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The Staff of SOH
⚠️ Scared The @#$! Outta' Me - And I still Watched It ☢️
- Thread starter Panther_99FS
- Start date
There was a time in my life where that was a very real threat! Once a month I would go into the local town's fall-out shelter and operate the Ham Radio sets as if we were in a state of war. There would be a folder from which I would pick that night's messages to send and I would get onto the county-wide net and pass traffic back and forth with all the other stations in all the other fall-out shelters in the county detailing pretend radiation levels, casualty numbers, infrastructure reports, food, water and medical supply status, etc., etc., etc. It was very realistic and concerning at times, especially when you are sitting alone in a labyrinth of steel rooms deep underground and suddenly you start to hear noises and footsteps over the static in your headset and then realize it's just the security guard doing his rounds! 
Dangerous Beans
SOH-CM-2022
Here's the equivalent from the UK, Threads, released on the BBC in 1984 and caused nightmares for a lot of people.
A bit of a slow burner at the start but stick with it.
A bit of a slow burner at the start but stick with it.
Sbob
SOH-CM-2025
If any of you are up for jumping down a rabbit hole, here's the (rare) "long cut" of the first half of First Strike.
First Strike ran on PBS stations in California. The idea was (implied) that the folks who manned the US nuclear triad might *all* have a bad day just as the USSR launched a heavy missile strike from its SSBNs off the west coast. The solution was to invest heavily in the mobile land basing for the new MX ICBM (which later became the current Minuteman III). The mobile basing idea was also known as the "shell game" basing option of building thousands of basing "garages" in remote south west territory. This basing idea would have cost Billions in 1980's money.
There are cleaner versions of First Strike (both halves) on You Tube. Its interesting to see just how paranoid we could get.
This copy has scratchy audio and the video isn't much better, BUT it is rare. First Strike was also used in The Day After as "stock footage".
As the film mentions, the people filmed were NOT actors but actual Air Force and Navy personnel.
The more-viewed footage of First Strike uses a shorter first-half "intro", I'm guessing this version *may have* included some details that were seen as "classified" at the time and were removed.
The SAC General on Looking Glass has kind of puzzled me over the years.
I have a book named "100 Missions North" about flying the F-105 on bombing missions over North Viet Nam in 1966 and 1967 written by Brig. Gen. Ken Bell. Gen. Bell had the book released posthumously because he had some critical thoughts about Col. Jack Broughton. Gen. Bell (a Major at the time) flew several missions as Col. Broughton's wing man during his tour. The book also contains pictures of Gen. Bell from 1966, and dang if he doesn't look like a younger version of that Gen. on the Looking Glass flight. Gen. Bell also grew up in El Paso, Texas which also makes his voice sound about right.
First Strike ran on PBS stations in California. The idea was (implied) that the folks who manned the US nuclear triad might *all* have a bad day just as the USSR launched a heavy missile strike from its SSBNs off the west coast. The solution was to invest heavily in the mobile land basing for the new MX ICBM (which later became the current Minuteman III). The mobile basing idea was also known as the "shell game" basing option of building thousands of basing "garages" in remote south west territory. This basing idea would have cost Billions in 1980's money.
There are cleaner versions of First Strike (both halves) on You Tube. Its interesting to see just how paranoid we could get.
This copy has scratchy audio and the video isn't much better, BUT it is rare. First Strike was also used in The Day After as "stock footage".
As the film mentions, the people filmed were NOT actors but actual Air Force and Navy personnel.
The more-viewed footage of First Strike uses a shorter first-half "intro", I'm guessing this version *may have* included some details that were seen as "classified" at the time and were removed.
The SAC General on Looking Glass has kind of puzzled me over the years.
I have a book named "100 Missions North" about flying the F-105 on bombing missions over North Viet Nam in 1966 and 1967 written by Brig. Gen. Ken Bell. Gen. Bell had the book released posthumously because he had some critical thoughts about Col. Jack Broughton. Gen. Bell (a Major at the time) flew several missions as Col. Broughton's wing man during his tour. The book also contains pictures of Gen. Bell from 1966, and dang if he doesn't look like a younger version of that Gen. on the Looking Glass flight.
Gen. Bell also grew up in El Paso, Texas which also makes his voice sound about right.
The one that got me when I first saw it was By Dawn's Early Light. It's still a tense, enjoyable film today.
And yes, the lovey dovey between Pilots is un-apropos but doesn't take too much away from the rest of the film.
And yes, the lovey dovey between Pilots is un-apropos but doesn't take too much away from the rest of the film.
Panther_99FS
Retired SOH Administrator
I'll have to give it a watch!