First Strike (Part 1)

[@Bbendfender]

I went through something like this in 1973 while on duty at a Titan II ICBM site outside Wichita, KS. All of the our Strategic forces went to high alert. This was not known by the public until about 30 years later. We were just minutes from our first launch "window". The Russians had launched 2 of their ICBM's from their operational sites and didn't give the US any warning. Our radar calculated impact point of western US. We couldn't wait to see where they might impact. Luckily, the US was able to contact Russia and found out the missiles were test launches and the payload was two satellites I will never forget that day as long as it live. It was very traumatic to all of the missile forces.

[@Bbendfender]

@@ronaldlavender1137 Yes, I was in the 381st Strategic Missile Wing, 532nd Strategic Missile Squadron. I pulled most of my alerts at 2-3 sites that were west and a little south of Wichita. It's been a long time but I remember a lot of stuff from those days. I've heard Wm. Perry speak on nuclear war. I think he suspects it will happen. That is the reason he lives in Mexico now.

[@janelllonga1898]

I lived in Wichita when this happened. I would have been 5. I remember the missile sites, most of them aren’t there anymore, thanks to various treaties. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s made our world safer. Especially now with Putin using them as blackmail. I still fear we’re going to have to learn our lesson the hard way.

[@janelllonga1898]

@@ronaldlavender1137 Actually there would have been survivors. Many of the buildings on campus have fall out shelters in the basement and many still have supplies in them. Or at least they did when I was there in the late 80’s. And Lawrence nor Kansas City would have been targeted, but Wichita and Topeka were. The silos were more in the middle of the state, the issue would really be radiation and the effects from an air blast. But, yes, practically everything between Lincoln and Oklahoma City would have been gone.

[@2cthetruth]

US response time is slow. Also, none of our subs are armed with ICBM's, just intermediate range. Most all of our subs are at port at any given time and are sitting ducks. Russia can launch from port. Also, they are gutting our military with all this woke shit. It's amazing that we haven't been attacked yet!

[@robinhodson9890]

The inverse scenario is possible too, ie Russia declares a satellite launch, but it's an attack. There was a film made which extended that to an actual satellite launch, but the satellite contained an EPM nuke. A serious EPM-only attack could kill as many people as a nuclear war, by effectively destroying the food/fuel supply network modern countries depend upon.

[@mikecimerian6913]

This was used in the movie The Day After.

[@snidelywhiplash]

It was also used in a CBS News report called "The Defense of The United States" in 1981.

[@jlscott64]

I remember. The Day After made me a believer in maintaining a strong deterrent force.

[@iandezur4043]

Mike Cimerian "This was used in the movie The Day After." Yep, the guys in the silo capsule were called "Boyle" and "Starr," and they successfully fire the missile. Those are the ones that the silo crew are talking about "being 60 feet down behind an 8-ton steel door," and they say that a direct hit will still take them out.

[@darrelldarrell1447]

It's actually from many different movies and war games was one as well.

[@mickeygarlock4611]

And about 3 others.

[@lancelot1953]

These attack scenarios and exercises were unbelievably stressful, you never knew if it was the real thing or not - I am speaking from the Navy side, I am sure that the other branches had it as bad! Thank you for posting, thank you to all members of the our Armed Forces for their dedication and service, Ciao, L (a Veteran)

[@davidhoffman5789]

easystreets70 , SOP(Standard Operational Procedure) is to have designated and advanced announcement of areas of the sea for war games by any nation. Ballistic missile tests are specifically announced so as to preclude misinterpretation. The notice may be short, but it is there. Nobody tests missiles with real nuclear warheads since the Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban treaty went into effect decades ago. Putin knows this.

[@lancelot1953]

easystreets70 Hi Easystreets70, you do bring a good point; just like David Hoffman said, in the US Navy or NATO exercises that I have participated in, we had very strict rules of "the game" so as not to create confusion or misinterpretation on the part of the Soviet Union forces. As far as I know, while I was on active duty, they (CCCP) did the same (i.e. warning us of a future exercise). We (and they) would then send "observers" obvious or not, to see what they (or we) were doing. Civilian authorities were also notified when it involved airspace that bordered civil air routes and navigation routes (i.e. the entire area is "swept clear" throughout the exercise(s)). For the importance of these warnings, look up LCOL Stanislav Petrov's story when he found himself as the first link in chain that could have let to total nuclear annihilation. May Peace be with you (and us), Ciao, L

[@davidhoffman5789]

easystreets70, Putin says things in public to please his support base that can gather in the public square. The reality is often somewhat different. His complaints about what type of missile is being tested are illogical. Putin knows full well that almost any type of short, medium, or long range missile can now be fitted with some sort of nuclear weapon due to weapon subsystem miniaturization. His own background in the old USSR government means he knows of the suitcase sized nuclear weapons that the USSR created decades ago. With more advanced miniaturization, those same weapons yields would be in even smaller sized packages.with total volumes of no more than 100 liters or 0.1 cubic meter. If Putin is making such complaints he is doing it for public perception politics and not because he is being denied some needed information from the USA or NATO.

[@lancelot1953]

***** Hi Mike, actually, on the unclassified side, the US has produced atomic weapons around 20 kg (unreflected critical Pu critical mass ~ 10.5 kg). I think that the reactive part of the W54 155 shell got down to ~23 kg (published). This would provide "low yield" detonations but would be extremely radiation-contaminating since a lot of the material would not react (i.e. fission) and would irradiate a sizable area. The idea (at the time) was that such weapon could be used by a two-man team providing "dial-a-yield" effects of 10 to ~ 200 tons of TNT, excellent for terrorist use because of the contamination. All you would need is to add U-235 or U-238 around the core to increase the lethality of the "gadget". Hope it helps (no pun intended), Ciao, L (retired military)

[@lancelot1953]

easystreets70 Hi EasyStreets70, since Hitler had almost absolute control over Germany socio-economic-military direction and production, he did not have the education, the foresight, and perhaps most of all, the openness of mind (like leaving war planning to the professional military) to consider an atomic weapon. Remember, it took nearly three (3) years for the Manhattan project to go full steam ahead (Jan 1942, following the historical Einstein-Szilárd letter warning (Aug 1939) President Roosevelt about the possibility of Germany making such weapon. The concept of fission were known from most theoretical physicists following the publication of Hahn/Meitner/Strassmann fist successful uranium fission experiments (Jan 1939) but Germany did not have the money, resources, and scientists to undertake such project. The concept may look easy to grasp on paper but it is the practical engineering, calculations, chemical separation, physical obstacles, etc. that are just staggering even with today's technology; it was not even within reach of German scientists and industries by 1945. Hitler let his county and its citizens be completely, hopelessly destroyed before cowardly committing suicide. Hitler was an infantryman in WW I and had a small (restricted) view of the battlefield. He neglected his Kriegsmarine and his Luftwaffe, he was thinking in terms of land battles, territorial conquests, and ideological priorities; he did not have the knowledge, the experience, nor the "openness" to view let alone wage total war on a intercontinental scale. Hope it clarifies my comments, Ciao, L

[@rf200774]

At 05:35 when the call for the bomber crews to go to their aircraft goes off it was no joke. My dad was stationed at Wurtsmith AFB in Michigan and we dealt with those type of alerts all the time. Blue lights lit up and sirens would go off on post and all you would see is everyone getting off the roads so the crews could get to the flight line as quickly as humanly possible. Watching the entire fleet of B52's take off all within seconds of each other was quite a sight to see.

[@josephcontreras8930]

Do they really call the command plane Alice or the looking glass plane?? And do they call the secondary air force one plane E-4?? Like they've done in by dawns early light movie(a great movie)

[@matthewlivermanne4441]

It's an awesome sight, I am sure.

[@voin5371]

@@martinnuman1097 Because believe it or not, jet engines are very loud and when your based in the middle of a busy runway, it can make flight operations complicated, its why airports don't have ships and waiting zones in the middle of the runway and all the docking platforms are either outstretched in arms or enwrap the airport itself, allowing for a quicker deployment.

[@grahammaguire404]

Hi know exactly where you are coming from, I live between the 2 Largest Air fields that were home to the British nuclear bombers and the munitions site that made a certain type of nuclear missile as well. From the mid 60's when I knew what was our friendly but deadly neighbours to life was often on hold when the Attack warning Siren blasted out its message of take cover and be prepared for anything. Meanwhile the UK Nuclear Bombers were airborne remarkably rapidly and fully loaded with nuclear weapons to, more often than not up to 20 aircraft could be scrambled and they sometimes flew over our home and the sight, sound, vibration and aviation fuel vapour was intoxicating daytime and night time, thank the sweet lord the worst case scenario never occurred but if it did..... You wouldn't be reading this!!!

