My Dad's strategy for survival was: buy lots of canned goods. At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis he was an RAF V-bomber captain, and when he wasn't on QRA he would rush into our flat in Doncaster, dump tins of beans and rush out again. I was about 9 years old at the time, and didn't really grasp what might be about to happen.
It was all a bit futile really - the base he flew from (Finningley) was then one of the RAF's biggest bases, and would have been smeared as a prime target. Doncaster, around five miles from the base would have been incinerated.
As someone that spent most of his young life living in nuclear bulls-eyes, I do sometimes feel a bit lucky!
Are you american? I'm just curious because that's the impression I get from "Massive respect".
The V-Bombers are very cool, of course, highly recommend Mark Felton's YouTube channel as he has some very niche stories about them e.g. simulated bombing missions of the east coast.
Pah! You call those niche! How about flying a booster for the UK's crappy space programme in the Vulcan's bomb-bay from Lincolnshire to the Woomera rocket site, Australia, illegally crossing Indonesian airspace on the way, because they figured out that the Indonesians would probably not detect the Vulcan (early stealth) and if they did they had nothing that could intercept it. And then the whole Vulcan crew fell asleep for about an hour, while the plane carried on on autopilot.
It was all a bit futile really - the base he flew from (Finningley) was then one of the RAF's biggest bases, and would have been smeared as a prime target. Doncaster, around five miles from the base would have been incinerated.
As someone that spent most of his young life living in nuclear bulls-eyes, I do sometimes feel a bit lucky!