Northwood News ♦ October 2001

Thoughts on Our Northwood Community in Time of War

By Charles G. Pritchard

During World War II, I served in a U.S.  Army EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) squad (then called “bomb disposal”) in England, France, and Germany.  My unit’s mission was to deal with unexploded aerial bombs, artillery shells, land mines, and booby-traps.  For a time during the Korean War, I had similar duties.

I am the editor of an EOD veterans’ newsletter and occasionally lecture on the subject.  I was, in fact, doing just that on 11 September in Virginia Beach, Virginia, when one of the audience turned on the TV in the lecture hall and there was the World Trade Center going down in a burst of flame, smoke, and debris.  I thought instantly of the bombed-out, burned-out cities in England and Germany where I dug up unexploded bombs and defused them.

I have lived in Northwood Park since 1957.  During the years of the John F. Kennedy administration, this community experienced the Cold War military and political upheavals caused by the Berlin blockade, the Bay of Pigs misadventure, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  During those years, many of our residents were acutely aware that they lived in one of the major military target areas in the U.S. — the center of the government.  There were anti-aircraft Nike missile sites scattered around the National Capital area.  Children in schools routinely carried out nuclear war drills.  Here, in Northwood, neighbors gathered and considered the possibility of constructing our own community fall-out shelter.  Most of us could not escape to the relative safety of Garrett County or West Virginia.  Oddly, the threat of external violence makes for neighborhood solidarity.

As Cold War crisis followed crisis, the sense of imminent threat became dulled through sheer repetition.  The concrete blocks bought at the local hardware supermarket for a basement fall out shelter found an alternative use in the construction of garden walks.  We got on with our lives.

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and our own nearby Pentagon evoke those older memories of external deadly threat.  We now face a new and grave threat of international terrorism as only neighborhoods can:  with forbearance and calm.  The national spirit of courage and community has rarely been stronger.  Our country has risen to face many threats and challenges.  God willing, we will get through this bad time.   ■