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The Nuclear War We Almost Had

RDKirk

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Right about this time in 1983, we had several of the scariest days of my life. I was a member of the Strategic Air Combat Operations Staff at Strategic Air Command headquarters, Offutt AFB, NE. We were in the middle of an annual nuclear war exercise called ABLE ARCHER 83. This was at the end of the first week of a two-week command post exercise that would culminate in an all-out nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

We had just finished the first part of the exercise, up to the point that the NCA (National Command Authority, someone was playing the president) had given the "execution order" to launch the Major Attack Option. Down in the SAC Underground Command Post, our part in the exercise ended 30 minutes after the execution order. We estimated there were a couple of dozen Soviet nuclear warheads targeted toward the spot I was sitting, so we were presumed dead at that time. So thirty minutes after the exercise execution order, we could clean up our areas, climb the ramps out of the 3-story underground bunker, and go home (Everyone but the generals. They got onto a plane and took off to safety, leaving us worker bees there).

That's how it had always been in years before.

But that year it was a special exercise. That year, someone in the Pentagon had had the brilliant idea of combining all the services' annual nuclear war exercises into one big exercise. And, heck, let's get the NCA involved as well. Let's even get NATO in on it. Let's exercise the entire thing, everybody involved for the first time ever.

A lot of people may not remember how scary 1983 had already been. Just two months before, the Soviets had shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007, killing an American Congressman. A few weeks after that, the Soviet missile warning system had suffered a malfunction that appeared to them to be an American missile launch. One particular Soviet officer (correctly) guessed in time that a genuine American attack would consist of more than one missile and called off the Soviet retaliation.

And there had been many things the entire year, with the US poking the Bear quite relentlessly. Frankly, we did not realize how close to the edge the Soviets were. President Reagan would later write:

"Three years had taught me something surprising about the Russians: Many people at the top of the Soviet hierarchy were genuinely afraid of America and Americans. Perhaps this shouldn't have surprised me, but it did."

So on that day, we'd gotten the execution order just before noon. I cleaned up my desk in the bunker and went up to my regular desk that was in the "first floor" of the Building 500 basement. I planned to check the morning message traffic and go home.

But I got a telephone call: "Report back to the Underground Command post immediately!" I hightailed it back down and was told, "The Soviets have reacted to the exercise."

I'm not going into all that we'd detected them doing, but it was serious. Very serious. Essentially, the entire first week we'd played of the "exercise" building to an all-out nuclear exchange suddenly started playing out for real over the next few days.

Wikipedia gives a pretty good outline of all that was going on, and there are a couple of videos about ABLE ARCHER 83 on YouTube that are decent. I'd recommend you check them out.

But none of them conveys the genuine terror we were feeling down in that bunker. We knew diplomats were working to calm down the Soviets, but we had to act on the premise that it was going to happen.

It was all still happening at the command post level--the president didn't raise the operational DEFCON because that would make things worse--but in the command post, we were truly preparing for nuclear war as furiously as we could. I didn't leave Building 500 for four days. SR-71 missions were flying like crazy out of Mildenhall and Kadena.

One colonel did crack a joke: "Dammit, we just bought a house!"

But during every briefing, the generals' faces were grim and as gray as concrete. I don't think I've ever seen consternation like that in men before.
 
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I believe Reagan and Billy Graham were indirectly responsible for us avoiding nuclear war during the Cold War era. I can't prove it, but one day Heaven will tell the story.
 
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RDKirk

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I believe Reagan and Billy Graham were indirectly responsible for us avoiding nuclear war during the Cold War era. I can't prove it, but one day Heaven will tell the story.

A lot of people were responsible for us avoiding nuclear war doing the Cold War era. Even my own prayer during those particular days may have helped: "Jesus! Please stop us!"

We had another period not quite as scary during exactly the same weeks during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. At one point it appeared the Egyptians were about to overrun Israel. The US Med fleet was heading to attack Egypt and the Soviet Black Sea fleet was heading to intercept the American fleet. In that case, President Nixon did, indeed, raise the national DEFCON level.

I was still a cub in Intelligence school at the time, so I didn't really understand the implications, but I noticed that my elders were visibly shaken and nervous. It was ten years later (while on the SAC Air Combat Staff) reading the historical records that I realized we'd been quite close to war with the Soviets in 73.

It's rather interesting: The last couple of weeks of October nearly brought us to war in 63, 73, and again in 83.
 
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Strathos

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A lot of people were responsible for us avoiding nuclear war doing the Cold War era. Even my own prayer during those particular days may have helped: "Jesus! Please stop us!"

We had another period not quite as scary during exactly the same weeks during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. At one point it appeared the Egyptians were about to overrun Israel. The US Med fleet was heading to attack Egypt and the Soviet Black Sea fleet was heading to intercept the American fleet. In that case, President Nixon did, indeed, raise the national DEFCON level.

I was still a cub in Intelligence school at the time, so I didn't really understand the implications, but I noticed that my elders were visibly shaken and nervous. It was ten years later (while on the SAC Air Combat Staff) reading the historical records that I realized we'd been quite close to war with the Soviets in 73.

It's rather interesting: The last couple of weeks of October nearly brought us to war in 63, 73, and again in 83.

Good thing the USSR had collapsed by 1993.
 
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Petros2015

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Yeesh. Lot of bad ones. My favorite is in 1963 when they had the sabotage alarm accidentally wired to the 'ww3 has started alarm', and someone saw what later turned out to be a bear messing around with the fence...

