I was a Naval Intelligence Officer through the 80s & 90s at the end of the cold war. I know exactly how you feel about having all your best stories TS/SCI. More than a few of my work locations had no windows and Marines at the front door. Take care Kevin.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

👍🏻

It is always so eerie to hear stories from this era. Imagine the specter of absolute destruction hanging over your head at all times for so many years.

You see, this is why I'm a subscriber. You are a true historian. Whether you take us on a tour through the 1500s or the mid-twentieth century or wherever your fancy may roam you make the trek fascinating and easy to follow. So enjoyable to be a part of your tour group.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

That's really kind of you RJ, thank you 👍🏻

It is always a pleasure to hear your real life stories. Great selection of topics. In grade school we did the duck and cover drills. Out teacher said it was to protect us from flying glass in case the school was hit by a tornado! We were in New Jersey…so even as kids we were skeptical of the tornado reason.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

😜

Fantastic work!

Getting up into my era. As a child of the late 50's/60's I lived in Miami, not far from Cuba, and remember the monthly drills and practicing the " Duck and Cover " in school. My older brother was in the US Air Force back then and was in electronics repair. One time while at a SAC base out west to do some repair work, he got caught in the bunker when a alert sounded and the base was locked down. He was really worried as he had no where to go but the commanding officer noticed him and gently and quietly told him to just stay out of the way as this was just a drill and to not worry. That sure gave him the scare of his life back then. My brother is passed on now but had many interesting stories from those days.

I live about 45 min from Moose Jaw and had no idea that they had this display.... now I can't wait to go. Great video and thank you for your service.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Excellent! Have fun 👍🏻

Enjoy your stories Kevin, I too remember a few times in the early 1960’s where the schools instructed us on taking shelter. Also remember some of the town buildings designated as fallout shelters and having the symbol next to the entrance. I’m 70, and I’m acquainted with an elderly neighbor, he’s 92, he worked for a defense contractor in the 1960’s throughout the 1980’s. As an inspector of the missile silos in the Midwest states. He is an interesting fellow to talk to about those times. Much of those silos are now empty and abandoned

Wow, what amazing stories. Having grown up during Cold War, it is fascinating to learn what was going on "behind the scenes" with the military. The story of picking up sounds from the past is thought provoking. Who knows with modern technology what is possible and what already might be happening in a secret bunker somewhere. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge with us.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

It's a pleasure, thanks for watching 👍🏻

Love to hear your stories. Always exciting and interesting. I guess I will be giving my age away but there is no forgetting October 27, 1962 . I came home from school, I was in the 5th grade and pops said he was going to the grocery to see if he could pick up some food to stock before the stores ran out. He said Kennedy will be on TV tonight. It was a lucky accident that WWIII did not start.

@MichaelWilliams-tv1bm

10 ай бұрын

I remember it well as I was 12 years old at the time. Here in England we were waiting to see if those Soviet ships would turn back, and dreading another and even worse war.

Thank you for making this video and an even bigger thank you for standing with us during the Cold War. We (US) are so fortunate to have you (UK) with us from the very beginning until the Cold War ceased. What a wild time it was. Addendum- I was a child of the late 1980's through the 1990's. We were also taught to hide under our desks during a nuclear attack. I always thought (even as a child) that they did this to make it easier to count the dead. Grim.

There’s nothing like a genuine primary source. I love your stories. Thank you!

@thehistorysquad

2 ай бұрын

Glad you like them!

So cool seeing all this history from the province I grew up in on your channel. We would go to the tunnels on field trips when I was in elementary school

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

They're still cool to visit 👍🏻

I grew up on SAC USAF bases in the 50’s and 60’s. The Cold War was very evident to me. My dad was up in the air in B-52s much of the time. It was a scary time.

