It was a constant daily reminder.

I can still vividly remember the nuclear missile attack drills that we had as kids at Bay Pointe Elementary school in St. Petersburg, FL in the 1970s.

They would tell us to get under our desks, cover our heads and breathe into paper bags to keep us from panicking and passing out.

It was the height of the cold war and our little soccer fields were directly under the flight path of MacDill Air Force base. It was always deafening when the F-4 Phantom jets would streak over the school while we were outside at recess.

It was a constant daily reminder.

I can't even begin to imagine what the folks in Hawaii endured today.