USN submarine; who pushes button to fire missile or torpedo?
Curious to see if it is a two-man rule for ordinary missile launch? Is the person that "pushes" the button have a specific job title? It would helpful if someone had knowledge / experience from the mid-80's.
What happens if General Quarters is sounded on a US Navy ship?
What happens if General Quarters is sounded on a US Navy ship?A number of years ago a friend of mine was in the crew of a US Navy ship that made a port call to Vancouver, British Columbia. On Sunday afternoon of this visit the ship held an open house for the public to come onboard to visit the ship and get guided tours of this “man-of-war.” Some of the crew were ashore on liberty, some were taking a nap in the crew’s berthing areas (which were not on the tour), and a few were leading tours or on watch in critical areas of the ship.Toward the middle of the afternoon a young, inquisitive boy, then touring the bridge, pushed the General Quarters Alarm button to “see what would happen.”The alarm sounded and all crewmen still aboard immediately began rushing to their general quarters station, elbowing their way through the civilians visitors aboard to quickly arrive at their stations (time is of the essence to save the ship in case of enemy action or possible sinking). Of the crewmen who had been sleeping, many were in their underwear and did not have time to get dressed so they were running to their stations with their clothes and shoes in their hands, determined to get to their station as soon as possible. Guns were being manned, damage repair stations were being manned and fire fighting equipment was being laid out for action, the engine rooms were preparing to get underway, and all over the ship stations were preparing to meet any emergency that might arise.There was bedlam all over the ship until the Captain reached the bridge and determined why the GQ Alarm had been sounded and promptly told the crew to secure from general quarters — and apologized to the local citizens for the unscheduled excitement.Fortunately, situations like this rarely happen when General Quarters is sounded on Navy ships, but it did happen on at least one occasion.
How were the events surrounding the Berlin Airlift and the Cuban Missile Crisis similar?
Both were tests during the cold war how far the East could go before someone is pushing the red button in the West. Both incidents however were not the closest point, the world was next to a nuclear war. That was the NATO exercise "Able Archer" in 1983. In both cases a nuclear strike was prevented by resisting Soviet officers. During the Cuba Crisis the Missile Launch Officer Alexandrovitch Archipow refused as the only one of three officers to deliver the key for launching a nuclear torpedo from the Soviet Submarine B 59, being attacked with depth charges by US Navy destroyers. During "Able Archer" which was a "hot" exercise for a nuclear attack on the Warsaw Pact, the East had prepared all their nuclear arsenal, assuming the exercise to be reality. Of all things during this week a computer glitch in the Moscow Defense Head Quarter falsely indicated 5 nuclear missiles approaching Russia from the USA. Normally this alarm would have caused an immediate launch of Soviet nuclear missiles. The officer on duty however, named Stanislaw Petrow, took on his shoulders the responsibility of not firing the weapons, believing in a computer failure. He was right, as we all know. In summary the world two times was saved by a single Russian officer.