As a soldier in the SSF in Petawawa, back in the '70s one of my jobs was a NBC Supervisor. Such an optimistic job that was. The whole idea was to prepare for the inevitable strike, not if but when, to protect as many "assets" as possible, dig out, clean up and prepare to fight back. Frankly, I think it was just an exercise to keep us going right up to the actual strike: nobody was really expected to survive. But we planned anyway. One of my favorites was having to calculate the radiation levels and then determining the time each member can remain outside to do necessary tasks, so everyone would get there share (measured by our little black dosemeters we wore with our dog tags). The idea is we would happily follow orders to accumulate deadly radiation because it was shared equally: good thing THAT part of human nature was never tested. But, as absurd as it all seems now, we all took it very seriously. We were convinced, at the time, it wasn't a game. It's still not, but nobody really expects to survive after the next time one is used. Truly MAD! So, thanks Kevin for the walk down memory lane. It's certainly a bit different than your usual, like extracting arrows from nobles heads.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Indeed, gotta keep it fresh now and again. Thanks for watching and your comment 👍

Thanks for the tour, Kevin. I was stationed at multiple bases during my time in the military that had nuclear weapons and can certainly agree that it could make one wonder what would happen in the event they were actually used. Thank God we have not found out yet, and I say yet, as things are pretty shaky right now. Cheers from Texas.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Yep, as you say, pretty shaky 👍🏻

@fartingforkeeps

11 ай бұрын

I mean, we do have some idea of what happens when they're used. Ask Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I've been to Hiroshima before actually and you'd never guess that such a pretty, clean city was once an irradiated inferno.

@davidstrother496

10 ай бұрын

@@fartingforkeeps I know what you mean, but I was referring to present tense, world wide use. Cheers.

What a superb post Kevin. And you made a very good point about certain things not making much progress from the 50’s to 60’s. Being probably of a similar age to yourself, I well remember growing up in the Cold War, it made an impact on many of us at that time.

Great episode Kevin, thanks

Great work. Thank you Mr Kevin.

Always look forward to content from you Kevin makes my Friday. Thanks mate 👍 👌

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

My pleasure 👍🏻

Brilliant, natural presenter, and always fascinating to hear of things that we would know nothing of but for this man.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Thanks really kind, thanks 👍🏻

at the video's end, you are sitting in front of a typewriter. Same model (it appears) that I spent so much time at as a youngster. My Gran brought it home with him from the service... he never spoke much of the Cold War, but seeing that brought back a lot of memories for me. Thank you Sir.

The love of the game from our man is un matched!!

Wonderful video. Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and time!

Thanks for this tour treat!

Nice little snippet of quite modern history Kev 🤘🏹

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Cheers Mick 👍🏻

Excellent video Kevin. Really interesting stuff.

Great work again! I love hearing these little stories. The part about the signals gave me chills.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

It was quite incredible to listen to them at the time

Amazing job Kevin, so interesting. Well explained and narrated.

I remember the Cold War, and Duck and Cover and the Sirens. Part of the Time I lived near a military base near Washington D.C. We did a lot of Duck and Cover drills. It was a scary time.

Maybe more people should consider all the planning and preparation for a potential attack that was once important. I think it's fair to say it's just as relevant now as then. You always learn from history so you can move forward without making the same mistakes. Thanks Kevin for another informative episode. Kids today have no idea what is was like. I was born in '54. We had "duck and cover drills " on a regular basis. Also, the USA had public service announcements (PSA) featuring Tommy the turtle who would go deep inside his shell when the siren went off. During our assignments to Germany, the Army just used to kid about the "whistle going off or the balloon going up ". Family members attended regular meetings about where to go/what to bring/how we would be evacuated. Like the Soviets wouldn't notice a 200 mile long convoy of privately owned vehicles (POVs) all headed for the Swiss border. Some women really believed it. Most realized it was just to make us feel good and was a pipedream of some general. Thank you for your service. My hubby served in the U.S. Army for over 24 yrs with 3 tours in Germany.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

A lovely comment Sharon, thank you. I served with the US army, I was attached to them for a while, a good bunch of guys 👍🏻

@fangslaughter1198

10 ай бұрын

Any thoughts of fleeing or survivors has been put forward to raise moral in civilians. There will be no escaping a full on NBCW attack. Best wishes.

