John F Kennedy’s nuclear bunker could become presidential museum
Freya Drohan
JFK's historic bunker in the Tom Nevers area of Nantucket may become a new museum.
A now-defunct navy base located in Nantucket could become a major tourist attraction on the tiny island off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
During Cold War tensions, the tiny base at Tom Nevers became an important element of John F. Kennedy's presidency.
Just after he was sworn into office, the base became essential for sheltering the president and his family from radioactive fallout in the event of nuclear war.
JFK was known to favor the island, spending all his summer weekends a this family's compound.
At the time, military leaders needed a place for him to safely run the country should the Soviet Union press the red button. In a 1961 speech, President Kennedy recommended that all Americans have access to a fallout shelter and not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted.
According to the Nantucket Island Inquirer, the 1,900-square-foot could soon become a museum, staged with furnishings that would have been inside the building in its 1962 heyday.
The partially underground bunker is located a short helicopter ride away from where JFK's family compound was located.
The navy base, originally known as Nantucket Ordnance Site, was apparently used in the late 1960s as a locker room during football games against the Nantucket High School football team. It was eventually sealed and left to decay.
Oh, how sad.....'Cheyenne,' actor Clint Walker dies at 91
Clint Walker, who played the
title character in the early TV western "Cheyenne," has died.
Walker's daughter Valerie Walker tells The Associated Press that her father
died Monday of congestive heart failure at a hospital in Grass Valley,
California at age 91. The towering, strapping Walker played Cheyenne
Bodie, who traveled the West and handed down justice n the
TV series that ran for seven seasons starting in 1955. Walker was an
Illinois native who was working as a security guard in a Las Vegas casino when
an agent saw him suggested he try Hollywood. In addition to
"Cheyenne," he had small but visible roles in classic films including
1956's "The Ten Commandments" and 1967's "The Dirty Dozen."
He most recently lent his voice to 1998's "Small Soldiers."
The Berlin Wall Rescue
On August 13, 1961, Germany erected a barbed wire fence to divide Berlin in two. We’ve already covered some of the most depressing stories from what became the Berlin Wall. The photograph above is more bittersweet. The soldier is a guard from the East, under strict orders not to allow anyone across the new border. The child is a young boy separated from his parents and desperate to cross into the West.
By reaching over to lift the boy to where he wants to be, the soldier is taking a risk—and the way he looks over his shoulder makes it clear he knows he shouldn’t be doing it. But the soldier lifts the boy across anyway.
After the photo was taken, the child got free, but the soldier was seen and removed from duty right after. No one has been able to find out what happened to him. While we can hope his punishment wasn’t too severe, we can’t be certain.
