REAL vault stuff from Cold War era : Fallout Series Discussion

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:36 am

in some place in the world there is a bomb shelter in every home.

Its on switzerland. I dont know why but almost everyone have shelters.

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:00 am

I checked that link about the doomsday clock, I was born in 1984, when we were 3 minutes to midnight, the closest we had been to nuclear war since the russians tested there first H-bomb, in 1953. Like they say, ignorance is bliss, because one of my first memorys was a party my parents had when the berlin wall came down in 1991, when we were the farthest from war. Makes me glad I wasn't born sooner, otherwise I would have been scared the world could end at any second. Even today, with what's going on, I can at least feel safe enough that I won't be vaporised or die a slow death from radiation posion.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:17 pm

Well, having lived in Ukraine, I never ever noticed anything close to a fallout shelter; and when asked my mother about the cold war days, she said everybody was actually more scared of the Chinese ( Sino-Soviet split ). Now that I live in the U.S. I noticed a fallout shelter in my school, I was like "Wtf, seriously?" After playing fallout and seeing these pictures, heck...scary times.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 11:20 pm

All right...guess its time for the "old fart" to add his devaluated two cents.

Was born in '62, so lived though several TEOTWAWKI (The End of The World As We Know It) moments - which was used long before REM made it popular. Worst was through high school from '78 to '81 - was darned certain one of the two biggest, baddest boys on the block was bound to start something, with Iron Lady Thatcher in the cheerleading section. Then, poof! Not with a bang, but a whimper, the USSR folds! Then we had the turbulent months of Y2K - which incidently was quite real, simply not the huge meltdown everyone was expecting.

But ahh - those shelters!! In college some friends and myself were invited to clean out a section of steam tunnels to make room for more obsolete junk; with the proviso that "you haul it out - its yours - we don't want to know". The first Civil Defense oddity (absurdity actually) was the TOILETS!! Imagine opening a cardboard drum roughly 2' diameter and 3' tall and pulling out a seat designed to fit on top of the drum, along with plastic liners, 200-grit toiletpaper, and a gallon jug of iodine to keep the stench down after using it. Remember, a shelter was designed to hold a few hundred folks in a fairly confined space for an indefinite amount of time - even BO would start getting on other people's nerves! Then the good stuff was uncovered! Survey meters, dosimeters, and a dozen ANG11 radios - complete with corroded batteries. Food came up next (almost literally!) We uncovered several varieties, the first were 45lb tins of hard candy (for carbs), large tins of crackers, carton after carton of someones idea of peanut butter, and a few cases of C-Rations (grand-daddy to MREs). The candy was great - we put bowls of it out during dorm parties. The crackers in contrast were actually disguised roach poison (roomie discovered a dead roach next to some so the moniker stuck!). The C-rats were to say the least disgusting - ever see a green egg? Even the Lucky Strike studs were dried out. Only salvageable thing out of those were the sterno heaters and the pound cake. The peanut butter - we set it out on the curb one morning and it was gone that afternoon after classes - best forgotten. But the most darkly humorous thing we later discovered was that even though we hauled out six or seven pickup truck-loads of stuff out; NONE of us saw a CAN OPENER in any of the stuff! Holy Water Chips, batman!

Being in "tornado alley", we have a nice low-budget home-made 'Vault" which I've nicknamed 13. Should the house be destroyed, we could live somewhat comfortably for a few months in it. The shelter is made from several 14'dia steel culverts welded together into a bedroom/commons/storage/physical plant arrangement. Stays a pleasant 74 degrees year round!

I was born in '87, so I've obviously never really dealt with this, and even my parents (born in '66) said they didn't really remember much about this stuff, but my aunt who was born in the lat 40's, and my grandparents remembered this stuff. I don't think any of them were really ever worried about it that much.

I also live in tornado alley, but we don't have any sort of shelter. Some of the neighborhoods less than a mile away from our house have been completely leveled, but we've been lucky so far. We just have a basemant. (at my apartment, we don't even have a basemant, but at least we're on the bottom floor).

I just can't imagine living in fear like that.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 2:03 pm

apparently during the Cold War, they had http://sporkinthedrawer.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/bert_the_turtle_1.jpg instead of the Vault Boy. I don't know which I prefer... http://collectingtokens.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/bert2.png is pretty funny.

They have a reference to the turtle in fallout 3 lol. On the side of springvale elementary, where theres a big whole in the wall where 3 raiders spawn, along the wall theres a poster with a turtle (Wearing a helmet I think) thats inside it's shell, and it says something about safety, and I think it says, "Duck and Cover!", which is also the name of the explosives skill book.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 9:03 pm

They have a reference to the turtle in fallout 3 lol. On the side of springvale elementary, where theres a big whole in the wall where 3 raiders spawn, along the wall theres a poster with a turtle (Wearing a helmet I think) thats inside it's shell, and it says something about safety, and I think it says, "Duck and Cover!", which is also the name of the explosives skill book.

I'll have to check that out.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:29 pm

I wish this were stickied so the interwebs wouldn't lose this wealth of information.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 2:59 pm

.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:24 pm

u guys wana see a modern vault? check out these vids

part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-tR5qM80Zk

part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWk33BUyQkU&feature=related

part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sNJRGsE5dk&feature=related

this place was opened for buisness during the cold war and is still open today

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:39 pm

BUMP!

