El Pasoans fled into the desert in 1955 mass evacuation test: Trish Long

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In an effort to see how quickly El Paso could be evacuated in the event of an enemy air raid, On June 14, 1955, El Pasoans fled the city in a mass evacuation under a "simulated enemy attack." The evacuation was carried out without a major accident, and "without a traffic bottleneck."
June 15, 1955,
About 5000 El Pasoans In 1000 motor vehicles fled into the desert today in a mass evacuation after sirens sounded a make-believe enemy air raid.
The fleeing civilians moved north from the City along Dyer street and Highway 54 in what Civil Defense officials described as "an absolute success" in El Paso's first major test of wholesale evacuation under simulated enemy attack.
"The evacuation was a complete success from every standpoint," said Charles C. Bowman Jr., Civil Defense Chief of Area 1, who was in charge of the operation. "The movement started seconds after the siren sounded at 10 a. m. and 15 minutes later the major portion of the column was miles out in open country."
Twenty minutes after the siren sounded, the tail end of the evacuation caravan was moving up Dyer street, and by 10:39 the entire formation was miles along the Newman road.
'A tremendous success in every way,' said Lieut. Col. David T. Birney, El Paso Civil defense director.
Col. A. M. Lawrence, chief warden, said: 'Amazing – it was simply amazing! The response and cooperation was finer than anyone expected.'
The evacuation of the 'bombed and burning City' Area 1 was carried out without a major accident, and without a traffic bottleneck.
The moving formation carried a mass of solemn citizens, adults and children.
There was no laughter, no joking remarks, no belittling the significance of El Paso's first test flight into the open from devastating enemy attack from the air.
'Everything was orderly – absolutely so,' said Police Chief J. C. Risinger as he stood in front of the operation headquarters at The Ranch on Dyer street and watched the last of the evacuation vehicles move north.
City, County and State police and National Guardsmen moved into the evacuated area as the citizens moved out. Every precaution was taken to avoid looting.
The evacuated area was north of Fort boulevard and between Franklin Mountain and the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Among the first vehicles to swing into Dyer street while the siren still screamed its warning was a pickup truck driven by a woman with a dozen children as passengers. She stopped for seconds in front of the control office and received a signal from an officer to proceed. The light truck with its solemn-faced occupants wheeled back into the northbound line and helped set the pace for the exodus.
The line moved on the left side of Dyer street and Highway 54, with the right lane held open for southbound traffic. That system was used to expedite the column movement that turned left at Hueco road north of Newman.
The long caravan proceeded under orders for 50-mile speed at the outset, but that movement pace slowed as it settled down to the circuit that brought the formation back along White Sands road. The turning point on Highway 54 is about 22 miles, from downtown El Paso.
An overhead plane reported to command headquarters 20 minutes after the siren sounded that Area 1 was evacuated. All vehicles that were going were gone. A stillness settled over the evacuated area as the guards watched every movement.
Dyer street was empty in both directions from The Ranch at 10:25. Ambulances stood in readiness off street, with drivers beside them waiting for possible call to accidents.
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Service cars or wreckers with drivers alongside also stood alongside the control headquarters building.
Other ambulances and wreckers were stationed miles out on the desert highway, awaiting instructions from the Civil Air Patrol planes and the helicopter that had been loaned by the Ft. Bliss Army Aviation section.
The helicopter came down the moving column of vehicles at the last of the caravan formed and moved north. The helicopter provided back-and-forth escort up and down the line, reporting progress of the column, and that all was going well. The helicopter and planes circled at the head of the ground column turned west at Hueco road and exchanged information with the ground patrol.
Evacuation Supervisor Bowman discussed the purpose of the test while the caravan was making the circuit.
The aim is to see how quickly El Paso could be evacuated in the event of an enemy air raid," he said. 'This tested only a portion of the City. But this test proves that all of El Paso could be evacuated in minutes if the necessity arises."
Mr. Bowman was asked if the fleeing column would be an easy mark for strafing fighter planes.
"There would be no strafing planes from an enemy attack," he said. "No Civil Defense training takes account of such military action. The first enemy planes would be bombers so high they would never be, seen unless shot down by our forces. Our aim is to train for evacuation of population centers attack from high altitude bombers.
"El Paso is getting the central idea. This proves it."
The first car back from the Newman area after the evacuation was driven by Mrs. W. D. Hearst of Vulcan street. With her were her two sons, Bill and Jim, and two neighbors, Mrs. Helen Chadwood and Mrs. Doris Painter.
"When I heard the sirens I locked the house and left." Mrs. Hearst said. "I had already arranged to pick up my neighbors. We took food and had a picnic. Everything seemed to run smoothly."
One auto driven by a woman ran out of gas. Fortunately there were gasoline trucks nearby and she got a refill.
Seven buses loaned by the El Paso Natural Gas Co., carrying women and children, turned off the wrong road and were "lost" for half an hour.
Two cars became stuck in the sand on Hueco road. A wrecker, dispatched by radio, got them out.
Barry Engle of Pollard street, in charge of the telephone switchboard in The Ranch headquarters, gave a typical example of how well advance preparations were made.
"We are handling something like 10 calls a minute from workers at this new installation‒but everything is running easy," he said. "I have good help."
While he talked his aides were plugging and unplugging calls like veteran operators. 'I'm glad this thing is going over big," said Miriam Bowman, 13, daughter of Evacuation Supervisor Bowman.
'My mother and dad have been buried in the big test for days and nights. Life would have been miserable if this had flopped."
"But it's a howling success!" said Mrs. Bowman, who stood nearby as her husband kept an easy hand on action as the siren wailed.
"We don't have a message to deliver‒and that's a great disappointment," Betty Rowland complained at the messenger table.
Girl Scouts staffed the messenger center, and Boy Scouts ran the messages, some mounted on scooters. There were messages to deliver as the action picket up.
Mrs. Terry Pfister, recruiting volunteers for duty at various posts kept up a running call:
"Volunteers‒volunteers‒volunteers‒we need volunteers for post duty!"
There was ready response every time she called with men, women, boys and girls rushing up to lend their services.
'This is one of the finest organizations I ever have contacted,' said Capt. Mario Acevedo of the Texas State Guard.: Everything is moving without a hitch.'
Trish Long may be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 5000 El Pasoans in 1000 cars fled into the desert in 1955 air-raid test