A civvy view.
I suspect that the nearer the sharp end, the more seriously they were taken. Thus Guetersloh, being as near as you get, took them very seriously in the days of 2,4,19 and 92 squadrons c. 1970.
Serious enough for families to be advised to maintain a grab bag to board the massive fleet of RAF coaches to go to Ostend, although that bit never got played.
When the Soviets invaded Czecho it felt VERY real for a few days as I recall.
They were still big deal when I was on the TACEVAL team at JHQ in the late 1970s, nice not to be on the receiving end. [Met did full NBC training, had the noddy suits and wore them, and dispersed to alternates. Any Met. bugger that did not sign up to this was not posted to RAFG, any awkward bugger was got rid of humanely]