Planes, Trains & Heroes: A Story of Warner Robins and the Robins Region

“ COLD WAR CHILD” BY DIANNE DENT WILCOX
The earth trembled as a B-52 emerged from a fog bank—its wings spreading to both extremes of the horizon. The apparition
confirmed my worst fears. It was the end of the world, a chilling realization for a child on a Christian academy campus.
Conditioning began in first grade with a screeching siren and Mrs. Grace instructing us to tuck ourselves beneath wooden laminate
and metal desks. Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather re-enforced paranoia by showing young girls running down country roads, their
clothes burning off their bodies. Worse, they were making their way through throngs of emotionally detached cameramen. Daddy
ranted, “If God doesn’t judge the United States, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah,” and others said, “Don’t worry
about it. The Russians will attack Robins Air Force Base first. We’re already dead. You’ll never know what hit you.” Some children
wore dog tags so that their bodies could later be identified. As the giant air craft passed over my school, I prayed not for safety, but
for an eternal home in heaven. The earth seems so temporary when the nuclear bombs fly over playgrounds. I thought about the
yellow and black signs for fallout shelters downtown. It’s a long way down town.
One of the many civilian workers
employed at Robins Air Force Base.
Foreword ✦ 5