Image Courtesy of Wesley Null, John Ross Null and Danny Parker.Ībo Elementary School was part of a pilot program The Office of Civil Defense wanted to see if schools could make good public shelters, and they paid a portion of the total cost of the school.
Bernard Ross was the first principal of Abo Elementary. It was near the now-closed Walker Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range and had its own oil refinery - all of which made Artesians feel particularly vulnerable to attack should there be a war with the Soviets. Credit: Katie MingleĪrtesia, New Mexico is located about 40 miles south of Roswell. Credit: Katie Mingleīut by the time Kennedy made that speech, one small town in Southern New Mexico had already broken ground on a unique shelter that would double as an elementary school. There were door to door bomb-shelter salesmen, shelter displays at malls and county fairs, and pamphlets for sale on every magazine rack. Kennedy vowed to identify spaces in “existing structures both public and private that could be used for fallout shelters in case of attack.”Īfter JFK’s speech, a fallout shelter economy sprung up overnight in the U.S. During the 1961 Berlin Crisis - one of the various moments in the cold war in which we came frighteningly close to engaging in actual war with the Soviets - President John F.
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