Jim Collins

San Antonio, Texas

April 21,2005

Jamison R. Seifert

Palo Alto College

History 1302 - Spring 2005

What kind of jobs did you have while in the Reserves?
One of my first jobs was a cartographer (a person who draws maps). That was fun and interesting. I drew many different types of maps for the military. I was trained to do that at Fort Meade in Maryland. I did that for about three years. Then in 1976, I went to a Reserves unit here in San Antonio. I stayed with that particular unit for two years before I moved to the civil affairs unit where I spent the rest of my time in the Reserves.

Were you or other partners in the Reserves ever worried about going to war?
Yeah. Several times. There was a possibility that we could be sent to the Vietnam War or wherever but we never were. Even later, around Christmas 1989, when we (the U.S.) went down to Panama, they asked me if I wanted to volunteer to be active. I told them I really couldn't because I was a firefighter. Now, if they called me and told me that I had to go, then okay, but I just couldn't volunteer with my job.

During the Cold War, were you or your family ever scared?
The only time that I was ever scared and my parents showed their concern was in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis . President Kennedy came on the television and made a speech about that. I remember a friend of the family lived near a naval base and my family and I would go over sometimes. We used to sit and watch planes land and take off at the naval base. One time, we saw a plane that we never saw before. Later on we found out that it was a U-2, which is a spy plane. I guessed it was flying towards Cuba. I never saw it before. This was around the same time as the crisis.

Do you remember the spy plane being shot down in Russia?
Yeah. I heard a little about it. It was probably on the news but, I never really paid attention and my parents never really talked about it.

Do you remember the civil defense?
Yeah. It's a lot different today. They used have civil defense shelters for nuclear fallout and bomb shelters. They had these shelters all over. They were located in basements, buildings, and schools. They used to have signs that said "This is a civil defense shelter". They also used to have Continental Radio. It gave alerts if we were to have a nuclear strike. They used to have tests like today with the emergency broadcast test on television. It was the same way. It was quite often. Especially in the summer, it would happen at different times. It became aggravating.

What else do you remember during the Cold War?
I remember when Russia sent Sputnik up into orbit. I also remember when the United States sent up Echo . Echo was a huge balloon that was used as a communication satellite. I used to stand outside at night and look for them in the sky. I never saw Sputnik but I did see Echo. It looked like today's space station going over. It was very bright and easily seen.

Was segregation a big thing when you were younger?
No. It wasn't a big problem where I grew up at least. We had whites, Hispanics, and blacks. They was no problems. As far as I knew, the kids got along and the parents got along. There weren't much racial issues down there.

 

ANALYSIS

After doing the interview, I realized that there are a a lot of things I don't know about him. It surprised me because I have known him all my life. I learned a lot about him and about the Cold War. I never knew what he did in the Reserves. I also never heard of NASA's satellite, Echo, until the interview. One point of the interview that I remember most was how people didn't really talk about the Cold War (or at least where he lived). He never remembers his parents or friends ever talking about it. It kind of made me think that some people weren't worried about the Cold War. I was also surprised how segregation wasn't a big deal where he lived and how there were no problems between the different races. After hearing about some of the things, I went on the internet to verify the information. Without the interview, I probably would never learned this stuff about him or the Cold War. This interview was effective because without it, I would know a lot less about him and the Cold War.

 

Robstown- The Handbook of Texas Online is a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas history, geography, and culture sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association and the General Libraries at UT-Austin. It was produced in partnership with the College of Liberal Arts and the General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. Copyright © The Texas State Historical Association. Last Updated: May 6, 2004.

Cuban Missile Crisis- information about the Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War. This website was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with Michigan State University. Last Update: May 21, 2002.

cartographer- information about what a cartographer does and how to become one.Copyright © 2005 State of California. Last Updated: April 19, 2005.

Echo- information about how the Echo satellite was built, what materials were used, and what it was used for. This website Is sponsored by Spacebank.com. Copyright © Mark Wade, 2005. Last Update: March 28, 2005.

civil defense- information about how civil defense was during the Cold War. It talks about procedures that people took to be prepared for a nuclear strike.