In February of 1962, just months after the creation
of a National Fallout Shelter Program, local government authorities in
Jacksonville, Florida invited teams of architects and engineers employed by the
Office of Civil Defense to search for suitable shelter locations in the
city. Aided by computer technology, the
OCD experts examined building records and physical structures to compile a list
of acceptable fallout shelters. By May
of that year, Jacksonville entered into negotiations with building owners to
obtain permission to mark their property with the newly introduced black and
yellow fallout shelter signs and stock them with supplies of food,
water, medicine, and radiation detection equipment. Introductory narration explains how Florida
civil defense officials, hoping to set an example for other states to follow,
filmed the early stages of implementing a fallout shelter network in a large
metropolitan region. In 1963, the OCD
released footage of Jacksonville's efforts under the title Community Protection
Through Civil Defense.
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From the opening scenes, the Jacksonville-Duval
County Civil Defense Council stresses the importance of creating an atmosphere
of cooperation among local authorities to gain access to resources and manpower
and to help eliminate bureaucratic hold ups.
The film highlights how successful this tactic can be by documenting the
completion of an ambitious goal: the stocking of 50,000 shelter spaces in a
single day. On October 9, 1962, a convoy
of trucks provided by the Jacksonville Cartage Household Movers Association
convened outside the famous Gator Bowl before setting off under a police escort
for the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, which also served as a depot for
federal fallout shelter supplies. With
the help of the Duval County Sheriff's Department and marine guards, the convoy cruised down recently completed expressways unmolested. Arriving at the naval warehouses, newly
recruited seamen methodically loaded supplies into semi-trailers under the
watchful eye of their superiors. The
narrator points out the smooth transitions between each stage and location,
explaining how extensive planning allowed for near flawless execution of the
plan.
The Jacksonville Times-Union offices, the
headquarters of Prudential Life Insurance, and the Duval County Courthouse are
among the locations visited by the supply convoy over the course of the
film. According to newspaper accounts detailing Jacksonville's efforts, the city's fourteen largest fallout
shelters were completely stocked during the one day civil defense promotion. The narrator admits that a few small failures in communication occurred during the process. Several large posters,
for example, meant to be emblazoned on the convoy trailers in order to advertise
the Nation Fallout Shelter Program, never materialized. Instead, small placards were taped around the
vehicles. In spite of this foible,
national civil defense officials viewed Jacksonville's feat as a successful model which all the United States should strive to follow. Unlike other films concerning the initial stages
of local fallout shelter programs, Community Protection Through Civil Defense was not
deemed obsolete and could still be rented or purchased from government catalogs
until well into the 1970's. Interestingly, history would ultimately show Jacksonville's timing to be impeccable. On October 15, 1962, just days after the city completed its shelter stocking efforts, news broke of Soviet nuclear weapons on the island of Cuba, resulting in the Cuban Missile Crisis and ratcheting up calls for civil defense preparation across the country.
Protection Through Civil Defense may be viewed in its entirety HERE.