Former Colonel David Hackworth, known as Hack, is, according to some websites, the second most decorated army officer after General Douglas MacArthur.  Hackworth was reportedly the inspiration behind the movie Apocalypse Now.  Both the Robert Duvall Air Calvary commander (Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore) and the Marlon Brando guerrilla character (Colonel Kurtz) were said to be based on Hackworth.

Hackworth often told locals that he chose the Chowan Creek Valley after accessing a Pentagon computer and determining through US Army intelligence that the area is the safest longitudinal and lateral based area in all the South Pacific Region in the event of fallout from any nuclear accident or explosion. In spite of this, Hackworth built a stainless-steel nuclear fallout shelter on the property which has been converted into a spare water tank which holds 45,000 litres of water.

The property was also used by noted Australian author, Robert G. Barrett as the setting for his novel “The Godson”.

Click below to listen more about this interesting piece of history:

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/radiotonic/nuclear-fallour-shelter/5845062?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared