Civil Defense Museum

09/26/2026

Back in March 2019 I shipped one of the Valley View Texas Thunderbolt heads they had in storage to the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. The siren was to be eventually displayed in the Living In The Space Age Gallery. That gallery opened in July. I finally found a picture where the old Valley View siren is visible. Its made up of parts from these two old ratty heads shown here in the back of my old S10. I rebuilt those back in 2004 so the town would have spares. They sat in storage all that time until I asked the town if they would donate one to the Air and Space Museum. They did and there it is...

08/28/2026

08/01/2026

Allen, Tx 1995. Removed sirens at the main water tower east of 75. Pretty sure these were removed when Allen installed the P50s. Our high power rocketry club's launch site was the field around the water tower. Saw these when I went to retrieve a rocket. I couldn't believe it. It was the first time seeing a thunderbolt on the ground. No idea what became of them. Didn't contact the city about them being there or anything.

07/21/2026

Just came across this ebay auction of a "CD V-717".
Just when I thought "AI" couldn't get weirder. I'll just figure the "seller" doesn't even have a real 717 for sale. Not one real image in the lot.

07/11/2026

Rest in peace Randy Mantooth. This old guy thought Gage and DeSoto were the two coolest guys on TV when he was a kid. Hell, Gage and DeSoto are still cool.

06/10/2026

A scene from Once A Thief. 1965. See anything familiar?

06/06/2026

Old Thunderbolt in Gunter TX. No idea if its been there since new.

04/13/2026

Another tidbit posted on YouTube by the SMU Jones Film Archive.
https://youtu.be/oCf3B2kRCAQ?si=Ou5-ZmncvRNmbBLD

04/03/2026

Just came across this on YouTube. Groundbreaking for the Dallas CD EOC dated May 1961.
https://youtu.be/jnznmcZuImo?si=lZjbJrL6mx4FaspF

https://www.civildefensemuseum.com/fallout/dallaseoc.html

WFAA Collection

03/23/2026

Here's a recent video of my old 1003 head put back into service in Georgia. DJ2226 on YouTube is the creator.

This was a pretty special siren test for me. I explain it in the video. This is one I've been waiting to record for a long time, and I finally had a chance t...