Really love these personal stories! You have a lot of cool stuff to tell I think!

Thank you, Kevin! Love your content!

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Cheers 👍🏻

Greetings once again from nova Scotia, another top shelf video, I enjoyed this little peak behind the scenes as it were, the D.E.W. LINE has many stories, most of them, never to be told. Thanks again Kevin, this was great. As always best regards, Arthur

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Cheers Arthur 👍🏻

I always enjoy your channel Kevin. You're a natural story teller, thank you.

Well done Kev. Best of British. Keep 'em coming.

Great Video, enjoyed it.

Thoroughly impressed! 👍

Another fantastic idea sir

Interesting bit of history. Thanks so much, I greatly enjoyed your presentation!🙂

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Many thanks!

You are so well versed in so many historic topics.....thank you so much for sharing your wealth of information. You bring so many unknown facts to us......

@thehistorysquad

9 ай бұрын

You are so welcome

Fascinating!

Interesting video as always, scary times

Once again Kevin really enjoyed, the radio signal from ww2 was very interesting if its true what they said it could explain away some of the ghost stories with things getting trapped and repeating itself. 😊

We shared some very similar experiences in our time in the service. Thanks for sharing this piece of “Cold War” history.

Great video 😊

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching 👍🏻

That's a really cool museum, whenever I go to Saskatchewan, I'll definitely check it out. My great uncle was in the Canadian military and he was stationed up in the Arctic with NORAD.

I knew about the cold War but I was too young to realize the importance of it. Thank you.

Hi Kevin, I'm not sure what's more terrifying this or your old timey spooky stories

Will keep that in mind to go when I get back that way again, very interesting!

Thanks Kev. A really interesting link to bletchley park. So many secrets from that place still no known

Thanks for the tour of the bunker, very interesting. Here in England there is the York Cold War Bunker which was a Royal Observer Corps installation and which is open to the public. I was born in 1950, so the "Cold War" was the background to my childhood and adolescence. My parents and I lived in Rotherham, Yorkshire. This meant we were about 14 miles from the V-Bomber base at RAF Finningley, a primary target for a first strike attack. Even as a child I realised that that we were not likely to survive an attack, but in that way humans have, you put such thoughts to the back of your mind. I will however admit to having had a recurring dream where I wake, look out my bedroom window and see a "mushroom cloud" rising in the distance! After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, I thought perhaps Europe had outgrown large scale wars, but here we are again with a new land war. Makes you wonder if it will ever end.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment Michael 👍

Tommy Douglas is the man!

I think I might have to join patreon soon. You really make some superb content

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

That's very kind of you, thanks! You'd be most welcome. I try to do a random Zoom hang out every couple of months aswell, for all tiers that wants to join in 👍🏻

I've been down into some of the Cold War bunkers in an ex Eastern Bloc country that were built by the Soviets. They are sobering places for sure. Great video Kevin.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Cheers 👍🏻

Another fantastic video, I wish you were my history teacher in highschool.

Simply fascinating

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Cheers John 👍🏻

@JStrawmyre

10 ай бұрын

Cheers

This channel is brilliant!

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Cheers!

@davesmith7432

10 ай бұрын

@@thehistorysquad anybody can talk about history. But making it engaging, fun and interesting is a talent. You have it, sir.

My work mate & best man was in the Territorial Army in the 1980's and had to deliver fuel to a secret nuclear bunker that had the outside disguised as a transport depot. He got a little lost and asked a local if he knew where the army depot was. The local said "Oh, you mean the secret bunker? Just follow the roads with the perfect tarmac and you'll get there".

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

🤣

The cold war was always one of those parts of history that I never really knew much about, just little bits here and there. So thanks a lot for these videos.

@stephaniecowans3646

10 ай бұрын

I honestly don't remember that period of time being taught in school, but I do remember the monthly air raid siren tests and our random "drop drills" while in grade school. Class would be going along as usual and without warning, the teacher would yell out "DROP!" and we kids had to dive under our desks (oh, yeah. . . like that would protect us from a nuclear blast 🙄 )

Always awesome!! Have you ever done a video showing your memorabilia collection? I bet it is incredible!!

