Forget - I was just about to post exactly the same. There's almost a book in this thread. All it needs is someone to draw various expanded accounts together. You write well, perhaps you could dedicate it to your wife and title it 'Where the hell have you been!'
Beags et al - God only knows how it must have felt at the sharp end at such times. Seeing as OASC didn't want me the closest I've ever got to the doom-laden feeling was when living by a major mil base in the early 80s, regarded as 'joint number 1 target' in released Home Office documents. Local folklore had it [true?] that 6 blasts on the siren was 'attack imminent' - they tested it with 5 ferrchrissakes!. 'Have I miscounted?' I thought. How my mates laughed at my deathly pallor - I wasn't laughing - a very strange sensation. I was a student at the time but thoughts of 'what would you do given 4 min warning?' - I just quivered with a Tesco shopping bag in hand.
Maybe that's why OASC thought 'no'?