OH+Craig+Shuler

I am not going to take these questions in the order you sent them, but I will cover everything you asked. First of all, if you have not already found a good website, you might want to look at @http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/suez.htm as a source of information.

In my opinion,the Cold War was primarily an ideological conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States and its allies (primarily Great Britain, Canada, France, West Germany). It was considered a cold war because no fighting took place directly between the principal opponents. Hot wars took place in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and other locations between less powerful nations that were aligned with either the USSR or the USA.

The general time frame for the Cold War was 1946 -- 1989. The latter date is when the Soviet Union began to fall apart and the Berlin Wall was opened (before being torn down in 1990).

My personal involvement in the Cold War began in 1957, when I enlisted in a Marine Corps officer training program, and lasted until 1988, when I retired from the military. As a USMC aviator on active duty from 1960 to 1964, the Cold War was of major importance every day. The daily training of my attack squadron involved tactics for delivering conventional and nuclear bombs against the Soviet Union in the event that the cold war turned into a hot war. Part of this time I was deployed aboard the USS Independence (an aircraft carrier) in the Mediterranean Sea. Our mission there was to observe the presence of Soviet aircraft and naval vessels and to be relatively close to the Soviet Union in case fighting did break out. While our daily flight operations were strictly for the purpose of keeping everyone's skill level high, every pilot had an assigned target mission in the Soviet Union in case war was declared.

During this time, the Cuban Missile Crisis almost caused war to be declared. In 1962 the Soviet Union moved missiles into Cuba that were capable of delivering nuclear warheads into the US. My squadron, along with many others, was deployed to Key West, Florida, to prepare for a massive attack against these missile sites. In this case, also, each pilot had a specific assigned target mission into Cuba. Fortunately, diplomatic efforts convinced the Soviet Union to remove the missiles and destroy the missile sites. But during the weeks we were in Key West we were by our aircraft before sunrise ready to launch at a moment's notice if an attack was directed toward the US. So during that active duty time, some days were very intently involved with the Cold War while others were sort of just normal days.

In 1964 I was released from active duty but immediately joined a reserve squadron where I trained only one weekend a month. Obviously, the Cold War was still the impetus for the training we were doing. The Viet Nam War occurred during this time, and we expected to be called to active duty at any time. But even though that did not happen, the possibility had an impact my daily life. And while that war was not directly between the USSR and the US, it was a hot war that occurred while the Cold War was still going on.

After completing my graduate studies in 1969, we moved to Maine. There I could not find a USMC reserve unit to join, so I transferred to the Maine Air National Guard (MeANG) in order to keep flying and to be able to get enough service time to eventually retire with benefits. Even though the MeANG was not an active duty unit, we did serve active duty time because we had primary responsibility to provide fighter interceptor coverage against incoming bombers from the Soviet Union. To do that we had aircraft and pilots on standby alert 24 hours a day. Obviously the Cold War was still having an effect on my life. In 1974, the MeANG's mission changed from fighter interceptors to in-flight refueling. We still had aircraft and pilots on 24 hour alert to provide emergency refueling for aircraft involved in overflights of the Soviet Union. Once again we had secret mission assignments to provide refueling for bombers, fighters, spy planes, and other aircraft in the event of war being declared.

The Cold War was significant in that both sides were developing new technology and weapons so that neither side was comfortable about making a surprise attack on the other. The so-called "Cold War" probably ended around 1990, but we still have a cold war today. Technology, especially for spying capability, is still going on along with new aircraft and weapons (although we don't hear much about this). The adversaries have changed somewhat. Russia is no longer considered by many experts to be a superpower, but China is now considered a threat along with its allies of North Korea and to some extent, Russia. And, of course, the Muslim terrorists have raised a whole different specter of Hot/Cold War.

Well, I think that covers what you were asking about. If I've failed to respond adequately to something you want to know, just let me know; and I will gladly deal with it.