I’ll be away from the computer tomorrow, so I figured I’d post this today. March 28th is the 30th anniversary of Three Mile Island. I was in the womb, so I don’t remember it. Where was everyone esle, and does it rank up there with “where were you when JFK was shot” or “On 9/11”?
Just curious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident
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Down in “Camp Swamp” (LeJeune), North Carolina. Freshy returned from a pump (deployment) and headed off the Bay Area for a Navy school. I remember thinking, “what’s the big deal?” when I saw it on the boob tube.
T.
I was taking our newborn first daughter home from the hospital. I was pretty much oblivious to 3MI at that time. 30 years has gone by fast.
No, it’s not close to JFK’s death in effect. I was working midnights and going to school at the time in Michigan. Back then there was only the big 3 when it came to news and I kind of remember watching it.
Chernobyl had a far bigger impact on my psyche than Three Mile Island.
Ok, so maybe comparing it to JFK or 9/11 was a little far fetched, but I would assume it ranks higher than when the Edmund Fitzgerald sank.
About 2 weeks into a 6 month Med.Cruise on the USS America CV66 .No2 Fireroom lower level bilge rat just a BTFN a baby Snipe.
**Chernobyl had a far bigger impact on my psyche than Three Mile Island. **
Yeah. Folks are still dying over that little Russian/Commie Bastard foul-up. Have you guys ever seen the video of those firefighters being dropped by helicopter onto the top of the containment building? Those poor sods died a pretty horrible death not soon after. Experts figure radiation spread over a 2,000 or more square mile area, due to the winds. 3MI wasn’t shit, in reality.
I did a stint as a Navy instructor at an advanced training school, and one of my fellow instructors taught what we called “Rad Health.” We nicknamed him “The Chernobyl Kid.” He was a “nuke puke” (worked around reactors). He used to go on and on about how TMI’s safety containment systems and procedures actually worked far better than the experts thought they should have.
T.
Chernobyl had a far bigger impact on my psyche than Three Mile Island.
Agree - three mile island was a scare of what could happen. Chernobyl - it did happen.
About 2 weeks into a 6 month Med.Cruise on the USS America CV66 .No2 Fireroom lower level bilge rat just a BTFN a baby Snipe.
Where’d you go to Snipe School? Great Lakes? I went to boot camp and then Corps school before becoming a part of the Green Machine. North Chicago, baby. What a den of vice and iniquity it was back in the late 70’s. God, I miss it so 
T.
That is funny I got on the America just after you returned.
About 2 weeks into a 6 month Med.Cruise on the USS America CV66 .No2 Fireroom lower level bilge rat just a BTFN a baby Snipe.
Where’d you go to Snipe School? Great Lakes? I went to boot camp and then Corps school before becoming a part of the Green Machine. North Chicago, baby. What a den of vice and iniquity it was back in the late 70’s. God, I miss it so
T.
Did bootcamp in Orlando mid summer (Hot !)I grew up in Lake Champlain area.Then off to Great Lakes BT “A” school.Oh yes lovely N.Chi and Waukegan.Picture this one guy had a car, a Chevy Chevelle or something like that 4 semi drunk 18 yr olds driving around with Nazareth blasting from a 8 track.BEQ’s with beer machines.God was watching over me 
That is funny I got on the America just after you returned.
I got a transfer to Charleston aboard CG-20 .I think it was Oct. and finished the rest of my time there.
We probably crossed paths on the quarterdeck…
Beer machines man that was as good as it gets!
I don’t remember much…but I was only 11.
~Matt
I was a junior at Cornell, heading to Penn State (right past TMI) for a track meet the next week.
(the next year, I had a job interview in Beaverton, OR a week before Mt. St. Helens blew)
Beer machines man that was as good as it gets!
And at a buck a pop, or less. I was in the E-5/E-6 barracks. We even had a small Acey-Duecey lounge on weekends. You could get blasted and not even have to stagger very far to get to your rack. Or you could sit there, sip on a cold one and listen to the news about TMI and the “IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD…CHINA SYNDROME…WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE OF RADIATION POISONING” media hype. See? Even when there was no CNN or MSNBC or Fox News, the media could still bring it with the best of 'em.
Personally, I felt Love Canal was the far more serious environmental issue, not TMI.
T.
I was trying to remember what we paid. I think it was $.50. IIRC. may have been $.75 but I can’t remember it being a $1.00
They even had stripper night at the E club back in the day…of course in Norfolk there was the “body exchange” club just out side the gate.
I was a junior at Cornell, heading to Penn State (right past TMI) for a track meet the next week.
(the next year, I had a job interview in Beaverton, OR a week before Mt. St. Helens blew)
Heh, heh. Stay the fuck away from me, Ken. You’re like the Typhoid Mary of both man-made and natural disasters. You’re probably also the cause of that Harry Truman dude dying up there on the mountain when it blew its top (hee-hee).
I was out at another Navy training course on Treasure Island when Mt. Saint Helens went. The sunsets were gorgeous for several days, if I remember.
T.
I was a Jr in high school. Interestingly enough, I was also on the high school debate team. I know, nerd. The national question for high school debate that year dealt with making the US energy independent. My partner and I had a pro nuclear plan. We were actually at a debate tourney the day it happened. We used paraphrased news reports from the evening news as support for our plan during the next days debates.