nuclear-news

Job available after the nuclear holocaust

one “perk” of this job was that they would be expected to survive a nuclear attack, which means that the added benefits to this employment would be a special trip to a safe place to wait out the destruction of the world….. You can read these morbid documents in full at Ptak Science Books.

A job application for restarting the human race after the nuclear apocalypse, 109,  21 Feb 2011, In 1956, the US government issued this totally turgid employment application and list of job requirements for the federal position of Chief, Damage Assessment Division. What’s incredible about these documents is how mind-numbingly bureaucratic and jargon-filled they are. Essentially, it was the jobholder’s responsibility to not die in the nuclear blast and restructure society post-Judgment Day — no pressure or anything! Notes document-finder John Ptak:

The job of the DMA was to identify what would happen to the essential production facilities that would keep the country going—industrial, technical, medical, biological, and so on—how they would be targeted, and how they might survive an attack. This also applied to the people who would be required to be in charge of all of this. It was also the job of this person to coordinate the estimation of damage and assessment business post-attack. So, one “perk” of this job was that they would be expected to survive a nuclear attack, which means that the added benefits to this employment would be a special trip to a safe place to wait out the destruction of the world.

You can read these morbid documents in full at Ptak Science Books.

February 22, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | history, resources - print