Capital Region Scrapbook: Civil defenders

Schenectady firefighters rescue people injured in the â€œbombingâ€ of Schenectady on April 11, 1953. Civil defense teams â€” wary of sneak attacks by other nations â€” wanted to make sure em

Share on Facebook

Save

Schenectady played defense during the first months of 1953. Civil defense.

The Cold War was on, and the threat of nuclear burial by international adversaries was a constant worry. Some preferred preparation over panic, and that’s why civil defense drills in Schenectady County occasionally made the headlines.

On Saturday, April 11, 1953, an exercise showed Schenectady residents what could happen if an atomic bomb exploded on Brandywine Avenue. Fifteen thousand people would have been vaporized, thousands more injured.

“Like the Yucca flats explosions, this test is intended to bring home to everyone an understanding of the destruction that could be loosed by enemy planes,” read a story in the Schenectady Gazette. “The Schenectady Office of Civil Defense is calling for volunteers. Thousands have been enrolled; many more recruits are needed.”

There were always things to do. A ground observer force maintained an around-the-clock vigil. People were needed to watch the skies just two hours a week.

The 1953 “blast” happened at 8:09 a.m., and sirens told people to watch their steps. Civil defenders of the day called the spot where the “explosion” occurred “bomb zero.” But some people did not play along. Rutledge Carter, a Gazette reporter, saw four men working on a truck at a gas station near the hot zone. A truck pulled out of a driveway and when the driver spotted a policeman, he changed directions.

“And here is Becker Street, but still no wardens are to be seen by the two men and a woman who walk hastily down the street, bound for toil, but still laughing as the sirens sound,” Carter reported.

Trial run

On Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1953, defense workers practiced sending and receiving messages during an evening “emergency.”

Citizens didn’t get the chance to participate.

“No one except 110 civilian defense volunteer workers knew about it,” the Gazette reported. “In a dry run of operations to meet a surprise bombing attack, four zone headquarters and seven aid checkpoints reported by radio and telephone to the county’s CD control center.”