“It's a den of noise
Filled with fidgety boys
Our home beneath the firmament
And I'm glad it's a phase
Just lasting two days
Rather than something that's
permanent.”
-”The Shelter”[SESP]
On July 31st, 1959, two
young parents and their three children entered an 8-foot-by-9-foot
soundproof room in the basement of a laboratory at Princeton
University. They stayed inside for the next fourteen days.[Ve][MN]
This was the first shelter occupancy
experiment in the United States. There had been previous stays in
fallout shelters, but these had been essentially publicity stunts by
shelter manufacturers. Princeton's “Project Hideaway” was the
first effort to gather empirical data on how untrained people would
react to being confined underground for long periods of time – but
it was not the last.
The
early 1960s were the high-water mark of the US public
civil defense program. President Kennedy strongly supported civil
defense, and two foreign crises in quick succession led Congress to
give substantial funds to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) for the
first time. Kennedy's shelter push is still visible in the rusting
yellow-black fallout signs on public buildings across the country,
and many experts and advocates hoped that it would lead to a
large-scale public shelter program.[Bl]
However, if war did break out, no one knew how the average citizen
would react to living in a fallout shelter.
To find out, government contractors
recruited volunteers from the general population and locked them into
simulated shelters for up to two weeks. The studies included
volunteers as young as three months and as old as 79
years[SESP][HA2], including one study of 28 children
supervised by only two adults[Ha]. Groups ranged in size
from 5 to 1,046.[HA2][Ve]
Early
studies were tentative and exploratory, intended just to determine
whether or not people could stand being cooped up underground for so
long. They tended to use relatively spacious, luxurious simulators
with amenities such as beds and kitchens.[Ca]
A typical example was the American Institute for Research's shelter
simulator. The AIR's simulator had three-tier bunk beds, a “radio”
playing CONELRAD messages, canned food, a stove, a moveable wall to
adjust the space available to the occupants, and ubiquitous
microphones and one-way mirrors.[ASM]
Figure 1: Interior of AIR Shelter[ASM]
(Used with Permission)
Figure 2: Map of AIR Shelter[ASM]
(Used with Permission)
As
research progressed, and it became clear that the average American
could tolerate more austere conditions than they had been given
credit for, the shelters became more spartan.[Ca]
The University of Georgia built several shelters of this type, in
one of the longest-running research programs the OCD sponsored. The
Georgia researchers at times seemed to be trying to test how awful
they could make conditions in the shelter before occupants decided
they would prefer a lingering death to remaining inside. In their
most extreme study, shelterees slept on bare concrete floors and
lived on just 315 calories of OCD “biscuits” per day. Eight of
the study's volunteers defected before it had finished – but
twenty-two stayed inside.[HO]
Shelter leaders tried to follow a
daily schedule, with mixed success. A typical schedule had
shelterees waking at about 7:30. After group exercises and shelter
clean-up, breakfast was served at 8:30.[He2]
Figure 3: Feeding an Infant[SESP]
(US Government)
Figure 4: Group Exercises[SESP]
(US Government)
From 9:00 to 11:00 the children had “school” while adults filled out their study diaries and had other quiet activities. Group games were held from 11:00 to
12:00, followed by lunch and then a rest period until 2:00. A
second exercise and game session was held from 2:00 to 2:30, then a
training lecture and discussion session on civil defense topics.[Ha2]
Figure 5: Lecture on CD Topics[SESP]
(US Government)
An
afternoon snack was served at 3:30, followed by a second round of
schoolwork for the children. Dinner was at 6:00, followed by group
singing and whatever special events the shelterees could improvise.
A second round of study diaries were filled out at 9:00, and lights
out scheduled for 11:00.[Ha2]
Most studies followed a similar arc.
After an initial period of disorganization, occupants settled into
some sort of regular schedule. Morale and energy would initially be
quite high. Over time, stress and boredom would take their toll and
sprits would drop. Occupants never acted out violently, but became
irritable, withdrawn, and apathetic. Then, some time after the
halfway point, people would begin to perk up again, returning to
normal by the time they were scheduled to leave.
Life in the shelters was difficult.
Common complaints included the noise of ventilation equipment, heat,
the stench from the group toilet, the inability to bathe or wash
clothes, and the quality of shelter rations and water. Many
shelterees complained about the bad taste of stored water and the
dryness and flavorlessness of the OCD “biscuits”.
