebration.

The Super Sabre, better known as “The Hun” was the USAF’s first supersonic fighter and formed the backbone of the USAF and many NATO and allied Air Forces prior to the arrival of the F-4 Phantom. The last Huns were retired from the Taiwanese and Danish air forces in the early 1980s, following USAF ANG retirement in 1979.

The squadrons mobilized and highlighted in the film are:

120^thTactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) Bobcats of the Colorado ANG (tail VS)
174^th TFS Bats of the Iowa ANG (tail HA)
188^thTFS Tacos of the New Mexico ANG (tail SK)
136^th TFS Rocky’s Raiders of the New York ANG (tail SG).

These four squadrons collectively logged more than 30,000 sorties during their deployments to Southeast Asia during 1968 and 1969, with some aircraft pulling up to five CAS sorties per day.

While the film may predate many of the SSD readership, many of our fathers and uncles likely owe their lives to “Weekend Warrior” CAS.

Enjoy.

Posted in Air Force, Aviation, Cold War, History, Saturday Night Movie | 2 Comments »