[@user-fz2ul7wl2d]

Read some of Tom Clancys books, very real, very dangerous. Without warning is one of my favorites. Day. X is coming

[@tomp8094]

I was actually on crew when this documentary was made. I spent 5 years as a Minuteman II nuclear certified Combat Crew Member. We constantly trained, constantly exercised and were constantly evaluated on our ability to carry out our wartime mission of launching our ICBMs if an execution order was received.

[@amkrause2004]

I am LT KRAUSE ! People without clearance and knowledge----I love thier bullshit comments.

[@insideoutsideupsidedown2218]

kudos to you for calling your girlfriend from the silo.....wait, you could do that??

[@chickenfriedsteak2475]

Tom P bullshit

[@twistedneck]

Seriously.. should we believe Chickenfried Steak or Tom P? I'm just sayin by the name convention only its like Chickenfriend.. I mean dood if we were talking about a southern tasty restaurant i'd say you were for sure the credible party but in this case i'm going with Tom P and Anthony Krause. And to Tom P and Anthony Krause, thanks for your service boys - God Bless America.

[@MarcosLopez-yz2wr]

Another HOOAH for the Pershing guys & gals. Guess after all these years, you can chatter about this now

[@ElectoneGuy]

This is a pretty optimistic result for the Russians. 96% of the ICBM force destroyed in their silos, 93% of the bombers destroyed on the ground and the most ridiculous outcome is that the majority of the US strategic submarine force has been wiped out. I don' think so...

[@PointReflex]

Just like another Pearl Harbor...

[@deltadromeuss]

Audioquest56 I agree with you, this dramatization is definitely not realistic, but after all it was made by the Air Force in order to convince whoever would watch it that it was absolutely necessary to immediately increase the defense spending in order to avoid the events depicted here from ever happening.

[@imreloadin]

Marco Tanghetti Nothing like some good ol' fearmongering propaganda to increase job security.

[@deltadromeuss]

Not So Pro Gamer Yeah, it usually works pretty well.

[@randy109]

Audioquest56 Back in the 1950's and 60's both sides knew that a large percentage of their missiles wouldn't fly right and a large percentage of warheads wouldn't detonate correctly. You still see a fair amount of Rocket and Missile tests fail and this is 2015! Remember when we Test a missile right now we fly in experts and engineers from all over the country and still have regular failures. Imagine two kids in a hole in the ground in Montana turning the keys on a missile that has been setting in the hole in the ground since 1967. Do you really believe even half will fly right, hit their target AND detonate an extremely complex thermonuclear warhead? Main reason the USA nor the Soviet Union tried a massive First Strike was it would be quite embarrassing if half your weapons didn't function as advertised. NO First Strike could have disabled even a third of your enemies weapons and if Luck was against you the retribution could be massive. Just think about two bored kids in a hole, sixty feet under the cornfield turning keys on electronics and hardware that was made the year their dads were born. Would YOU Trust the Technology with YOUR Life? Neither side ever did, Thank God...

[@Ben-bb7mi]

I love how this footage of the silo was used in "The Day After"

[@TheSemperac]

no this film was used in the day after

[@jerrymander8020]

I know I saw part of this doc on The Day After.

[@DrLoverLover]

Why do you love that?

[@billyponsonby]

This film 1979. The Day After 1983.

[@purefreedom282]

​@@billyponsonbybut some scenes of this documentary were used in the day after, actually many of them

[@jamesritchie1594]

As a SAC Controller in the 1980s this definitely brings back memories.

[@jennymillbank]

8:44 I felt so bad for that missileer. He seemed so excited about his date at The Hacienda. Poor guy.

[@scootertooter6874]

Well hell...we're expendable...don't worry. Plus, from what I've heard, the food at the Hacienda sucked.

[@iandezur4043]

Well don't worry, I'm pretty sure she didn't show... something "came up."

[@lupahole]

He might even let her treat :P

[@ronaldlavender9657]

He's a single young man in fucking North Dakota! How do you think he's going to sound about a date?

[@ronaldlavender9657]

@@iandezur4043 😀😀😀😀😀😀

[@lard_lad_AU]

6:54 impressive how quickly these B-52 crews could scramble. The numerous ICBMs inbound must have been very motivating.

[@Dickusification]

They would probably not even know how many or even if it was an exercise

[@californiaslastgasp6847]

SBLMs, and the alert crews didn't know anything. When the klaxon horn rings, they didn't know if it was real or an exercise until they were taxing down the runway.

[@guyazbell7844]

Yea really makes one's scrotum itch!

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

The time between first launch detection (of the SLMBs) and detonations on every base west of Dakota and east of Michigan would be 6-10 minutes. That’s not enough time for the president to receive notice, decide to authorize the SIOP, send orders out to alert aircraft, have the crews scramble, start up the engines, taxi to the runway, take off, and then get enough distance between them and the base such that they aren’t blown out of the sky by the blasts. I suggest watching the film By Dawn’s Early Light to see how even a B-52 that did make it far enough from Fairchild in time still suffered a casualty due to the shockwave. I highly doubt many B-52s would clear the blast radius in time. A Russian first strike right now in 2021 would almost certainly guarantee the world was ruled by Russia forever after. TLDR: if a nuclear war is going to happen, just make sure to be the one to fire first. 🦅

[@charliewerchan7252]

@@SuperpowerBroadcasting I agree with most of your statement, I however disagree with the statement a Russian first strike now would guarantee the world ruled by Russia....the idiots can't even run there own country correctly, and you think they can rule a world....I totally disagree....Just a thougth

[@JosephRajewskiWIII]

I love these Cold War documentaries.

[@gamer55551]

Same here

[@timothyhouse1622]

@@rexluther9721 Yep, it was nothing but pure BS propaganda.

[@stacylockhart9684]

Were still in the Cold War.

[@NotNykoh]

Stacy Lockhart with China and Russia I presume?

[@danedgar1539]

Same here!

[@carbondragon]

As a former member of the USAF, and having lived with my Dad, a Lt.Col in SAC, and having been stationed at NORAD, this is vanishingly unlikely. The missiles would be gone before the first missile ever hit the US.

[@californiaslastgasp6847]

What was the SLBM fly time from the pacific coast to targets? How long did detection take? How long from detection to orders to turn the key? Minutes count here.

[@NeverTalkToCops1]

So what? The most likely scenario today is an accidental nuclear detonation, many consider this inevitable.

[@carbondragon]

@@NeverTalkToCops1 It's really a matter of how the system works and how people are trained.

[@max8286]

@@carbondragon yes and I don´t believe the small number of surviving subs. 18 Ohios in service, let´s assume half of them permanently on sea. 8 warheads on each of 24Tridents makes about 1700 impacts on enemy soil. This would be alone enough to vaporize every major city.

[@oldtimerf7602]

Indeed. Not to mention that now we have anti ballistic missile defenses.

[@chigozienwachukwu4786]

When I first watched this intro years ago, it sent a chill through my spine.

[@scootertooter6874]

Yes, but the LEFTISTs back then assured us that the commies were our "friends"...kind of like today...

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

@@scootertooter6874 And now it’s the populist conservatives trying to tell us the Russians are our “friends.” Look at Comrade Carlson on Fox News.

[@FylthyBeest]

I had the pleasure of flying with him a few times in the very early 80s. He was a no-nonsense, stoic, and serious leader. This was very typical of SAC General Officers, particularly from that time period. He was a good man. I never once heard anyone complain about him. Very fair and extremely smart.

[@chrislochner4038]

"Well, boys, I reckon this is it - nuclear combat toe to toe with the Roosskies."- Major T. J. "King" Kong.

[@MrScottbot101]

I’m sure everyone depicted here got some awards and personal citations, regardless of their race, their color or their creed.

[@carbonunit2012]

Major Kong: "Goldie, did you say Wing Attack Plan R?" "How many times have I told you I dont want no horsin' around on this airplane?"

[@WednesdayAddamsMW]

"Major Kong, is it possible this is some kind of loyalty test? Y'know, give the go-code, then recall, to see who would actually go?"

[@General.Longstreet]

Fantastic movie!

[@starguy2718]

At this height, they might harpoon us, but they dang sure ain't gonna pick us up on no radar screen.

[@CanadianPrepper]

Well acted and terrifying

[@colinmainwaring9471]

Damn right, CD.

[@TS-ef2gv]

That's one of the things that made this documentary so effective. The use of actual military people who knew their jobs and weren't playing "dress up and pretend" gave it realistic feeling that no Hollywood production could ever hope to match. These were AF and Navy people doing what they had trained for and rehearsed many times over, and their proficiency is obvious.

