The Way It Was

This is the way it used to be in America.

I was 14 years old. My family had been vacationing at a beach in North Carolina for a week, and we were on our way home. There was very little traffic on the road. As my dad drove the car along the road, we came upon a U.S. Army base that hosted a Nike-Ajax air defense system. My dad, being an Army veteran of World War 2 (he served in the Pacific) swung his car into the entrance to the base and told the guard at the gate that he wanted to see the missiles.

I don't know what would happen if you did that today, but in those days, everything was more open. So they let us onto the base and told us where to go. An officer met us and took us to see the missiles. They were underground, below huge steel doors. The missiles were in their launchers and pointed skyward at about a 45 degree angle. If enemy bombers flew over, the steel doors would open and the missiles would be fired.

What amazed me was how they opened up the gates just because a passing car's driver wanted to see the family jewels—so to speak. And they took us right down to them. There I was, standing just a few feet from actual anti-aircraft missiles. They didn't ask us any questions, like "Who are you?" or "Why do you want to see them?" We could have been Soviet spies, for all they knew. But I imagine there wasn't any classified information that we could discern from merely looking at the missiles.

I bet times have changed. Go to an air defense base now and ask to see the goodies and I bet you'll be asked more than a few questions. But in the end, it wouldn't surprise me if you got to see what you wanted to see, as long as your request was reasonable. Americans have a history of having a very open society. Only the threat of terrorism has made America a more cautious country than it once was.