Milestones: 50 Years Ago In Time

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The 9/11 panel has criticized the slow response of the U.S.'s air defenses on that fateful day. When TIME ran a cover on GENERAL BEN CHIDLAW, head of the Continental Air Defense Command, America's skies were on high cold war alert.

Reports of every unidentified aircraft spotted over North America flash through the Air Defense network to the blockhouse in Colorado Springs, General Chidlaw's command post. On the great Plexiglas map, from six to a dozen unknown aircraft are being plotted at almost any time; as one is identified by the scrambling fighters, another is reported elsewhere ... In case of a suspected attack, the hot lines would carry a call which is no drill: Air Defense Readiness. At the signal, all military aircraft are to be armed, fueled and manned, all defense forces called to duty, the White House and top officials notified--but not the public. Next signal, when the incoming aircraft prove "manifestly hostile in intent": Yellow Alert, to set off air-raid sirens, ground all civilian planes. Final signal: Red Alert, meaning World War III. By then, bombs, and perhaps the bombers, would be plunging earthward.

--TIME, Dec. 20, 1954