[@DustyGamma]

@@TS-ef2gv You hit the nail on the head. Even an actor trained by these fellows, wouldn't fully embody their lackadaisical nature, then immediate tonal shift to stiff duty.

[@stewartmackay]

Many of the people in this film were real personell, not just actors.

[@Three_Random_Words]

@@stewartmackay duh

[@encinobalboa]

Modern movie directors should watch this sequence. It has tension, realism, and is believable.

[@Nighthawke70]

It was real as it got. They ran actual training tapes, instructed to ignore the film crews and go through the exercises as if it were real.

[@seanbumstead1250]

​@@Nighthawke70some of this is stolen footage from a movie

[@d23g32]

@@seanbumstead1250 Unless you think they could have "stolen" footage from a movie which wouldn't be made until five years in the future, you have it backwards. In reality, as has already been discussed numerous times in these comments, the movie you're referring to is "The Day After" from 1983. The movie used footage from this documentary, which was filmed five years before in 1978, and released in '79. Instead of spreading false information, read and educate yourself. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Strike_(1979_film)

[@metalhd4life]

My only wish for today, tomorrow, and for the days following my life's passing is for humanity to never reach this point.

[@theeagleman9407]

The Huminity and the Animals walk toward this Point

[@maryshaffer8474]

The creators of these weapons are already in their reward- the grave.

[@RT-qd8yl]

I hope to see it happen on the very last day of my natural life. Live a long, fulfilling life, then once I'm done and about to die naturally anyway, what better way to go than to watch the annihilation of human civilization as we know it? Plus, I just wanna see a nuclear explosion IRL.

[@Zoomer30]

Don't know what was worse about the 80s: The threat of nuclear annihilation or Tab cola (yeeesh, vile concoction)

[@afitz34]

+Zoomer30 It was awful!

[@Zoomer30]

Sweetened with Saccharin. The Boomerang effect was vile (defines "aftertaste")

[@Zoomer30]

talesin- god of the internet I could have asked the USSR: Do you want flaming death or Tab Cola?

[@moonlitphantasm]

That's like choosing a fully loaded revolver for a round of Russian Roulette or a Tab. At least with the gun there is the remote possibility of a round having a bad primer.

[@PlasmaCoolantLeak]

+Zoomer30 And don't forget that abomination unto God and man, New Coke...

[@deaustin4018]

I lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis - now I'm still alive and have to live through it all over again - not fair.

[@baahcusegamer4530]

Time will tell. Hang in there brother.

[@slaff632]

What about the 1983 crisis,Reagan-Andropov?🤔

[@johnleidle9910]

I lived through October 1962 I talked briefly of it when my oldest boy reached adulthood his comment was " all a bluff there was not chance of an exchange" I wonder if he thinks the same today ?

[@chubbymoth5810]

Cheer up! Maybe you get to see the end of humanity after all.

[@FylthyBeest]

For that time period, yes. For many years a large portion of SAC's bombers and tankers "stood" hard ground alert. Crews generally rotated on week-long tours and resided in hardened/semi-hardened alert facilities adjacent to the alert force parking area. Facilities within an adequate response radius were equipped with Klaxons so the crews could respond in alert force vehicles, driving directly to the alert aircraft. Ground alert was terminated in 1991, after the collapse of the USSR.

[@AnthonyTolhurst-dw1nc]

Bet it’s back now . . .

[@danelder6846]

​@@AnthonyTolhurst-dw1nc No, it's not.

[@dsalbert3]

This was shown to our class at Air Force Officer Training School in the 80s. Definitely an attention getter. My first assignment was at March AFB which is shown where the bombers are alerted and taking off. By the time I got there the bomber wing was gone and replaced by refueling aircraft KC-10s and KC-135s. This was really nicely done.

[@Nighthawke70]

The Day After sobered a lot of folks up. And that movie was based on the BEST-CASE scenario. Topeka Municipal Airport, Manhattan KS, Kansas City, Sedan, Burlington, Parsons, Joplin, Neosho, St Charles, Whiteman AFB, plus the silos that remain or are perceived to still be there from bad intel or just simple assumption. All along the Kansas-Missouri state line, nothing would have remained.

[@d23g32]

I was at March when this doc was made and was an instructor in '81 - '82 before we sent our D's to D-M and became an all tanker wing. I got a copy of it and typically showed it to my students on Day 1 as a motivator and a "why we're here" reminder, and to stimulate discussion. It seemed to do the job.

[@daviddietrich9449]

Thank you for the insight on this. A scenario like that, I think, would be the most terrifying. I remember a line from The Day After when the maintenance techs were heading back to a silo to get a chopper after the missiles went of: "You know what that means, don't you? Either we fired first and they're going to try to hit what's left, or they fired first and we just got our missiles out of the ground in time. Either way, we're going to get hit." That about sums it up.

[@decimated550]

thousands of those men would die, killed instantly or trapped in rubble of their silo shelters over long days, not knowing what started it, what the outcome was, the status of their families...nothing

[@scottstrang1583]

And being forced to let ones family die alone is the most horrifying. I'd rather risk court marshal and be with them than let them die alone. That's the way it is.

[@rjr6274]

@@scottstrang1583 I would do the same. And I don't expect to be court marshalled after that, because the mess that would install on the military there would be other priorities and even the communications would be affected so that my desertion could be never actually known.

[@heywoodfloyd9]

Yes because movies = real life. Please stop.

[@JPF941]

@@heywoodfloyd9 exactly. So many security protocols in place, if you were near a nuclear weapon, if we were shooting the lockdown would make it impossible to get away. Really think you could get to your family in 14 minutes? Fantasy.

[@Ben-bb7mi]

The problem with this scenario is that the Boomer fleet would have enough for a 2nd strike. We had 41 SSBNs that the Soviets could not track, of which any 25-30 of them would be out to sea at any given time with the blue/gold rotation. with 160 warheads per boat (16 missiles at 10x MIRVs per Poseidon missile). That's several thousand warheads still available for a 2nd strike as there is no realistic scenario where the Soviets can kill the US boomers at sea in a preemptive strike.

[@stevefisher8323]

Absolutely true.

[@rd264]

dont buy the techno macho hoopla. stop regurgitating.

[@bulgingbattery2050]

Yes, the submarine fleet makes a 1st strike scenario impossible.

[@09rja]

This scenario has 17 of them destroyed in port and more (presumably) destroyed at sea. So that really cuts down on those numbers.

[@Ben-bb7mi]

@@09rja Patrol patterns would ensure that at least 25 are out at sea and the idea of the Soviets being able to preemptively destroy boomers at sea is laughable given how far ahead the US was in submarine stealth.

[@Silavite]

8:30 I love how it says "GENTLY" above the keyhole.

[@amkrause2004]

+Silavite Too many people would break the keys off or jam them in the keyholes.

[@BenInSWMO]

+Anthony Krause Couldn't help but notice the DMCCC was Lt. Krause.......if you're the same man, I want to thank you for your service! Those Officers in the MCC had the chance to do something I've always wanted to....but never had the opportunity to. I always wondered about the "Gently" label too.

[@amkrause2004]

I am not the guy from the film. But he is my father though. He loved his time in SAC he always talks about it.

[@tanit]

+Anthony Krause He was an actual SAC officer at the time of this film? I am also a Krause :) from NY.

[@amkrause2004]

correct he was an actual SAC officer. The film shows all real military people. According to our family tree we moved from New York sometime at the turn of the century (1900s) and ended up in Green Bay WI. from there to Mississippi after world war 2

[@alswann2702]

Mutually assured destruction was a stunning success. We're all alive and FREE to leave comments here!

[@josephcontreras8930]

Thank you all for your hard work and diligence. Ultimately we want you on that wall we need you on that wall so I thank you and I'll rest easy knowing that, because nothing going to hurt us today not on their watch...

[@llamallama1509]

Not having nuclear weapons in the world was a stunning success too

[@sethkimmel7312]

@@llamallama1509 ask the Imperial Japanese Empire that question....

[@llamallama1509]

@@sethkimmel7312 Okay, gimmie a sec, brb...

[@2259r3z]

Ironically, on the US DoD ARPANET, which was originally designed as a communication system with packets and nodes, and thus able to survive a nuke attack.

[@canislupis3129]

My dad served in the Canadian Air Force and during the missile crisis of Cuba in 62 with president Kennedy, my dad and the whole base was on high alert. He couldn’t leave the base at all. I remember my mom talking to him and she was scared. I’m told, and I do believe it:we had Canadian planes with nukes from America on them ready to go.

