Forgotten fallout shelter inside

A half-century ago, Athenians were preparing for the worst. Atomic bombs, developed in haste and dropped on Japan to end World War II, were casting a deep pall on the future.

The Soviet Union had exploded its own high-megaton hydrogen bombs and was threatening the United States by word and deed. One offensive deed was the placing of atomic weapons in Cuba in 1962.

In response to the threat of nuclear attack, the U.S. government was urging and financing preparation of fallout shelters to protect citizens from the kind of devastation created in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which Americans had heard and read about.

Athenians were more aware of fallout shelters than most Americans because of studies conducted by the University of Georgia psychology department from 1962 to '67. A dozen experiments (in addition to three "pilot studies") were organized and led by UGA psychology professor John Hammes and sponsored by the U.S. Office of Civil Defense at a cost of about $1 million.

The studies examined a key question of the time: Can men, women and children endure the austere conditions of a fallout shelter, and what are the personal problems they encounter?

The "fallout" tests also were used to gather information needed to help Americans cope with a nuclear attack. Tests evaluated sleeping arrangements, training procedures, food and water adequacy, and management by volunteers.

Results of early tests were used to prepare an instruction booklet for use by shelter occupants in case of a real attack, when a trained manager might not be available.

The research progressed from the three "pilot studies" of 10 people each in the fall of 1962 to a 1,000-person test in 1967.

Shelter rooms were equipped with one-way observation windows and camera ports so that shelter behavior could be observed by managers and members of the media.

"Shelterees," as the volunteers were called, were recruited by news releases, information from the UGA public relations department and talks by Civil Defense research staff to civic and other groups. An Athens Banner-Herald headline on July 12, 1967 - "Human Guinea Pigs Needed for Study" - helped spread the word for the last of the studies.

Researchers tried to select a representative cross-section of society. The age spread was from 6 months to 79 years. Many families came as a unit. In a 1967 test with 750 people, one family consisted of the parents, seven children and their maid.

Volunteers were allotted from 6 to 10 square feet each, barely enough room to lie down and stretch out. (Think of 300 people in your home of 3,000 square feet - furniture remov

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