Shelterees also often had trouble
sleeping. Shelter sleeping accommodations varied between hard bunk
beds and bare concrete, and with thirty or more people crammed into a
small room, a single noisy person could disturb everyone else. In
the most extreme case, the shelter manager – an unemployed
35-year-old youth instructor, who had not received any OCD training –
became convinced the other shelterees were planning to remove him
from leadership. He stopped sleeping altogether, apparently to
ensure no one could plan against him while he was unconscious.
After three days he became convinced the scientists were irradiating
the shelterees through the one-way mirrors and started carrying a
screwdriver for “self-protection”. He was finally coaxed out
after several mothers in the shelter slipped notes under the door
demanding his removal for the safety of the children. He reportedly
recovered fully.[ASM]
Despite the hardships of living in a
concrete box, most shelterees reported a strong sense of espirit
de corps, especially in the smaller groups. In some cases
people with legitimate medical or personal reasons for leaving
insisted on remaining inside so as to not let the group down. Being
trapped in a small room with complete strangers for days was an
intense bonding experience; many shelterees continued to socialize
with their fellows for some time after the experiment finished.
Shelterees proved impressively
adaptable and innovative in finding ways to stay occupied while under
cover. Card games and singing were very popular, especially since
they could be done as a group. Religion was a particular source of
strength; most groups improvised some form of non-denominational
Sunday service.[ASM]
Figure 6: Shelterees Amusing Themselves[SESP]
(US Government)
In fact, despite the odors, the bad
food, the lack of privacy, and the general discomfort, most
shelterees described their experience as a positive one that they
would be willing to repeat – and no shelteree reported any
long-lasting negative consequences of their stay.[ASM]
Interestingly, at least four large
studies at the University of Georgia were racially integrated;
between 10% and 20% of the shelter populations of 150 to 504 were
black. No racial conflicts were reported in the surviving
documents.[HA]
OCD researchers were particularly
interested in shelter leadership. In most early studies leaders
were appointed and trained by the researchers, although several
studies were conducted with “emergent” leadership. Pre-shelter
training, even for just a few hours, dramatically improved results;
shelters with trained leaders had stronger morale, fewer
mid-experiment defections, and higher post-study evaluations than
shelters without. However, in a war, there would probably not be
enough trained personnel for more than a handful of shelters; the
shelterees would have to organize themselves, with the aid of
whatever instructional material was stocked in the shelter.
The University of Georgia conducted
several experiments between 1964 and 1968 where leaders were
determined in the shelter through a byzantine system of cards and
pamphlets. The first three shelterees inside were greeted by a sign
appointing them “Temporary Shelter Managers”, with leaflets to
explain what that meant. They were then supposed to select a
(rather sizable) temporary staff, who operated the shelter for
several hours while passing out information cards for the other
shelterees to fill out. The cards were then used to select a
permanent staff on the basis of instructions in the temporary shelter
manager's leaflet, who were then provided with still more pamphlets
and manuals to explain their duties.
Despite repeated tinkering by the
researchers in between studies, this system never worked very well.
Staff members, particularly among the temporary staff, often didn't
read or follow instructions properly, or decided that this was more
than they had signed up for and just ignored their appointment. In
one of the University's largest studies, the pamphlets for the
permanent staff were accidentally distributed to the temporary staff,
leading to much confusion. Eight members of the shelter staff
defected from the experiment.[HA] Still, in every study
the permanent staff was eventually formed and began to operate, and
things settled into some sort of routine.
Obviously, these experiments could
never truly replicate the conditions of nuclear war, and the
scientists running them understood that. Their test subjects knew
that, no matter how smelly and cramped the shelter was, civilization
still continued outside, and that after a fixed period of time they
could leave and return to their normal lives. A few studies tried
to make the experiments more realistic: in one study in West
Virginia, an actor with faked leg wounds was included among the
shelterees as a simulated casualty. A second actor, “contaminated”
by fallout and armed with a hatchet, attempted to force his way into
the shelter, screaming “Let me in! Let me in! I'm dying! You
god-damned bunch of Communists!”, and had to be forced back out the
door. Later in the exercise the shelterees improvised a defense
plan with pen knives after they were told via “radio” that a band
of looters was heading for their shelter.[Fl] Even more
dramatic approaches to realism were considered: the use of hypnosis
to convince people that an attack was imminent or had taken place was
discussed in a 1963 study. But the OCD decided that, while
informative, such extreme measures could not be morally justified –
not in peacetime, anyway.[Da]
Despite the limitations, research
pressed on through the 1960s. Bad data was, after all, better than
no data at all. By 1970, over 7,100 people had participated in 82
simulated shelter studies.[Le] However, after the early
60s, the projects gradually dried up. OCD researchers tried to find
other sponsors for these studies, but were unsuccessful. Cresson
Kearny at Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted experiments using
his famous “expedient shelters” as late as 1976[Ke],
but his work was unique.