[@dyveira]

Yes, Diefenbaker briefly consented to having American BOMARC missiles stationed on Canadian territory.

[@flipwilson9360]

yes .... Canadian jets had Genie - air to air missiles armed with low kiloton nukes supplied by the u.s. I believe Canada has since returned them to the u.s. .. also second in command at NORAD is a Canadian general

[@smokeytmacgowan]

This Scenario seems implausible. Its an Air force centric view of our nuclear deterrent. Even if a surprise russian boomer attacker wiped out our SAC bombers and Minuteman silos our nuclear subs on war patrol most likely at this time period the George Washington Class carried 16 Polaris A3 SLBMs each. Just one surviving boat could devastate the USSR. This seems more like a video made to scare congress into releasing more funding. It was common during the cold war for the Military to vastly over estimate the Soviet military equipment. A good example is the MiG-25 and the resultant FX fighter program that built the F-15, Intelligence thought the MiG-25 was a super fighter. At this time frame Russian submarines were still 2-3 orders of magnitude louder than US subs. I'd seriously doubt so many could get into firing position and hit us.

[@Elthenar]

That was the part that got me. "Somehow most of our boomers were destroyed at sea" That is unlikely, our subs were far better than the things they would use to find and kill them. We also had patrols of B-52's in the air at all times. Plus, we all had nuclear armed cruise missiles by the early 80's, meaning our surface ships were capable of flattening cities.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

It was implied the Russians sunk the boomers before they struck the mainland. The Kremlin decided a few hundred warheads from surviving US subs was a good deal to destroy America and win the world forever more. The time between first launch detection (of the SLMBs) and detonations on every base west of Dakota and east of Michigan would be 6-10 minutes. That’s not enough time for the president to receive notice, decide to authorize the SIOP, send orders out to alert aircraft, have the crews scramble, start up the engines, taxi to the runway, take off, and then get enough distance between them and the base such that they aren’t blown out of the sky by the blasts. I suggest watching the film By Dawn’s Early Light to see how even a B-52 that did make it far enough from Fairchild in time still suffered a casualty due to the shockwave. I highly doubt many B-52s would clear the blast radius in time. A Russian first strike right now in 2021 would almost certainly guarantee the world was ruled by Russia forever after. TLDR: if a nuclear war is going to happen, just make sure to be the one to fire first. 🦅

[@chrisp4190]

@@SuperpowerBroadcasting There are enough warheads based on subs to ensure mutual destruction even if we lost all silos and bombers.

[@mikecimerian6913]

This was a case for the MX missile system. A surprise attack is practically impossible nowadays. Signal analysis and satellites makes such an attack impossible. There are always circumstances leading to conflict which are completely left out in this obsolete scenario.

[@StoutProper]

Hypersonic missiles launched from a sub off the coast?

[@Spaghetter813]

@@StoutProper I believe the issue for hypersonics in their current form is low accuracy- something very important for counterforce strikes. They're also pretty rare. Regardless, the at-sea deterrent would not be affected.

[@StoutProper]

@@Spaghetter813 low accuracy? Why aren’t they accurate? In any case, nukes don’t need to be accurate

[@Spaghetter813]

@@StoutProper they do depending of the target. If you target a city you're generally right (although you might need 2 or 3 impacts with low accuracy to achieve maximum destruction) . If you want to destroy an underground nuclear missile silo you're completely wrong.

[@gnarl12]

Sub launched hypersonics with megaton or high kiloton warheads would perform decapitation strikes extremely well.

[@FylthyBeest]

Not many people living witnessed the exercises involving readying Atlas missiles for launch. I certainly never saw this. You saw a huge part of Cold War history that not many have seen. The Atlas D, E, and F, and the Titan I were the only ICBMs that had to be raised/elevated to an above-ground launch position. Because of this, doing so was exercised periodically and some, such as yourself, were able to watch. Fascinating. You saw something that most of us only saw on film.

[@GenPatton0043]

Absolutely a great read. Even though that era was before my time, those days of the Cold War are very intriguing. I actually often took a "good ribbing" from guys in my platoon. We were in Iraq from early '04-'05 and I spend a lot of my free time reading similar books from that time period.

[@bretwhitmore8855]

If you should ever find yourself in western South Dakota and would like a personally-guided tour of a genuine Minuteman II ICBM site that I guarded more than once in the early 1980s (now under the stewardship of the National Park Service), feel free to give me a shout-out. I was a young punk 20-something when I did that work but it was "The Best Job I Ever Had" if you understand the reference. Even 40 years later I could do that job blindfolded. As some have said before me, "It was the only time anything I ever did really mattered." And they were damned right.

[@russvoight1167]

The general officer coming aboard the EC-135 was Brigadier General Clarence Autrey. He had been the 28th Bomb Wing commander when I was at Ellsworth AFB, SD. While stationed there, he was one of 2 wing commanders who arrived as colonels and left as brigadier generals

[@halb37]

I also served with Gen Autrey...he was my ops officer and later sq commander at Zweibrucken in 1972, flying RF-4Cs. I flew with him many times. He went by his middle name, Reuben, but close friends called him "Gene". I recall he even had a name tag with Gene Autrey on it. He was destined for greatness and rose in ranks when returning to SAC. In these scenes he is not acting...as a BGen he actually served in the flying Command Post out of Offutt. His combat tours were RB-66s out of Tahkli and RF-4s out of Udorn in the late 60s. He retired as a Major General and passed in 2010.

[@Travis1.979]

so u met him personally. Was he always calm like that seen in this doc?@@halb37

[@stevejensen3471]

My Dad was DO at EAFB from 1974-1976 and worked under Col Jim Light as 28th BW Comm. Light went on to become a Lt Gen and head of 15th AF.

[@russvoight1167]

​@@stevejensen3471I was at Ellsworth AFB from August 1976 to December 1979. What is your Dad's name? I was assigned to the 28th FMS welding shop

[@stevejensen3471]

@@russvoight1167 Col Joe Hunt

[@hub5343]

I grew up on air force bases in the 80's, and now in 2022 every now and then I come back to this video to remind myself that there is still danger, still the threat of imminent death for everyone, and there is much work to do in the world along with constant effort and vigilance to not let this dominate our lives. The scene at 2:30 is particularly poignant - where a ghastly machine of human genius that lurks in the dark has the power to end all meaningful life. The only real solution is universal worldwide disarmament to zero nuclear weapons - coupled with both constant open intelligence surveillance and then open and immediate controlled manufacture again if an aggressive nation begins to create one where all other conventional means are exhausted for any rogue nuclear threat. There is no place nor time in the world where these ghastly weapons should exist at all. Constant vigilance is the price we must all pay then to keep total collapse at bay.

[@c0xb0x]

It always amazed me that not a single high-value movie or TV-series was made about WW3 (not necessarily nuclear war). Practically unexplored space in non-written media and so much material.

[@bamagrad99]

I’ve seen clips from this a dozen times in ‘The Day After.’ I never knew the video was originally a Pentagon produced infomercial for a new missile they wanted 🤣

[@BarberJ95]

This is so good tbh. For for once though the Pentagon didn’t get something lmao. That silo concept was kinda cool though lol.

[@looneyburgmusic]

​@@BarberJ95 And totally worthless - the Soviets would have simply targeted every potential site with at least a few warheads, then stringed some more along the missile transit routes for good measure. Wouldn't have been hard for them at all when they had thousands and thousands of nukes to play with...

[@w.c.d4892]

At all times there are missile submarines in the Pacific and Atlantic covering a specific target package. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the only thing that gave Khrushchev hesitation about launching was knowing it would be impossible to know where those subs were hiding.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

I wish there were more US ones. 3.5% of GDP on defense today when we have 2 (TWO!) cold wars is insufficient. I support spending $2 trillion or more per year on defense.

[@looneyburgmusic]

Where do you people get this misinformation from? Durning the Cuban crisis the Soviets never had any intention of attacking the US. The thought never occurred to them. They only placed those missiles in Cuba as a counter to US missiles in Turkey. Where the Soviet Union's leadership miscalculated was with how they thought Washington would react - they figured that the US would simply negotiate to remove both sets, from Turkey and Cuba, not that US leadership would basically panic, and the US Military would try to start WWIII.

[@rd264]

​@@looneyburgmusic VERY FEW people anywhere have learned the most important lesson that JFK learned in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[@GrnArrow092]

Scenes from this video were used in the making of the 1983 TV movie The Day After.

[@jackhartford521]

GrnArrow092 I thought I recognized some of those scenes!