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:39 pm

I'll have to check that out.

that poster is also found threwout the game. ive noticed it in the ruined building that u have to fight threw with the BOS to get to GNR. looks like another bombed out school! good ridence!! lol
:fallout:

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:55 am

u guys wana see a modern vault? check out these vids

part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-tR5qM80Zk

part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWk33BUyQkU&feature=related

part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sNJRGsE5dk&feature=related

this place was opened for buisness during the cold war and is still open today

That's pretty incredible.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:41 pm

.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:52 pm

u guys wana see a modern vault? check out these vids

part1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-tR5qM80Zk

part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWk33BUyQkU&feature=related

part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sNJRGsE5dk&feature=related

this place was opened for buisness during the cold war and is still open today

LOL that's where Stargate is.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:41 pm

First, I must say like everyone else...I have learned a great deal from this thread. Not that I was uneducated before about the threats now and then- but all these personal stories are just mind-expanding.

Nuclear attacks have always been a big fear of mine- I mean, of course it would be. Nobody WANTS (hopefully, anyway) that to happen, but for me, growing up in the ninties, it was never a concern. When I was a kid, I think I watched a few movies and an episode of what I think was either "The Dark Side" or something akin- where a lady gains the ability to stop time with a clock, and in the end she manages to stop it right as a bomb is about to drop, and it' seen just hanging in the air. I don't know why, but things like that always made me ill, no matter how unlikely they were to actually happen. I've only ever seen parts of "Threads" because actually watching it makes me want to vomit. >_>

In fact, I never wanted to get involved with the Fallout series (despite hearing the acclaim) because of this- I really wanted nothing to do with anything pertaining to nuclear war or fallout- but I was glad I gave it a shot, now it's one of my favorite games of all time. And, while the concept still bothers me, I actually feel better about my slightly-irrational fear thanks to the game. Sure, it could ALWAYS happen...But why be miserable worrying about it? Good God, there's a million ways to die. I'm sooner to die from my big mouth in public, when someone pisses me off and I get in a fight. >_<

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 7:41 pm

First, I must say like everyone else...I have learned a great deal from this thread. Not that I was uneducated before about the threats now and then- but all these personal stories are just mind-expanding.

I agree. Little did I know that posting a couple pictures of things I found would lead to such a 'vault' of information. It's really quite incredible.... like a Fallout history museum... in forum form.

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:09 am

monthly bump. I don't want this info to be lost.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 3:35 pm

This thread is eye-opening, cool, and utterly terrifying.

My old high school (I graduated nearly ten years ago, and the school's moved since) has, in the lowest floor where the locker rooms were housed, a bright yellow steel door set into the floor. There are stairs leading down to a series of rooms, and I wish now I had shown the gumption to explore, or at least pay attention to the red lettering stenciled onto the metal. No one ever talked about this door, and the teacher I asked didn't really know what it was for, she guessed tornado shelter. I'm thinking it was a fallout shelter, that section of the school was a newer build, from around the fifties or sixties.

At the time, I thought it was cool, now I wonder how difficult it would be to get into it should the worst start to happen.

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:55 am

I was a Polaris Missile Tech onboard a US Submarine (late 70's - early 80's) and for us, the 'Cold War' was pretty "hot". Avoiding the USSR's Subs lurking just outside the harbor trying to track us. Frequent alarms to "Man Battle Stations Missile", not really knowing if this was THE time we were launching for real. Fun times

Since my sub was based in the pacific, in case of a full scale nuclear exchange, our sub was supposedly going to eventually go to Australia/New Zealand since they would probably escape major damage.
Also, this isn't just old 1950's stuff, nuclear deterrence based on MAD is still ongoing today. Right this second the US, UK, France and now China, have submarines loaded with Thermonuclear missiles of unbelieveable destructive power quietly patrolling the oceans waiting for a launch order. Several hundred ICBM's sitting in underground silos too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlxS4nTORKs

For those wanting to have a Vault of your own, former missile silos are avaliable for purchase, $100K and up
http://www.missilebases.com/

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:02 pm

Just thought this stuff was cool and thought I'd share it with everyone.

not to rain on your parade but you must be pretty young

Alot of people lived this, its not like this is new or unheard of. its American history it didnt just appear in fallout.

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:50 pm

^ ^

hence the links to 50's stuff, right?

i have thought this stuff was pretty cool myself and still do.. i'm 31.. and while i didnt live thorugh it, have since childhood thought of designs for my own fallout shelter... oh well

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 4:52 pm

I took some pictures of the fallout shelter signs at my school, i might be able to actually take a few before christmas break cuz we're going to a new school ( from an old 103-ish year old school to a new 80 million dollar school XD, and idt anybody will miss a few, I'll check in with the princible XD see what he says, and if it's yes, I'll have some for my own house

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:23 pm

while we are on the topic of cold war items i'd like to point out that there are bert the turtle posters in fallout 3 or one of the fallout games.

another quite surprising thing i foud out was that ford was working on a nuclear fusion powered car, it was called the nucleon: http://8000vueltas.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/ford-nucleon.jpg does it look familiar? especially that piece in the back?

yeah, thats what i thought...

» Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:57 pm

I can remember Duck and Cover drills when I was a wee kid growing up in the 70's.

» Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:25 am

thats cool stuff. my chemistry teacher let us use his geiger counters that he used during the chernobyl incident when he was in the military.