False alarm in Hawaii

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Salute!

With all respect, CONSO.....

One person hitting an alarm button is not the big deal. It's all the stuff that then happens. Been there and wrote the plans.

One person hitting a button that launches a nuclear weapon is a very big problem. Had two assignments involving the nukes, and one was in Vipers that only had one seat. My other was the VooDoo interceptor, so my RIO had to consent if we really wanted to launch a nuclear Genie.

In U.S., the super critical actions ( missile launches, release of nukes for buffs and tactical aircraft and such) that may be initiated when the button is pressed follow procedures as you suggested. The less super critical things like "get your gas mask on" or "take shelter right now!" happen, and should. I would not like it if our command post had warning of an attack and all but one person was still alive to hit the button, and the siren would not blare.
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I was a player in early 1967 when the U.S. BMEWS ( ballistic missile early warning system) alert activated for some reason or another. Not all, but many units got the warning and followed procedure.

So this young nugget was on 5-minute alert at Grand Forks and did not have the two nuclear Genie RX, but only AIM-4 heaters. So I did not need all the two-man concept stuff or anything to start, taxi and takeoff. The klaxon went off and I raced down to the jet and the ground crew had the APU riunning as I climbed the ladder with my RIO. Crank motors, strap in, shelter doors are opening.... the snow showers were getting worse, and the B-52's on the other side of the runway alert pads were cranking up ( they had those cartridge start doofers that belched a puff of black smoke). So holy cow, this is the real deal!

I called tower and "advised" that LimaLima 54 was number one for takeoff. My RIO was just asking me if I had heard the command post NCO's mentioning "the light' just before the klaxon went off. "huh?" So RIO says they had the mike keyed and said something about "the light", ( the BMEWS light). Oh man, this is not good, and surely HHQ would not have a practice in thisbad weather.

Tower told me to hold.

I told tower we were gonna go anyway. Maybe the bad ghuys were spoofing us, heh?

Tower says to contact our command post, and my RIO and I decided for one quick call, then roll. CP says it's a false alert, but RIO and I still made them authenticate the abort with our cosmic decoder ring (a small pad that had codes for each day of the month and even time zones).

Whew! The abort was valid and we taxied back to the shelter and re-fueled.

Rumor on the street was that a few interceptors loaded with nuclear Genies had actually gotten airborne. We never did find out what caused the false alarm, but it happened during the big move to Cheyenne Mountain from the original NORAD site in Colorado Springs at Ent AFB ( a small complex that became the U.S. olympic training facility).

I have problems with the local weenies that do not appreciate the significance of false alarms.
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any other pilots or crew that stood nuke alert should chime in here.

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