[@robertbenoit5374]

yep. I recognize some of them

[@tredis36]

GrnArrow092 pretty good movie too

[@SiegfriedDeniz]

yes! I have it here on dvd

[@Trump145]

I saw that film in high school

[@mattsieluv]

I like how the B52 stays low to the ground when it takes off. That's what they did in alerts, and when practicing for them. The planes would want to put as much distance as possible from their bases before they'd get hit. So, when they departed on an alert, they'd go fast but climb at a shallow angle. They still do that today, but no longer take-off at 15-second intervals. Check out the clip here from Minot for a good example.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

Even still, the time between first launch detection (of the SLMBs) and detonations on every base west of Dakota and east of Michigan would be 6-10 minutes. That’s not enough time for the president to receive notice, decide to authorize the SIOP, send orders out to alert aircraft, have the crews scramble, start up the engines, taxi to the runway, take off, and then get enough distance between them and the base such that they aren’t blown out of the sky by the blasts. I suggest watching the film By Dawn’s Early Light to see how even a B-52 that did make it far enough from Fairchild in time still suffered a casualty due to the shockwave. I highly doubt many B-52s would clear the blast radius in time. A Russian first strike right now in 2021 would almost certainly guarantee the world was ruled by Russia forever after. TLDR: if a nuclear war is going to happen, just make sure to be the one to fire first. 🦅

[@drunkrumjack]

@@SuperpowerBroadcasting There' s no way the US or NATO would agree to come to terms with any country that did this to them, and the birds would be on the way to hit them in retaliation from bases, stealth platforms, subs or mobile launchers they and certainly not we don't even know about worldwide. Only a fanatic who doesn't give a crap about what happens after would do this. The scary thing about the By Dawn’s Early Light film's scenario is that one false flag missile framing NATO Turkey is launched on Donestk, Ukraine (part of the Soviets back then) essentially the current war zone that starts nuclear exchanges between the superpowers including China who in that movie have a treaty with the US but now in reality would likely target us. Also the toxins in addition to radiation emitted in the air from destroyed chemical/oil/nuclear facilities would not be contained to just CONUS but go worldwide ensuring the madness that even if Russia hit whoever hard they'll rule alright --over a poisonous realm slowly killing themselves too.

[@rontate7719]

@@SuperpowerBroadcasting 2022 ,,and link up with chicomms and or norks, Kind of spooky.. What with the chicom underground great wall,the russian dead hand system and posiden torpedos... 10.18.2022

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

@@rontate7719 Fortunately, Russia is too bogged down in Ukraine to be a threat to us currently

[@d23g32]

@@SuperpowerBroadcasting It has nothing to do with alerts or practicing for them. The nose low climb out is typical with B-52s due to the way the wings are mounted to the fuselage (high incidence) and its unique quadricycle main gear. Also, like all B-52s from the A - G models (the H models got non water injected TF33 fans), the D models in this documentary had water injected J57 turbojets and were not exactly overpowered or known for their breathtaking acceleration down the runway. Hence the 12k - 13k foot SAC runways, which they tended to use most of especially when heavy and/or operating in high ambient temps. Get off the ground, pull the gear up, pick up some airspeed, then claw for altitude. In SAC we used to say, the Air Force paid for every foot of that runway, so we're gonna use it. 😄

[@coolcat6303]

At first I thought i was watching an extended version of the 80's tv movie "The Day After". I noticed several of these scenes were used in that film.

[@StinkFingerr]

Yes, this was the episode where they were in another film.

[@AnonAnonAnon]

I took part in a military exercise in West Berlin in the 1980s, Exercise Rocking Horse (as in a Russian attack is more likely than 'rocking horse shit', or something like that). Two days into the exercise a nuclear weapon was 'detonated' above West Berlin. At that point, we 'lost comms', went into NBC state, and told not to move from our location, just defend. I can't remember how the exercise ended. I believe that instead of invading West Berlin, Warsaw Pact forces just left the city as a dying contaminated waste land, enclosed by a wall and fence.

[@Reebus_]

Ah the vehicles driving around at some random hour blaring out " alert alert exercise rocking horse" was 10 years old at the time and didn't really get it :)

[@FylthyBeest]

Hi, Chris. Both Klaxon alerts were crucial. The actual Klaxon devices/horns were installed at locations allowed to be visited by the Alert Force during normal alert, BX, gymnasium, etc. The exception was the chapel where a very visible "Alert" light was intalled. The voice Klaxon Advisory ("For Alert Force, For Alert Force, Klaxon, Klaxon, Klaxon") was also used and, in many instances, more important. The former could be activated by the unit and fixed headquarters command post/centers.

[@tybo09]

There was a large industrial park near my grandmother's that must have been similar to a target somewhere in the USSR. My cousins and I used to climb the hill and watch B-52's come over the top of the hill, dive into the valley and make practice runs on the industrial park. They were, at most, about 150 feet over our heads on top of the hill... Very cool. so glad they never had to do more than practice.

[@marstuv5068]

You KNOW it!!! 😮😢😅😂

[@TokraOperative]

"Here's the launch key...no wait that's my car key. Hold on...Ah here it...oh no that's my house key. Umm...no that's my locker key. Where's the blasted thing. Got it! No that's just a paperclip. Perfect just perfect. No wait, yes here it is..." *Bright flash and BOOM!*

[@frankdenardo8684]

THAT'S ALL FOLKS

[@ArmyJames]

General: “Do you have your key?” Colonel: “Oh shit, I left it on the nightstand this morning!”

[@stevt100]

I thought the same thing

[@nigelmorse3909]

I was wondering what would happen if an officer forgot his key - game over?

[@valiantthor6930]

at 6:18 "do you have your key?" "No sir I left it at home"

[@DavidSmith-hp7li]

I sold it for crack sir!

[@rprince418]

"Fuck!"

[@ZeeboLaywicker]

ikr? you don't have your key??? wth ya gonna do now? drop and give me 20!

[@MistressGlowWorm]

Oof.

[@billhuber2964]

Dohhhhhh !!!!!!!!

[@fetengineer9151]

My father was in the USAFSS from 1954 to 1984. He was mainly in Aerial Reconnaissance for most of his career flying abroad the RB-29, RB-36, EC-121, EC-47Q, RB-52 and the EC-135, etc... I'm sure he has some great stories along with his 20,000 hours of flying time... but he refuses to tell them. But thank God for the internet... I've researched a few of his former USAFSS units.... TFA, 6908th, Det 3 - 6994th, 6913th, TUSLOG 94 etc. I was truly amazed at his work as a Russian Voice Intercept/crypto, DF operator and later a AMS onboard the EC-47Q out of NKP, Thailand.

[@rickthomas6606]

2022 now if join it might happen

[@marstuv5068]

Shame he does not (tell the stories) 😢 Would be VERY Interesting

[@Phoenixesper1]

God I'd hate to be that guy stuck in the shitter when that "get the fuck off the ground now" alarm blares through the air base.

[@bramptongora2008]

The missile alert interrupting dude's morning newspaper is so Air Force it kills me

[@FylthyBeest]

The Atlas F was a massive facility. Not just the silo was buried. There was also an extraordinarily large launch control facility and associated infrastructure underground as well. If you research articles from that period, many Americans were concerned with the expense in spite of the importance. Regardless, it was an amazing system and an extraordinary construction accomplishment.

[@SkinnyCow.]

That orange cravat the Lt missileer is wearing is the thing of greatest fear in this movie.

[@louisvarre2197]

SkinnyCow Which was usually tipped off as soon as you were underground! Lol

[@FylthyBeest]

Thank you, Chris, for defending General Autery's memory. I hope you and your family are having a great 4th of July.

[@russvoight1167]

General Autrey was the 28th Bomb Wing commander at Ellsworth AFB, SD during the time I was assigned there. He was the second wing commander in a row to make Brigadier General while at the 28th

[@yujicortez]

Was anyone else suggested this by KZbin shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

[@ricosuave9848]

This is just a movie , with a realistic idea of what we are living today and it can happens , Scary but true . Lets pray it doesn't really happens.

[@ShredSixx80s]

This invasion was long awaited ever since the 90s...

[@maxsonthonax1020]

@@ricosuave9848 Nah.

[@jdburris4455]

Ukraine was supposed to happen when hillary stole her rigged 2016 election. Thank god that dumb shit didnt happen. Commies had to wait 4 yrs to fuck 2020 with covid mail ins. Biden gets to steal election. Commies get ukrain tiwan. Deal was already made

[@martyn420]

Yes, also Protect and Survive

[@johnd.obrien6838]

It's kind of remarkable just how MUCH footage from this Nicholas Meyer used in "The Day After."