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Not yet! 👍🏻

Yes! Here in the US we did those drills as well. I was a kid in the 60's as well....I remember all that.

Re: Radio messages from the past - there's a term for them, "Long delayed echo" (LDEs), that I picked up from reading about the Titanic of all things... there was an old story of a radio enthusiast in Croydon in 1936 who encountered the Morse distress messages from the sinking, and in looking into it there are several other similar stories (each one a little less documented and verifiable...), but yeah, an example of LDE if true.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Fascinating 👍🏻

@sgath92

10 ай бұрын

@@thehistorysquad I always assumed it was paranormal rather than LDE, but I have my grandfather's radio from WW2. One time in the 90s I was bored and kicked it on to see what I could find in shortwave, and came across a station in English that was signing off for the night, something along the lines of: "This is Radio Tokyo signing off" followed by some music. The problem: Radio Tokyo only existed during the war (Tokyo Rose is one of the more infamous personalities from the station). After the war Japan was kicked off shortwave for quite some time and when finally allowed to return to the air, came back as "NHK." I quickly got a shiver, thought "okay that's enough with that" and turned it off. The radio had been in both theatres (him having been in the only American regiment to serve in both) and lived to tell the story. Paranormal, LDE, or somebody's prank? Who knows. But its not the only story out there from hams who have experienced something they could not explain. And it still works, more than 70 years later.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

@@sgath92 How lovely. We have equipment in our museum which we've been cleaning up and looking at and much to our surprise some of it still works and can send out a signal 👍🏻

Man what a great storyteller you are. I'm sure you hear this quite a bit, but it's true. So grateful I found this channel. Fascinating stuff.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

I appreciate that, thanks!

Really interesting stuff, what an interesting Life you've had mate. If they had gone to war I'm thinking your archery skills might have been the state of the art again afterwards. Keep doing your thing 😊

Reminded me of the time I got to go Inside NORAD as a kid. I live next to the old Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, now home to the Olympic Training Center and a call center. But, your video got me thinking of what secrets are hidden in these buildings.

I like these videos. Just watched the one on Goodrich castle. He's good this dude, he seems quite knowledgeable. Good video thanks...👍

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Cheers for that 👍🏻

Thanks as always for interesting and illuminating stories Kev. I visited a decommissed bunker near North Wales a few years back. Our guide informed us in the main stairwell it was painted yellow to cheer people up that might be considering suicide.... I bought a thermonuclear war snow globe which I still use as a paperweight to this day, much to my wife's chagrin.

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Funny enough, the mess area in Bunker 24 I visited, the walls were painted yellow too, probably for the same purpose 👍🏻

Love your real life stories (all the rest too). Binging on my new main man. You, Hicks!

@thehistorysquad

4 ай бұрын

Glad you like them!

Thanks

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Cheers Tom 👍🏻

Thank you!! I remember being in school and having to get under the desks for drills. My brother was 18 yrs older and told me that would never save us. We also had a military underground missle bunker to be released in defense of an attack.

Thank You as usual for a very interesting and well delivered video "yeah" !! 10:38 and you do not want to miss a video,"yeah".....

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Haha, there still there but Julie usually cuts them out these days 'yeah' 😜

Fascinating stuff, your brilliant. What an exciting time. The closest I ever got to espionage was working as a contractor on a Naval ship in the radio control room, everything was covered with curtains even the entrance after the main door and we were watched all the time. I learnt a new word in there danger ...... Beryllium!

I well remember the cold war. I was in the senior form at school at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and believe me we were scared. The headmaster walked into our class and announced that the Soviets had backed down and cheers and applause broke out in sheer relief.

Amazing video! I'd like to see more content on the cold war and a possible nuclear one.

I read a couple of years ago that they discovered a bunker in my hometown Breda that everybody had forgotten. It was in a spot that was inaccessible for the public. It was flooded and I believe it was dug out.

