Post by Catsmate on Oct 28, 2015 11:17:46 GMT
Inspired by this rather horrifying story.
Just after midnight on 28 October 1962 the world was afraid, the Cuban Missile Crisis was ongoing and people were worried about an apparantly imminent nuclear exchange between the United States and Soviet Union.
Thousands of kilometres from the Caribbean another group of nuclear armed missiles were preparing to launch...
All US strategic forces were at Defense Readiness Condition 2 (DEFCON2 or "FAST PACE") ready to launch missiles within fifteen minutes following a move to DEFCON1. These included 32 MGM-13 'Mace-B' long range cruise missiles on the island of Okinawa.
Each missile had a range of over 2,000km and carried a 1.1 megatonne W28 thermonuclear warhead.
The missiles were organised into eight batteries of four, with two batteries each on four sites on the Japanese (but US occupied) island of Okinawa.
That night the commanding officer at the Missile Operations Center began a customary mid-shift radio transmission to the four sites. Thois consisted of a time-check and weather update, followed by a string of alphanumeric codes. Usually the first part (the prefix) of the code string didn't match the codes the missile crew had and so the remainder was ignored.
But that night it did match, indicating actual orders were following. Now this wasn't that uncommon, training messages were occasionally transmitted. But at DEFCON2 no training messages should have been sent, and the crew had been reminded of this.
The second string also matched that held by the missile crew, authorising the launch officer (a USAF captain named William Bassett) to open the sealed pouch he'd been issued. This contained the third string, if this matched an envelope in the pouch was to be opened. This contained the mechanical keys necessary to begin the missile launch along with targeting data for the missiles.
The third string matched that within the pouch. The crews were authorised to launch the missiles.
At this point captain Bassett, as senior officer among the eight crews, began preparations for the launch of all 32 missiles, on the presumption that the other seven crews on Okinawa had received the order as well. However the captain was worried about the orders and conferred with the other launch officers.
The crews were still at DEFCON2, no upgrade in readiness to DEFCON1 having been received and Bassett and others were worried that a mistake had been made.
Captain Bassett had his crew to run the final checks on their missiles and prepare for launch. However when the targets for the missiles were revealed three of the missiles were aimed at targets outside the Soviet Union, a pattern that was followed by target lists of other batteries.
The captain ordered that the bay doors for the missiles with non-Soviet targets remain closed but opened the door for the fourth missile. As senior officer he ordered the other crews to do the same. All but one crew followed the order.
Captain Bassett called the Missile Operations Center and requested, stating that the original transmission had been garbled, that the mid-shift report be repeated. The launch order was repeated.
At this stage one of the officers commanding a launch crew (whose four missiles all had Soviet targets) ordered his crew to proceed with missile launch. Captain Bassett ordered the other launch officer of that crew there to stop the launch, by force if necessary. He contained the senior officer MOC and asked for either a change to DEFCON1 (and authority to launch the missiles) or a stand-down order.
The suddenly very stressed voice of a USAF major ordered a stand-down. World War Three didn't start and the launch crews were told never to discuss the incident.
So far the story is entirely factual, based on interviews by news media with USAF personnel at the site, though not fully verified. Exactly what went wrong that night and why the MOC ordered a launch is unknown. It was probably a mistake by an officer under stress during the international crisis, but USAF records haven't been released. Such incidents did happen during the Cold War.
One hell of a scenario seed though....
Gaming potential.
Just who'd want to start a nuclear war in 1963? And why?
Aliens? Time travellers? The image of the major repeating the launch order without a hint of stress in his voice conjures an image of someone under mind control, so maybe the Master had a hand in events.
Was there more to the plot? Were other launch sites targeted? Was this just a distraction from a bigger plan?
Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?
Just after midnight on 28 October 1962 the world was afraid, the Cuban Missile Crisis was ongoing and people were worried about an apparantly imminent nuclear exchange between the United States and Soviet Union.
Thousands of kilometres from the Caribbean another group of nuclear armed missiles were preparing to launch...
All US strategic forces were at Defense Readiness Condition 2 (DEFCON2 or "FAST PACE") ready to launch missiles within fifteen minutes following a move to DEFCON1. These included 32 MGM-13 'Mace-B' long range cruise missiles on the island of Okinawa.
Each missile had a range of over 2,000km and carried a 1.1 megatonne W28 thermonuclear warhead.
The missiles were organised into eight batteries of four, with two batteries each on four sites on the Japanese (but US occupied) island of Okinawa.
That night the commanding officer at the Missile Operations Center began a customary mid-shift radio transmission to the four sites. Thois consisted of a time-check and weather update, followed by a string of alphanumeric codes. Usually the first part (the prefix) of the code string didn't match the codes the missile crew had and so the remainder was ignored.
But that night it did match, indicating actual orders were following. Now this wasn't that uncommon, training messages were occasionally transmitted. But at DEFCON2 no training messages should have been sent, and the crew had been reminded of this.
The second string also matched that held by the missile crew, authorising the launch officer (a USAF captain named William Bassett) to open the sealed pouch he'd been issued. This contained the third string, if this matched an envelope in the pouch was to be opened. This contained the mechanical keys necessary to begin the missile launch along with targeting data for the missiles.
The third string matched that within the pouch. The crews were authorised to launch the missiles.
At this point captain Bassett, as senior officer among the eight crews, began preparations for the launch of all 32 missiles, on the presumption that the other seven crews on Okinawa had received the order as well. However the captain was worried about the orders and conferred with the other launch officers.
The crews were still at DEFCON2, no upgrade in readiness to DEFCON1 having been received and Bassett and others were worried that a mistake had been made.
- He's alleged to have said: "We have not received the upgrade to DEFCON1, which is highly irregular, and we need to proceed with caution. This may be the real thing, or it is the biggest screw up we will ever experience in our lifetime".
Captain Bassett had his crew to run the final checks on their missiles and prepare for launch. However when the targets for the missiles were revealed three of the missiles were aimed at targets outside the Soviet Union, a pattern that was followed by target lists of other batteries.
- Exactly what the targets were hasn't been revealed; presumably China or North Korea
The captain ordered that the bay doors for the missiles with non-Soviet targets remain closed but opened the door for the fourth missile. As senior officer he ordered the other crews to do the same. All but one crew followed the order.
Captain Bassett called the Missile Operations Center and requested, stating that the original transmission had been garbled, that the mid-shift report be repeated. The launch order was repeated.
At this stage one of the officers commanding a launch crew (whose four missiles all had Soviet targets) ordered his crew to proceed with missile launch. Captain Bassett ordered the other launch officer of that crew there to stop the launch, by force if necessary. He contained the senior officer MOC and asked for either a change to DEFCON1 (and authority to launch the missiles) or a stand-down order.
The suddenly very stressed voice of a USAF major ordered a stand-down. World War Three didn't start and the launch crews were told never to discuss the incident.
So far the story is entirely factual, based on interviews by news media with USAF personnel at the site, though not fully verified. Exactly what went wrong that night and why the MOC ordered a launch is unknown. It was probably a mistake by an officer under stress during the international crisis, but USAF records haven't been released. Such incidents did happen during the Cold War.
One hell of a scenario seed though....
Gaming potential.
Just who'd want to start a nuclear war in 1963? And why?
Aliens? Time travellers? The image of the major repeating the launch order without a hint of stress in his voice conjures an image of someone under mind control, so maybe the Master had a hand in events.
Was there more to the plot? Were other launch sites targeted? Was this just a distraction from a bigger plan?
Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?
