THIS IS NOT A TEST

-

 People my age, that grew up during the Cold War, remember these words being broadcast every Saturday morning for years like clockwork on television and radio. An obnoxious sounding alert signal would sound in order to get your attention and a mans voice would say, " This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. Then you would breathe a sigh of relief and go about your business or wait for the Saturday morning cartoons to come back on. Did you know that on Saturday morning February 20, 1971 a civilian employee working for the Department of Civil Defense deep inside Cheyenne Mountain Colorado accidentally put out the wrong tape? Instead of the test tape he put out a real war warning and it took 40 minutes before anyone could stop it. 

 The teletyped message from N.O.R.A.D., or North American Air Defense Command, read “Message authenticator: hatefulness, hatefulness". “This is an emergency action notification (EAN) directed by the President. Normal broadcasting will cease immediately.” Television and radio stations reacted all over the nation creating a panic. Some stations reacted exactly how they were supposed to. Other stations didn't react until the incident had been cancelled. The rest went off the air but were afraid to broadcast the warning. Listeners were freaking out and bombarding stations with panicked calls wanting to know what was happening. Others gathered around their TV's and radios fearing the worst. Civilian and military officials called the Pentagon demanding to know what was going on. After 6 failed attempts at shutting the message off one Civil Defense official found the right code word. The word was “impish”. This was the first major test and failure of the EBS or Emergency Broadcast System. The American people were finally breathing a little easier. Fear soon turned into anger though and the the EBS went through some needed reforms and has upgraded in the years since. 

  On February 20, 1971 I was stationed at Erhac near Malatya Turkey. This was a remote assignment and I was oblivious to what had happened in the United States regarding the false war warning. We were on the nuclear front lines keeping an eye on Russia just a few hundred miles to the east and all was quiet on the eastern front. On May 31, 1971 my year in Turkey would be over. I had orders for N.O.R.A.D. in Colorado Springs Colorado. Not until I arrived at N.O.R.A.D., in the latter part of June 1971, did I learn about this incident. My Flight Chief, who was training me at the time, pointed to this tiny room where a man was sitting at a desk with his back to us. He told me about the false attack warning and said that guy was responsible for it. The man would always be facing a plate glass window that had a view of N.O.R.A.D.'s command post. As many times as I passed that room over the remaining months I was in the Air Force I never saw the mans face, only his back. N.O.R.A.D. was the best job I ever had. I would learn a great deal about the strengths and weaknesses of our nuclear deterrence. I became a Christian while stationed in Colorado and knowing some of the things I know I am convinced it is only by the grace of God, and his holding back the winds of war, that we haven't destroyed each other in a nuclear holocaust. 

Command Post



I am checking the line badge of our barber for the AAFES newsletter

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE DEATH OF JAYNE MANSFIELD

-
Image
Jayne Mansfield   Jayne Mansfield died way too young on June 29, 1967 at the age of 34 in a gruesome car wreck, She was killed instantly but contrary to urban legend she was not decapitated. Jayne was called the poor man's Marilyn Monroe. She had enjoyed about a four year stint of popularity on Broadway and in Hollywood from 1954 until 1958. Her career was in decline in the late 50's and early 60's but she was still popular in Europe and on the nightclub circuit. She took her last name from her high school sweetheart Paul Mansfield when she married him at the age of seventeen. Her second husband was a former Mr. Universe named Mickey Hargitay who was from Norway. The third and last husband was Matt Cimber. Mansfield was highly educated, attending Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas and U.C.L.A. She supposedly had an IQ of 163 and was called the smartest dumb blonde ever. Of course she couldn't be too smart. In 1966, a year before her death, while
Read more

NASHVILLE AND JESSE JAMES

-
Image
The James brothers with their mother Zerelda James   Most everyone has heard of the notorious outlaws Jesse and Frank James, however; did you know that they lived in Nashville from 1875 until March 1881? Jesse's oldest son Jesse James Jr. was born in Nashville along with his sister Mary. Jesse Jr. was born at 606 Boscobel Street on August 31, 1875. Mary was born on West Hamilton Road in Bordeaux on July 17, 1879. Jesse Jr. went by the name Tim and as far as he knew his last name was Howard. He and his sister would not know their real last names until after Jesse was killed in 1882. Jesse and his wife Zerelda would also lose two male twins in infancy.  Jesse's brother Frank lived on Clarksville Pike. While living there he and his wife Annie Ralston James gave birth to a son named Robert Franklin on February 6, 1877. For a time he would be dressed as a girl and go by the name of Mary. Why his parents did this I do not know.  The brothers were on the run. Nashville was
Read more

CHARLIE PARKHURST

-
Image
  Charlie Parkhurst aka One-eyed Charlie, Cockeyed Charlie, or Six Horse Charlie was born in 1812 in Vermont. Eventually he made his way out west to California where he became a teamster and one of the most skilled stagecoach drivers in history. He was small in stature but tough. Shortly after becoming a stagecoach driver for the California Stage Company he was kicked in the face by a horse and blinded in one eye. Charlie began his reputation as a tough driver when a robber named "Sugarfoot" held up his stage one day. Taken by surprise his only option was to give up his strong box. Six months later the Sugarfoot hit him again but Charlie was prepared this time. He blew him away with a shotgun at point blank range. Without blinking his good eye he rode off at a full gallop leaving the robber dead in the road.   He was an expert shot and an expert with a bull whip. Charlie could cut a cigar in half at fifteen paces while a man held it in his mouth. On one occasion he rolle
Read more