Great vid

@thehistorysquad

9 ай бұрын

Cheers & thanks for watching 👍🏻

Outstanding video. I remember when JFK did the blockade. We used to do duck and cover drills in grade school. That was a very very real bit of history I grew up in.

listening a signal from ww2 is amazing

nice talk

The big advantage of a mechanical typewriter is that it will keep on working as long as you have color tape and paper. No electricity needed. Often I prefer the older stuff above what we are using now (where I have to admit that, after decades typing on a computer keyboard, I had a catastrophic fail trying a mechanical typewriter, using ten fingers, again.) More of this stuff please, Kevin, especially when binge watching, as I am currently doing, it is nice to dive into shallower waters of history from time to time. And when you explain it, it is not less interesting than the medieval period 🙂

@thehistorysquad

9 ай бұрын

Haha, did you ever get your fingers stuck? I did. Glad to see you have some time for KZread on your hands again 👍🏻

In the 80's I remember all my training in Army Cadets, we exercised every week on assault courses wearing NBC suits, gas masks, rubber gloves & boots. This was when the Falklands war was in full swing, so we reminded of nuclear war everyday.

Excellent! Here where we live ( Montana ) it covered in missile silos- which outsiders have no clue of- in fact this part of Montana was #9 in priority on USSRs hit list for nuclear war. I had no idea about the Moose Jaw installations. Thanks!

@fangslaughter1198

10 ай бұрын

Hey John. We in southern Saskatchewan are very aware of the missiles just over our border. As well we are aware that in the event the Balloon goes up. We are doomed. As the fallout from strikes at your facilities, will cover Saskatchewan up to Saskatoon and Manitoba up to Winnipeg. Within Hours. Fleeing will be futile. Please try to make sure Trump or someone more insane never gets their hands on the nukes. Thanks.

Oh gosh you had number 10 there too.!! LOL I'm a Californian forever and humor only disguised the intense fear and anxiety particularly during the Cuban Blockade. California is a prime target because of all the military bases here on the west coast

New history squad!!!1

I recall the "Duck and Cover" drills in 4th and 5th grades in the California school system, the air raid shelter mania and later, as a student at UC Berkeley, the stockpiles of buckets of food and other gear at the bottom of all the stairwells in the class buildings. Young people, drunk on rock & roll, didn't really register the danger and life went on. A very small percentage of the student body was bothered by the Cuban Missile Crisis. My fraternity took a dim view of all the worry in the air and in the media. We threw a party, called it "The Blockade Bash", and were buried by the noisy throng of beer seeking adolescents that poured through our frat house as Kruschev eventually decided that they would have to live with the fact that an armed NATO with ICBM's on Russia's doorstep was business as usual, but try to even the odds and the Pentagon went berserk. Any President other than Kennedy, and the militarists would not have hesitated to push the button. So many instances in history of humans just barely pulling their nuts out of the fire. You are a good teacher and the love for your subject puts a shine on the matter.

@thehistorysquad

9 ай бұрын

Cheers, thanks for watching 👍🏻

[0:59, 1:04] I have a Royal typewriter and a green phone just like those. But then, I'm an old Cold Warrior, too.

I have wanted to see one these bunkers ever since I was a kid, Ive always had this unexplainable fascination with cold war era bunkers. Sadly most of them are in very poor condition nowadays.

@PieterBreda

11 ай бұрын

When I was quite young, we had an excursion in the.local atomic bunker. I believe it is still there.

@ColonelBragg

11 ай бұрын

@@PieterBreda There aren't any near where I live, Not high enough above sea level for them to be practical.

@PieterBreda

11 ай бұрын

@@ColonelBragg Most these bunkers in the Netherlands got flooded. Ours is wet country.

