I worked in a nuclear missile firing battery from 1977 to 1982. In 1979 I served three months at Cape Canaveral firing missiles into the ocean. We would take them off hot firing pads in Germany, load them on transport planes and fly them to the Cape. The whole point being that the Army wanted to insure the live fire missiles would work when the fire button was pressed. Well, of course we didn’t fire live nukes so the Martin Marietta crowd would take the nuclear basketballs out of the warheads prior to firing. My job was to guard the warhead shack and when the tech guys pulled a nuclear basketball out, I would strap it in the back of a 2 1/2 ton truck and drive it through Cocoa Beach to a bunker at the air base (Patrick?)…… I was a 19 year old kid driving by myself through a resort beach with bikini clad ladies…. I may or may not have made a detour or two on that route….. Man that just gives me the shivers today. I had a sidearm but no armed escorts traveled with me and I bet I made that trip 12-15 times in that three month stretch. You sure couldn’t do that in 2026. And I do have a point. We Boomers may not get it today….. But we did maintain a much safer environment. We didn’t have to worry about our kids playing outside and by and large, most Americans obeyed and respected the law. We may not have liked our leaders (Jimmy Carter) but we respected them. Teachers didn’t have to fear students. I see the decay in our city streets today and I know that these young people have no clue what it felt like to walk safe streets. Well I do remember and that is why when I see defiance towards leadership and law enforcement it infuriates me to the core. Nothing will change until you get it and change your attitudes. Yes, you are the problem.