[@davidglover2023]

Should have been so much more, this is really a climatic elevation to the attack segment in the day after... holy shit, how exciting this would have been..

[@DBarns7]

I remember they used some of these documentary clips in the 1983 TV movie "The Day After". Both of these were scary 'what if' scenarios.

[@kdlofty]

Watch the BBC movie/play "Threads" by Barry Hines. Much more gritty and realistic than "The Day After". It goes to about 10 years after the nuclear war. Depicting the effects of a nuclear winter and the breakdown of society.

[@FylthyBeest]

This footage was shot specifically for the documentary you viewed, "First Strike". The same footage was later used in "The Day After".

[@jbsmith966]

1st strike would be from SLBMs launched close enough that so there would little to no time to react. That is what makes SSBNs the most scary part of the triad. Land based ICBMs or bomber planes would give plenty of time to launch a counter attack. You want the 1st strike to be as fast , short and devastating as possible. Like you just saw in the film.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

The time between first launch detection (of the SLMBs) and detonations on every base west of Dakota and east of Michigan would be 6-10 minutes. That’s not enough time for the president to receive notice, decide to authorize the SIOP, send orders out to alert aircraft, have the crews scramble, start up the engines, taxi to the runway, take off, and then get enough distance between them and the base such that they aren’t blown out of the sky by the blasts. I suggest watching the film By Dawn’s Early Light to see how even a B-52 that did make it far enough from Fairchild in time still suffered a casualty due to the shockwave. I highly doubt many B-52s would clear the blast radius in time. A Russian first strike right now in 2021 would almost certainly guarantee the world was ruled by Russia forever after. TLDR: if a nuclear war is going to happen, just make sure to be the one to fire first. 🦅

[@looneyburgmusic]

There are a lot of people commenting on this video who have no clue what they are talking about. Back in the 80's, at the height of the Cold War, both US and Soviet Nuclear Doctrine was "Launch on Warning". The response would have occurred within minutes. Even a SSBM based attack would never have worked, since the entire US ICBM force would have been gone from their silos long before any Soviet sub-launched warheads began their terminal stage. And better still, in that era, SAC maintained a large portion of the US Bomber force on 24-hour AIRBORNE alert - there never would have been so many bombers on the ground, with their engines cold. I remember back in the late 70's - early 80's, when I was younger, seeing flights of bombers flying high over our town every day it seemed, (either heading out or back to base), it was actually strange when that ceased to occur.

[@damiangonzalezlopez829]

​@@SuperpowerBroadcastingno obstante los SSBN americanos, franceses y británicos plantean la misma amenaza a Rusia, aún si esos países ya han sido arrasados: en el momento en el que estos sumergibles pierden contacto con su base y el centro de mando nacional comenzarán a cargar sus misiles (14 minutos para posición de lanzamiento) y subirán a profundidad que permita establecer fácil conexión de radio... Sabiendo que Rusia estaría a la escucha y triangularán su posición para hundirlos, los comandantes de submarino, sin una orden en contra y/o con evidencias de que su país ha sido atacado seguirán las directrices prefijadas lanzando toda su furia sobre Rusia tan pronto los SLBMs hayan acabado de cargar, para evitar ser alcanzados y destruidos. Una transmisión falsa rusa pidiendo el alto el fuego o la rendición no llegará con el código de verificación correcto. Ese primer golpe sería devastador para la nación que la sufre, pero, al mismo tiempo no estaría exenta de una represalia igual de cruenta y rápida en contra. El escenario de ésta película no es creíble.

[@FylthyBeest]

Atlas, "The Ultimate Weapon", was the first ICBM deployed. The "D" and "E" were the only horizontally deployed ICBMs. They were raised from a horizontal, stowed position to a vertical, launch position. The "D" was deployed in above ground Missile Launch and Service Buildings, protected but not really hardened, and the "E" was in a structure just below the ground surface. Both had sliding roof tops. The latter was somewhat hardened. I will continue in another post.

[@orangejoe204]

I like how the General is the one guy who's unable to conceal that it's just a drill being filmed for the cameras. Bored as can be. Everybody else is in full haul-ass mode, just like the rest of the time.

[@sce2aux464]

No, it's just that Clarence R. Autery (1933 - 2010) was one really cool dude.

[@scootertooter6874]

The REALLY sad thing is this is the shortened version...you don't get to see him in all of his uncut AEAO glory...Great film that hit the world when I was an ICBM crewmember...highly motivating...and the crazy thing is...the threat is pretty much IDENTICAL today as it was back then, but dysfunctional, highly-indoctrinated, leftist thinking has lulled the US into complacency.

[@RJM1011]

LOL :)

[@rogerhudson9732]

Haven't i seen that 'drill' used in 3 films?

[@night040]

I have not seen the full version in years. Any idea where we can get it?

[@album183]

You are right, this was put out by the Air Force and shown on most PBS stations at the time. I remember in Detroit at the time the local station also did an aftershow local talk segment talking about how Detroit was a prime target by the Soviets due to the heavy manufacturing base the region had. The intended result was to shake up some old cold war fear and have people "demand" that their Congressman/Senator approve the then stalled funding for the MX Missle and B-1 Bomber programs.

[@Frostiken]

Nowadays they wouldn't hit Detroit because it would probably improve the city to nuke it.

[@spartanpatriot3163]

Even if you factor in a 50% failure rate of Russian missiles that's still 10 warheads for each state.

[@tocoyopaco2278]

Beautiful. I love seeing movies like this. They must make the youth of today watch movies like this so they can feel what we felt back in the good old days.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

Yeah. Most people my age don’t even think about nuclear warfare

[@SquidkidMega]

5:14……yikes, what a way to ruin a dude's saturday night

[@xChemistryFTWx]

SquidkidMega It sounded pretty lame anyways

[@damanyocum149]

Yeah, i would agree-Lt Krause sounded like he was really looking forward to some time off...oh well 😔

[@zacharyhughes7628]

hey I gotta go

[@WednesdayAddamsMW]

Stand by to copy the message.

[@danrepaci6015]

@@WednesdayAddamsMW Lt. Krause was cock blocked by a nuke

[@1991ROLEX]

Watching this, I can remember the smells of the BUFF (I was a maintenance troop on them for two years) and the accuracy of the rest of the program, having been a command post controller for 20 years. It was scary then, and still scary now.

[@scootertooter6874]

Thank you for your service.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

Thank you for your service. This could happen today, and I feel that White Flag Joe would hesitate to authorize the SIOP. Imagine he waited 5 minutes. Game over. Russia wins the world forever. Kids 10 million years from now would be living under fascism.

[@stratrat57]

423x0.....you? Castle AFB 75-79

[@1991ROLEX]

@@stratrat57 32151G, Defensive Fire Control Systems (DFCS) 22 AMW 79-81, then a 27450/1C390, for another 20 years.

[@stratrat57]

I remember troubleshooting the limit switches on those units that lowered and raised on 4 cables at the rear guns on the 52. All the rear gun electronics cooling systems......and those limit switches!

[@hundredcaws]

i love the atmosphere of this movie. including music. so nostalgic, deep and lovely. all that good people. those soldiers...

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

Check out By Dawn’s Early Light if you haven’t seen it yet

[@heywoodfloyd9]

Good people =/= soldiers

[@natowaveenjoyer9862]

​@@heywoodfloyd9Guy who would break down crying if the drill sergeant yelled at him says what?

[@marstuv5068]

​@@natowaveenjoyer9862😮😢😅😂

[@joeharton3803]

Even "IF" this scenario happened. The remaining US nuclear force ( as stated in this video) would be more than enough to redundantly target the 100 largest enemy urban areas. A simple matter of re-targeting would produce the desired result.

[@peacemaker9915]

Ah here we go...”Damn you Americans and your no defeat, no surrender policy! Now all of those Russians are sitting over there starving because you would never back down and be conquered! Damn you!” War is messy...you wanna rule the world? Gotta get through us cowboys first

[@crocodile1313]

Joe Harton-- You are correct. I think if the Soviets of the 1960's or '70s truly believed they could cause this much destruction of US nuclear forces---therefore not be vulnerable to a massive counterattack---they might have tried it. But they knew better.

[@californiaslastgasp6847]

Holy shit, Joe Harton is smarter than all the analysts and flag officers at the U.S. Department of Defense and RAND Corporation? Someone hire this man!

[@FawfulDied]

@@californiaslastgasp6847 Flag officers always want to have more money for operations. That's what this video is: a marketing spot for the US Air Force. Any time you read "produced with the cooperation of the [military branch here]" you can be sure that that's at least partially marketing for them.