I went to school on the opposite side of the field to Leavsden Aerodrome (now Harry Potter Studio) and my teacher said that it would be a target and the Russians would kill us all. It was 1984/5. Many years later meet and marry a pretty girl from USSR; still the words of my teacher ring in my head! She has stories not unlike my own. We live literally on the doorstep of Bletchley Park and have spent many sunny afternoons there ... my kids are very good at cracking codes :) When we go to Tallinn, where my wife was born, we visit the USSR museums to see how she lived and the other side of the curtain - if you do ever go to Estonia I recommend the KGB museum in Viru :)

Well done as always sir. Some things in the service do change ever so slowly. While others change every second. Lol

Oh hi Kevin, Saskatchewan is a place I have many fond memories of, waterfowl and upland bird hunting. When I was a young hard charging Arctic trooper us in the 172nd light Arctic infantry ,us and the Princess Patricia’s Canadian light infantry were all that stood between the lower 48 and eastern Canada,2 brigades , from a 150 godless communist Russian brigades , they gave us about 48 hours to hold out until the 9th and 25 infantry divisions made it up to relieve us , I wasn’t very optimistic about this . We trained with the Princess Pats, great guys and very professional, we got to go to the range one time and familiarize with their weapons, they had FN’s and the squad leaders and the corporals had, sterling, light submachine, guns , I really liked the FN ,I tried to trade with a Canadian trooper,my M16 for his FN ,he didn’t bite , I didn’t think much of the M16 either, yes the Cold War was more serious than most people realize

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Hi there and thanks for your comment. I was attached to the Americans for a short while and they issued me with my "army gun", and AR16 and I didn't like it one bit. It's way on the other side of the world in West Germany, I was the driver of a Landrover that was to probe the East German/Russian lines in the event of hostilities, me together with an honest sergeant practiced this drill many times and one day on a exercise eating our rations, we looked at each other and laughed, one Landrover, 2x 9mm pistols were gonna take on the Russians 😜

I was 5 yrs old during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) and I can remember, where my family lived at the time in Southern Calif., that when my mother would drive along a major street, I could see 3 missiles (ICBM's?) out of their silos, aimed (Moscow?). Being that young, I thought it was exciting to see since I had NO concept / awareness of what was going on and was disappointed when they were no longer visible (they must have been lowered back into the silos after those terrifying 13 days) and I kept looking for them. Many years later, my mother told me that she was in a state of panic, bordering on hysteria, not knowing if we were all going to die and trying not to show her fear/panic to myself and my sister.

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Yep, such tense times.

Hello from Yorkton Saskatchewan!

@thehistorysquad

4 ай бұрын

Hello from Saskatoon!

Thank you for your service Kevin. It's amazing how much people were willing to do back then to try to prevent another nuclear war. Now in the face of pandemics people won't even wear masks. Was there a sort of military discipline running through the whole society back then?

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

Hmm, I think there was definitely civil obedience and of course this was on the tail of the Second World War 👍🏻

Excellent stuff. I spent the Cold War with the RA with the Lance SSM missile. Like yourself lots of thing that cannot be said due too the official secrets act but spent a lot of that time in nbc noddy kit hiding in factory’s, farms and anything under cover too hind from the eyes in the sky

@thehistorysquad

11 ай бұрын

Oh yes indeed, happy days, and people complained about a paper mask during COVID 😜

Col Steve Austin? :-P Great video!

hey kev great vid. i think i told you i was 15 yrs in the marines 42 bickleigh barracks joined 1986 and we had similar places and positions in case of a nuclear attack, and i remember ,im sure i can say this, but in an event of crisis there where lists of people, ie trouble, work, educated etc, who all had a position after times of war, i wont say much but i remember all looters where to be shot. If i dont comment on next vid yknow LOL. thanks for the insight .

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

🤣 Cheers Tom, good to jog some memories eh? Oh and thanks for the SUPER, most kind of you mate👍🏻

More modern stories great

Brilliant again you secret squirrel 🐿️

@thehistorysquad

10 ай бұрын

😜

I have been to one near hull in the uk was very interesting and as I was with a couple of ex army friends we got to see more than the regular tour it was quite large and took a couple hours to go round one them admitted he was stationed there for a while when it was in use but would not go any further than that