Big Red Rides Again: The Return Of The 1952 Chrysler Air Raid Siren

Every once in a while, a piece of American history roars back to life—and in this case, it screams back. Meet the fully restored 1952 Chrysler Air Raid Siren, one of the loudest sirens ever built, now mounted to a beautifully preserved 1940 Dodge COE truck thanks to the passion of Frank Rhodes, Jr., the great-grandson of Chrysler founder Walter P. Chrysler.

The Chrysler Air Raid Siren was no ordinary noisemaker. Produced between 1952 and 1957 at the height of Cold War tension, it was built by Chrysler’s Marine and Industrial Division to warn Americans of incoming nuclear attacks. This beast featured a 5.4-liter (331 cubic-inch) Firepower HEMI® V8 under the hood—yes, the same legendary HEMI that powered some of Chrysler’s most iconic cars. Rated at 180 horsepower, it spun up a six-horn siren with 30,000 watts of raw sound output, blasting at 138 decibels at 100 feet. That’s loud enough to be heard 25 miles away.

The siren assembly stretches 12 feet in length, weighs approximately 3 short tons (2.7 metric tons), and is mounted on a quarter section of a Dodge truck chassis rail. Each of its six horns is 3 feet long. Back in 1952, one of these monsters would have cost $5,500—a hefty price tag then, equivalent to about $66,760 today. Los Angeles County alone installed 24 of them, the city of Detroit had 20 of them, and many others were scattered across the United States. Most never got used beyond testing, and many fell into disrepair over the decades.

That’s where Frank Rhodes comes in. He discovered one of these long-forgotten sirens tucked away in the woods of a property in Delaware. Realizing the historical value, he sent it to Tom Parker of Parker Welding & Fabricating in Millington, Maryland. After months of careful restoration, the siren looked even better than it did the day it left the factory in 1952.

But Frank didn’t stop there. He had the perfect platform waiting: a 1940 Dodge COE (cab-over-engine) truck he’d owned for 25 years. Not sure what to do with it—until now, the truck was also restored by Parker and turned into the ultimate mobile monument to Chrysler’s Cold War engineering. Even cooler, the siren sits on its original rotating turntable, capable of spinning a full 360 degrees every three minutes.

Details matter. Along the truck’s sides are original-era Dodge slogans: “Horsepower with a Pedigree”—a nod to the brand’s proud performance history. It’s a fitting tribute to the kind of innovation Chrysler once built, not just for cars, but for national defense.

Frank teamed up with Brinkley Dolgos to document this amazing piece of engineering for my YouTube channel, The Mopar Junkie. The video captures Frank’s deep-rooted passion for preserving Chrysler’s legacy, not just through muscle cars but through machines that helped define America’s postwar power and resilience.

This isn’t just a restored truck or an old siren—it’s a rolling, roaring reminder of what American engineering stood for in one of the most uncertain times in our history.