I have not found any documents
specifically addressing why the studies ended, but it is not hard to
guess. The shelter occupancy experiments followed the same arc as
the civil defense program in general. The funding that flowed into
the OCD dried up once the crises of the early 60s receded and Kennedy
died, and it never came back.[Bl] With little money to
do anything, research of this sort must have seemed like a luxury.
Except for Kearny's work, I have found no records of similar studies
in the United States after 1970.
Works Cited:
[ASM]:
Altman, James W., Smith, Robert W., et al. Psychological
and Social Adjustment in a Simulated Shelter: A Research Report.
American Institute for Research, 1961.
www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD0270163
[Ba]:
Barnes, Dick. “Nation's Fallout Shelters Provide Only Barest
Needs.” Robesonian,
Monday, May 5 1969. http://newspaperarchive.com/robesonian/1969-05-05/page-9
[Bl]:
Blanchard, B. Wayne. “American Civil Defense, 1945 – 1984: The
Evolution of Programs and Policies.” Federal Emergency Management
Agency, 1985.
http://www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/docs/Blanchard%20-%20American%20Civil%20Defense%201945-1984.pdf
[Ca]:
Carr, Fred. “State
of the Art Shelter Management Research, Volume 1.” Second Edition
(Revised). Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, 1976.
[COA]:
Hearing on Independent
Offices and Department of Housing and Urban Development
Appropriations.
Subcommittee on Independent Offices Appropriations, Senate
Committee on Appropriations. April 21-23, 28-29, May 12-14, 19-21,
27, and June 3, 1970. US Government Printing Office, 1970.
[Da]:
Davis, Tracy. Stages
of Emergency: Cold War Nuclear Civil Defense.
Duke University Press, 2007.
[Fl]:
Fleming, Helen Parr. “The Unprepared.” Sunday
Gazette-Mail,
September 26,
1965.
http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2011/07/survival-verite-fallout-shelter-test.html
[Ha]:
Hammes, John A. Final
Report: Shelter Occupancy Studies at the University of Georgia, 1965.
Office of Civil Defense, 1966.
http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=AD0653881
[Ha2]:
Hammes, John A. Final
Report: Shelter Occupancy Studies at the University of Georgia, 1964
Appendix.
Office of Civil Defense, 1964.
http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=AD0615003
[HA]:
Hammes, John A., and Ahearn, Thomas R. Final
Report: Shelter Occupancy Studies at the University of Georgia, 1966.
Office of Civil Defense, 1966.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/653881.pdf
[HA2]:
Abstract of Hammes, John A., and Ahearn, Thomas R. Final
Report: Shelter Occupancy Studies at the University of Georgia, 1967.
Office of Civil Defense, 1967.
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0673778
[HO]:
Hammes, John A., and Osborne, R. Travis. Final
Report: Shelter Occupancy Studies at the University of Georgia,
1962-1963.
Office of Civil Defense, 1963.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/439396.pdf
[Ke]:
Kearny, Cresson. Expedient
Shelter Construction and Occupancy Experiments.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1976. ORNL-5039.
http://alwaysprepared.info/index.php?topic=1267.0
[Le]:
Levit, R. A. “Behavioral Aspects of Fallout Shelter Stay.”
Defense Nuclear Agency, 1979.
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA064144
[MN]:
“Family of Five Survives 14 Days in 8x9 Shelter.” Miami
News,
August 16 1959.
[SESP]:
Strope, W. E., Etter, H. S., Schultze, H. P., and Pond, J. J. The
Family Occupancy Test, 4-6 November 1960.
US Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, 1960.
www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/288228.pdf
[Ve]:
Vernon, Jack A. “Project Hideaway: A Pilot Feasibility Study of
Fallout Shelters for Families.” Office of Civil Defense, 1959.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/270225.pdf
... very interesting- first I have heard of this. So much fictional drama has been produced on this subject. Any 'reality' is fascinating.
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