List of nuclear close calls - Wikipedia
 
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RDKirk

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Yeah...that movie came to mind.

"Fun" fact: The character played by George C. Scott was the real-life General Curtiss LeMay, which Building 500 (where I was during the ABLE ARCHER 83 scare) is named after.
 
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Daniel Marsh

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Right about this time in 1983, we had several of the scariest days of my life. I was a member of the Strategic Air Combat Operations Staff at Strategic Air Command headquarters, Offutt AFB, NE. We were in the middle of an annual nuclear war exercise called ABLE ARCHER 83. This was at the end of the first week of a two-week command post exercise that would culminate in an all-out nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

We had just finished the first part of the exercise, up to the point that the NCA (National Command Authority, someone was playing the president) had given the "execution order" to launch the Major Attack Option. Down in the SAC Underground Command Post, our part in the exercise ended 30 minutes after the execution order. We estimated there were a couple of dozen Soviet nuclear warheads targeted toward the spot I was sitting, so we were presumed dead at that time. So thirty minutes after the exercise execution order, we could clean up our areas, climb the ramps out of the 3-story underground bunker, and go home (Everyone but the generals. They got onto a plane and took off to safety, leaving us worker bees there).

That's how it had always been in years before.

But that year it was a special exercise. That year, someone in the Pentagon had had the brilliant idea of combining all the services' annual nuclear war exercises into one big exercise. And, heck, let's get the NCA involved as well. Let's even get NATO in on it. Let's exercise the entire thing, everybody involved for the first time ever.

A lot of people may not remember how scary 1983 had already been. Just two months before, the Soviets had shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007, killing an American Congressman. A few weeks after that, the Soviet missile warning system had suffered a malfunction that appeared to them to be an American missile launch. One particular Soviet officer (correctly) guessed in time that a genuine American attack would consist of more than one missile and called Soviet retaliation.

And there had been many things the entire year, with the US poking the Bear quite relentlessly. Frankly, we did not realize how close to the edge the Soviets were. President Reagan would later write:

"Three years had taught me something surprising about the Russians: Many people at the top of the Soviet hierarchy were genuinely afraid of America and Americans. Perhaps this shouldn't have surprised me, but it did."

So on that day, we'd gotten the execution order just before noon. I cleaned up my desk in the bunker and went up to my regular desk that was in the "first floor" of the Building 500 basement. I planned to check the morning message traffic and go home.

But I got a telephone call: "Report back to the Underground Command post immediately!" I hightailed it back down and was told, "The Soviets have reacted to the exercise."

I'm not going into all that we'd detected them doing, but it was serious. Very serious. Essentially, the entire first week we'd played of the "exercise" building to an all-out nuclear exchange suddenly started playing out for real over the next few days.

Wikipedia gives a pretty good outline of all that was going on, and there are a couple of videos about ABLE ARCHER 83 on YouTube that are decent. I'd recommend you check them out.

But none of them conveys the genuine terror we were feeling down in that bunker. We knew diplomats were working to calm down the Soviets, but we had to act on the premise that it was going to happen.

It was all still happening at the command post level--the president didn't raise the operational DEFCON because that would make things worse--but in the command post, we were truly preparing for nuclear war as furiously as we could. I didn't leave Building 500 for four days. SR-71 missions were flying like crazy out of Mildenhall and Kadena.

One colonel did crack a joke: "Dammit, we just bought a house!"

But during every briefing, the generals' faces were grim and as gray as concrete. I don't think I've ever seen consternation like that in men before.

I remember that, I was in the Mountain in Colorado at the time acting as invaders who manage to get in before it all took place. We used fake IDs, etc...
 
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NinjaPirate777

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The blood and treasure we spend on preparing for wars is disheartening. We should identify the warmongers and profiteers and sentence them to life in prison for high treason and crimes against humanity.

I served my time in the US Marines and Army National Guard where I trained to kill people and destroy things. In hindsight I am glad I never killed anyone.


(1) Soviet Anti-Western Propaganda - YouTube
 
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Laodicean60

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Wow, I had just joined the Army on 7/1983 and didn't have a clue. The funny thing about the time was that when I met my wife I actually made a plan to where to hide my family just in case the nukes dropped. As time went on I realized Russia was going to be stupid enough to initiate world destruction. I was feared of the destruction by watching movies and documentaries just like they did. Now the fear is even worse because our kids don't realize the destruction. I'm surprised more boomers aren't speaking out against the Ukraine war. And our fetish with Russia????
 
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RDKirk

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Wow, I had just joined the Army on 7/1983 and didn't have a clue. The funny thing about the time was that when I met my wife I actually made a plan to where to hide my family just in case the nukes dropped.
The question we asked, sitting down in the bunker, was: "If the 'balloon goes up,' would we try to warn our families?"

Our families were right there above our heads. But from Omaha, every route led through ICBM fields which would have also been targets of the Soviet strike...there wasn't any safe distance they could reach in time.

We did have what we called the SAC "Headquarters Emergency Relocation Team" (SAC-HERT) that we'd send out to a secret location where a stocked and equipped shelter was prepared. Funny thing, the people who got selected to staff the HERT were always the least effective people, because the unit never wanted to lose their best for two weeks during the exercise. I kept having to remind them: "Hey, these are the people who might survive. Choose your best, not your worst."
 
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