[@barbapapa9741]

Didn't Director Nicolas Meyer use some scenes for his movie "The Day After"?

[@bkrjayce]

Yup. From memory, the US military pulled co-operation on the movie when it wasn't made clear to the viewing public who fired first.

[@btbucks]

barbapapa9741 Yes

[@savethedeveloper]

yes

[@amkrause2004]

YES because the AIR FORCE DID NOT RELEASE THE FIRST STRIKE UNTIL AFTER THE 1980 ELECTION to keep it from being political. ABC could not use US again, as we were in the military active duty, so they took the clips for THE DAY AFTER. Signed, LT TIM KRAUSE, the missileer in FIRST STRIKE, DAY AFTER, and CBS "NUCLEAR BATTLEFIELD" interview by Bob Schieffer in 1981

[@freedomvigilant1234]

+Anthony Krause I take it you were the Lt Krause in the actual film? Can you tell us more about your career in the USAF?

[@brooklyndrive]

And what about all the other Trident subs still safely underwater in the North Atlantic and North Pacific?

[@quentinroberts3854]

At least 4 of them are deployed and ready to launch at any time.

[@John-wp9su]

brooklyndrive what about them dumbass the Russians would still launch or their Soviets at that time

[@PhilForrest]

The ultimatum given by the Soviets in the film was "any attempt at retaliation would result in the annihilation of US cities".

[@wombatlover2796]

The three most people on planet earth, the President, Vladimir and the captain of a boomer.. You've got love the UGM - 133 locked and loaded with a W88 weapon system, designed to strike fear... WORLD WIDE!!!!

[@WednesdayAddamsMW]

Incorrect. In America, only the President of the United States has the authority to order the release of nuclear weapons. The same procedure exists in Russia. Not much is known about Chinese procedures, but what is known is that China has a strict "no first use" policy.

[@robertbolding4182]

in the earliest days, the ICBM force was only partially hard. they were erected and fueled at almost ground level and for 20 minutes could be lost. even a hardened silo of today cant take a direct hit but they can launch in a moment

[@davidlang2515]

5:28 "yeah, that sounds good, then back to your place-----aw shit we just got orders to launch, can I call you back? What do you mean I never told you what I do for a living?"

[@MrDaddynomates]

Imagine hearing those words "this is not an exercise". Your heart would fall out your ass.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

If you were west of Dakota or east of Michigan, you’d know you’d be vaporized before your B-52 had the chance to get off the ground and clear the base. 6 minutes isn’t enough time for the president to receive notification, authorize the SIOP, scramble out to the bomber, taxi to the runway (waiting for those other bombers to take off knowing there are Russian warheads coming your way within minutes). It’s game over. If a nuclear war is going to happen, just make dang sure to be the one to nuke Russia first.

[@lanniehillabrand8872]

"Group commander, I'm afraid this is not an exercise." - General Ripper.

[@robertmarks2218]

I Remember watching the B47s taking off from Pease AFB 60-61. My dad was an aircraft commander.

[@hanzhenry5818]

I would love to have the level of confidence in todays military as i had in these guys.. America would have won the world with this military., Circa 1980..

[@MrYeahright75]

Step 1: I take you to dinner Step 2: I let you treat. Step 3: I gotta go, “Step 1: Launch key inserted....”

[@uniquelycommon2244]

Also: "Sir, the SAC underground command post puts all the bomber crews in their planes, engines started!!" Immediately cut to bomber crews still in their trucks, on the way to their planes. Some Air Force media guys had a little fun there.

[@WednesdayAddamsMW]

Imagine Principal Strickland calling the whole cluster slackers.

[@GrayFoxROU]

I like the SAC General and how salutes its subordinates. No "I`m the boss" attitude, just a man that is there to do a job and go home. Quite rare type of people these days. In both military and civilian environments.

[@debrajohnson545]

Most were actually that way, I flew the Looking Glass for a couple of years.

[@GrayFoxROU]

@@debrajohnson545 Lucky you, happy to read this.

[@jixodu]

looks like nothing can unsettle that guy. Not even hundred of incoming ICMB's he's like.. oh... I see.. while sipping his tea.

[@GrayFoxROU]

@@jixodu This is exactly the attitude you should have in such situation. Do you think a hysterical reaction (e.g OMG we are doomed) would work better?

[@d23g32]

In my experience, I never encountered top brass who were any other way. For example, the two star I worked for had started out as an enlisted man in WW2 (B-17 gunner in the 8th AF) and he was very down to Earth. He didn't seem to have forgotten his roots at all. They all seemed to understand that their ability to be successful at their job depended greatly on everyone below them being willing, able, and motivated to do theirs.

[@conradsieber7883]

And in 1979 a computer glitch tripped by an error led a simulation to run of a Soviet first strike. The secretary of defense was told Soviet nukes were incoming at 3am. He realized such a strike made no sense and did not advise the president to initiate a retaliatory response. No system is fail safe...

[@FylthyBeest]

SmilingGiantess, I believe you're truly a nice and well meaning person. The reason Great Britain, along with other allies, aren't mentioned in this documentary is because it wasn't about them. It was about how the US would deal with a Soviet first strike given the politics at the time. No one disputes the importance of Great Britain. But, Great Britain and its weapons and weapons delivery systems are not subject to the United States' execution of US nuclear weapons.

[@marstuv5068]

Is there No consideration/Coordination?? I wonder?¿ 😮😢

[@1701spacecadet]

'I will vouch for the Lt. Colonel's'?? No you won't! The Lt Col will show his ID as is required!

[@fordwk]

Lt Krause...not Lt Col...

[@1701spacecadet]

+William Ford Oh yeah. Well whatever, he'll show his ID like he's supposed to.

[@abgvi9318]

What does the guy on the radio on 4:57 say? The only thing I understood was "bothering count".

[@hoghogwild]

A system display for East Easy Beam, we have predicted impacts of moderate count at this time.

[@WednesdayAddamsMW]

kevin drobecz Hello, SAC warning? This is the airborne. Confirm inbound missiles on the US. Roger, understand. Major Rinehart, we have twelve sea launched ballistic missiles inbound on the US now.

[@RobertNielsen1970]

It was no dream...I live almost straight east from the old Strategic Air Command HQ (Offutt AFB), and have an F-16 wing (132nd Tactical Fighter Wing, Iowa Air National Guard)...which both would have been targets in a Soviet nuclear attack back in the day...Offutt would've been one of the primary targets, and I'm guessing the 132nd would have been a tertiary target (which would have taken my family out, too.) Glad those days are (mostly) over.

[@GJones462-2W1]

I was a weapons loader stationed at RAF Lakenheath, where we had several F-111F's in the Victor Alert area with two B-61 10 kiloton tactical nukes loaded at all times. When you had the alert duty, you went in there, and did not come out for two weeks, until the next rotation. Pilots, crew chiefs, weapons troops, all the the same place. It was like an Air Force base inside of an Air Force base. Serious security, no-lone zones, PRP, the works. Got to load and lay my hands on those shiny silver bullets (what we called them) all the time. Just knowing their power, and what they could do, was a pretty intense feeling.

[@andrewdaley3081]

Most people can comprehend what destruction ten kiloton missile can achieve. 🇬🇧👍

[@fdxdsm]

Nothing is seared into my memory more than the sight, the sound and the acrid smell of a cartridge start on the alert pad all the while feeling my heart pounding in my chest wondering if it was an exercise or an actual alert. As the last one to board the aircraft I never knew for sure until the crew entry ladder slammed agains the floor and the door slammed shut behind me what was happening. We dreaded the possibility but we meant business.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

Thank you for your service.

[@SocialistDistancing]

I'm sure that's James earl jones giving the EAM at the Minuteman LCCs

[@edwardarruda7215]

I was in SAC in the 70s...spent many days on alert. These are actual SAC crew.

[@internetperiodista]

probably you are in the airborne post???

[@KingSNAFU]

Was some of this footage repuporsed for The Day After?

[@peaceisourprofession3677]

Yes it was! I think it helped the movie and added a lot of tension, especially with all the menacing synth background music.

[@neonhomer]

All those classic Dodge trucks....

[@freejizziaformuslims2978]

neonhomer. Relying on Dodge Trucks? That's why our balmers never made it up into the air...lol

[@broncodaddy46507]

Older technology works even after an EMP which is what the first missile should launched would probably be

[@insideoutsideupsidedown2218]

the bomber crews never got to their planes because they were driving dodges that broke down on the tarmac......oh the humanity....should had chevys guys, shoulda used chevys...

