MovieChat Forums > On the Beach (1959) Discussion > Did this Scare the wits out of our paren...

Did this Scare the wits out of our parents?


I was born September of 1960 and my father was a career military aviator. I know that my mother and father saw this because my mother told me about it and also about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was told how everyone just cleared the grocery shelves out of fear of nuclear Armageddon on the east coast where they were stationed at the time.
My father was a Medical Service Corps (MSC) officer, flying helicopter ambulances for Army Medical detachments. I still have his Atomic War Training manuals. I just wonder how this movie affected him. I never got to ask, because he was killed on a Medevac mission on July, 1st 1964 in Vietnam. (It gave me chills when I saw the calendar, January, 1964, right after watching a father tending to his child, then wife) In fact, he was the first person ever killed during an Army Medevac mission and he was commander of the 57th Medical Detachment, the first units to receive Huey Helicopters. I do know his very last words though. Major Charles Kelly said, when warned off of a rescue because of small arms fire, "I'll leave when I have your wounded, then "my God". So, I just wonder how he felt, watching that movie when my mother was pregnant with me and they already had two daughters. As an Army Officer and as a father, it had to have an enormous impact as he was a very serious man. Any similar thoughts?

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