[@TexWatson-sh8vf]

neonhomer ...i thought the same damn thing.

[@662wc5]

The old "six packs"

[@michaelm3052]

I was stationed over in West Germany during the cold war. I was a nuclear capable missile handler- field artillery. It takes time to get ready for battle. This is a scenario where the CIA had dropped the ball.

[@doe.j9632]

as someone that was on the other side of the wall, no it was not, the film clearly states they knew about the subs. but subs in international waters hardly means an attack and they couldn't do anything about it. kind of why we didn't give two craps about ultimatums with the Cuban Missile crisis with the ships, international waters! we had just as right as anyone else to be anywhere in it! so that in part was realistic. and it really doesn't take months or even weeks to plan a first strike, the subs just needed to be told to go somewhere and then they are given an order. you give the CIA too much credit to say they were right up the high commands ass. when most of them might not have even known! these are all targets that have already been marked in case of a nuclear war anyway the only difference is they launch first!

[@Minong_Manitou_Mishepeshu]

You can always count on the CIA and the NSA to drop the ball. They only know about the things they are behind and set in motion. All of our countries problems are started by these two agencies, strictly for the funding.

[@Fucktheworld14020]

You mean like they did during 9/11 💁🏽‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

[@sixwest]

Where's Michael Madsen aiming his pistol at John Spencer's head telling him to "turn his key"?

[@catmistrysupport2292]

thats from the movie called wargames

[@smellyfella5077]

You know this is an old video when the dude at 2:00 is drinking a can of nasty Tab.

[@Ingsoc75]

I don't know what's worse...Nuclear War or being stationed at Minot during the winter.

[@ronaldlavender9657]

Being stationed anywhere in ND at anytime😪

[@lhaviland8602]

@@ronaldlavender9657 Being in North Dakota period at anytime.

[@donkellogg881]

Minot was a unique experience.

[@Matt-mo8sl]

A nuclear winter or a North Dakota winter? Dunno, sounds almost even .

[@Tamburello_1994]

Why not Minot? Freezn's the reason!

[@FylthyBeest]

Thanks for the support, Chris. And, congratulations on becoming an uncle again (I hope your sister and everthing related is fine) and your academic endevours. I believe you'd do well teaching history. If I had it to do over again, that is precisely what I would/should have done when I retired from the Service.

[@JohnDoe-on6ru]

This is why you always save the game before nuclear war breaks out

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

Unless you’re playing DEFCON

[@JasonSmith-vg8ew]

The music that goes along with this video is absolutely terrifying....

[@sartainja]

Pierre Bosquet stated: "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre." ("It is magnificent, but it is not war.") He continued, in a rarely quoted phrase: "C'est de la folie" - "It is madness.

[@colinmainwaring9471]

Wow. I can believe it.

[@movietella]

Fun fact: The premiere of this television movie was a major media event. No sponsors bought commercial time after the nuclear war broke out, so the last half was aired without commercials.

[@rah62]

Fun Fact: You're not quite right. THIS isn't the movie. Parts of this were shown *during* the movie "The Day After".

[@rodgreene2687]

This scenario would NEVER take place. We may sustain some damage but our defenses are too spread out for an enemy to have much success. THEY would instantly pay dearly for such an act of aggression.

[@SuperpowerBroadcasting]

The time between first launch detection (of the SLMBs) and detonations on every base west of Dakota and east of Michigan would be 6-10 minutes. That’s not enough time for the president to receive notice, decide to authorize the SIOP, send orders out to alert aircraft, have the crews scramble, start up the engines, taxi to the runway, take off, and then get enough distance between them and the base such that they aren’t blown out of the sky by the blasts. I suggest watching the film By Dawn’s Early Light to see how even a B-52 that did make it far enough from Fairchild in time still suffered a casualty due to the shockwave. I highly doubt many B-52s would clear the blast radius in time. A Russian first strike right now in 2021 would almost certainly guarantee the world was ruled by Russia forever after. I think very likely 90% of the bombers and 60-90% of the silos would be destroyed before they could clear the blast radii. The Russians would be willing to accept a small retaliation from surviving US subs in order to win the world forever after. TLDR: if a nuclear war is going to happen, just make sure to be the one to fire first. 🦅

[@looneyburgmusic]

@@SuperpowerBroadcasting Copy/pasting the same misinformation will never make that misinformation true. The scenario in this film could never have happened, especially in the 80's under Reagan.

[@sheldondean7949]

Love how the clips were reused for the day after movie, saved a budget

[@ericzerkle5214]

The Day After brought me here!!

[@FylthyBeest]

Chis, thank you for your supportive and kind comments. I had to laugh at your joke of "floating to the top". I was once told that when the US Navy conducted some of its peacetime LF/VLF transmissions using the now replaced EC-130Q TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) aircraft, they had to file Maritime Advisories advising boaters of the RF being emitted. I was also told that the transmissions sometimes killed fish and they could be seen floating to the surface. True or not, it's a good story.

[@bashkillszombies]

The current US sonar array they're testing in California kill millions of fish and displace entire eco systems. There was some satellite imagery that monitors large fish schools and migration patterns and it showed a huge swath of dead zone all around it. That was early 00's, so god knows what modern tech does. Although we're told EMF is safe, no ones ever proven brain cancer from mobile phones etc. Yet idk man, I still don't see those lab coat fuckers microwaving their dinner with the door open, do you?

[@jeeplife2035]

“General !! We need to get Maverick and Goose into the air now! They are our only hope now sir..”

[@randym2704]

I served in SAC until 1980 as a gunner on a B-52H. The scenario depicted is accurate, at least with the bombers and it gave me a shiver. However, I find pause with the conclusion of this film. 1. There were 16 AFBs all sitting nuclear alert with B-52, FB-111. Each base has 6 bombers and 6 tankers. That means their where 96 bombers and 96 tankers sitting alert with the crews literally housed within 100 feet from their aircraft. The aircrews were swapped out every Thursday morning. I do not disagree that those bases would be struck, that was a given, but those alert aircraft would have launched at the first inkling of trouble. Many a time we were launched just to hold at fail-safe orbits somewhere over northern Canada for 12 to 18 hours as the BUFF had no way to dump fuel and thus had to burn the fuel down to an acceptable weight to land. 2. In order for the Soviets to destroy our ground ballistic missile force they would have to have a near-direct hit on each silo which would require a dedicated strike on each silo. Back in the 1970s and 80's we had a good 700 silos operational. Each missile crew was in charge of 10 silos. If a launch crew is destroyed then another crew would automatically have control of those missiles as well as their own. Even the Airborne Command Post has a missile launch crew on board and capable to launch any missiles should the launch crews be disabled. That airborne command post is airborne 24 hours a day, 7 days a week even to this day. Incredibly unlikely that 96% of missiles would be destroyed. Some of those missiles would not launch right away as the missiles had a different launch time once the "keys" were turned, the launch crews had no way to know what missile had what target or trajectory time for each missile. 3. The Navy side of triad I am not as up to date on but the boomers are basically in 2 conditions - operational or non-operational. Each boomer has 2 crews Blue and Gold. If the sub is not in for maintenance or repair. Each sub is in port long enough to swap out crews and replenishment which is most likely a week. When sub departed and submerged only the Captain and Navigator new where they are. So for the producers to say that the US or the USSR would be caught flatfooted is highly unlikely.

[@randym2704]

@Salnsd no one wins a nuclear war.

[@randym2704]

@Salnsd I was agreeing with you. What my initial post was giving context to is that the video was showing all of America's capability flatfooted. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) means that if you destroy me then I destroy you. No one wins these. I don't think I would even want to survive one.

[@2259r3z]

I was stationed at March on B-52D's when the bomber portions of this documentary were filmed there, which is why I like to occasionally come back and watch it again. It's one of the few videos online where you can still experience the unmistakable unearthly howl of water injected J57's on a Dog model BUFF lumbering down the runway and clawing its way into the Wild Blue Yonder (1:30). The AF apparently believed in the vulnerability of our coastal nuke assets to a preemptive first strike by Soviet sea launched ballistic missiles because right around the time this doc came out our wing (and I assume other nuke wings near the coasts) started satellite basing some of our ground alert aircraft on a rotating basis to inland SAC bases in the center of the country (Dakotas, etc) in addition to continuing to maintain our own ground alert status. Then within a few years (us in '82) many of the coastal bases lost their bombers to other wings, realignment, or in the case of the D's, the boneyard, in a more permanent shift to inland basing. By '83 I was a full time instructor, and if we had enough time during our classroom work I used to show this documentary to my students as a focus and motivation tool.