The 3 a.m. call and the 1979 NORAD Alert 

Reminds me of the tale of Stanislav Petrov. The Soviet officer who likewise saved the world by recognizing a false alarm in their early warning detection system in 1983. Another honest to God hero. It really is amazing that we aren't all incinerated by now.

Just a heads up. My father worked for SAC and was called on base many times for false alerts. I was a kid at the time and this was earlier than the 1979 incident. He went to his base and we did not hear from him for more than three days. My point is this. This happened more than the public is aware of. Things then were in a state of flux and as new systems came online, older systems were phased out. This was both a good thing and not. Those old systems were not as prone to give a false attack warning as they had been modified over the years. The new systems were put in place far too quickly in my opinion. We had a system in the 60's that was called "Positive Control" meaning that SAC bombers, missile sites, and Naval assets were prepared to fire on a Presidential order. We can thank John Kennedy for this. This meant for the bombers, that the would fly to their "Fail Safe" points and orbit, until confirmation to attack or return. This made the Russians very, very, nervous. For good reason. They did not know if this was going to be the signs of a first strike or if it was merely an exercise. This is what we had to deal with. As a small child living near a very large, primary target for the Soviet Union, we all knew we had little to no chance of surviving. For decades we had a system called "LOW." This tacitly gave field commanders the authorization to launch on confirmation of massive launch from the USSR. This was ended by Reagan. "LOW" stood for "Launch On Warning." Most knew that the President would be hard pressed to give the "Go" order and while this is no longer the command, we can praise the good Lord it never got that far. My father described the Nov 79 incident as one of the most terrifying times of his life in SAC. The bombers were in the air and missile silo doors were opened. The only other thing he added was that he couldn't even call mom to tell her to move. We had a plan to head toward a cabin my grandfather had built in Canada in the 1950's. We would not have made it. Thanks for allowing me to take this time out and write to you on this.

My dad worked at NORAD at this time. He would tell us he was going up to the “Mountain.” He came home late that day if memory serves me,, shaken and called me to check in. He never gave me the details as he held a high clearance, but was worried for a long time about that instance and some “damn 46 cent part.” Thank you so much for sharing this important piece of history. You share the best content.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the story that got the movie War Games made. They had a workable script but thought the story line would be so unbelievable it’d never get made…then this happened. One of my fav 80’s movies.

“Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?” “Later. Let's play Global Thermonuclear War.”

A strange game. The only winning move is not to play...

Eight years before this on 20 FEB 1971, NORAD sent a false alarm to over 5,000 radio and television stations via UPI and AP wire services. I was an announcer on the air, and alone, at KOCA-AM in Texas when the alert came over. I broke the top-secret envelope and the code word matched ("hatefulness"). However, it came over at the exact same time as their weekly test and I knew immediately somebody had screwed up. The wire service continued to send ordinary news, weather and ball scores so I knew there was no need to activate the Emergency Broadcast System and scare the crap out of folks. It proved to be the right call, but later my dad got me to thinking when I told him about it. He said, "The test time would be the perfect time for the Soviets to attack." Oops!

I don't know about this 3 AM stuff, but I remember it very well. It was a Friday and we were having a regularly scheduled exercise. I was with the 26th NORAD Region/Air Division at Luke AFB, Arizona. For the exercise we would be operating on the exercise side of the system, while those not participating in the exercise were on the Live side monitoring real world air traffic. Shortly after the exercise started, at about 0900 Mountain Time, everybody was directed to the Live side and to look for high speed targets. We didn't learn until sometime later that day what had happened.

If history would be taught like this in school there would be many more history buffs. Thank you.

'Gentlemen! You can't fight in here - this is the war room!'

My Dad worked at NORAD then. He was the technician that discovered that a “simulation” hard drive had been booted in a failover incident caused by a brief power loss in the complex. We were about 30 sec from retaliating when the discovery was made.

Someone remembered. The tabletop roleplaying game "The Morrow Project" was released in 1980 by Timeline Games. It was set 150 years after WWIII breaks out in then-near-future 1989. The cause? During an unannounced full simulated alert exercise, someone loads a training tape into the computers at NORAD, triggering an accidental retaliatory strike against the USSR. The fact this was written into the game introduction in late 1979 or early 1980 seems rather coincidental.

Why do people watch "reality" television when you can watch stuff like this?

I remember seeing the B52s' scrambling fully loaded flying overhead, and I mean at least a dozen. I was outside working with my dad who was ex airforce, I asked him" Is this what I think it is ?" He said "Well we'll know in less than 10 minutes, -get back to work !" That simple come back said it all to me, still working.

9 Nov 79 was two years to the day after I enlisted in the USAF. I was a Security Policeman stationed at Malmstrom AFB, MT (SAC) working in the Weapons Storage Area when that alert happened. Yes, I remember it.

I spent 26 years in the missile operations, missile warning, and space career field. It might be interesting for the History Guy to make a video about what happened after these glitches and how NORAD changed procedures to make sure (as much as possible) that this would not happen again. It is also history that should not be forgotten.

“Sir, Turn your key”

History that needs to be remembered, but apropos this story “a hero that needs to be remembered “ Stanislav Petrov , whose bravery saved the world, when all alarms at his Ukrainian satelit observation post indicated a major US Nuclear attack . (From the book and movie , the man that saved the world) About this , i have an Ukrainian wife, daughter of Sovjet naval officer (stationed in kamjatka nuclear submarine base during Sovjet time) On my way home from visiting her, when we first started dating, i was flying with the Russian flight company aeroflot , i was upgraded to first class and was seated next to a Ukrainian General , i was reading “the man who saved the world” during the flight and the general showed interest about my book, due to the cover of the book, i told him the story, he had never heard about, but ny father in law knew about this incident, he knew these days when it happened that Stanislav Petrov was suspended due to the incident, he was never honored these days, first honored from US side in the late 90’th (i think it was ). Excuse me my bad english .

My first night of shift work was the 5th of November 1979 at BMEWS Site 1 "J" site Thule Greenland I was a civilian 19 year old employee of ITT/FSI the DoD contractor. I was a new utilities person (janitor) and part-time voice comm operator (telephone operator) I placed and monitored personal phone calls, nightly. Everyone was allowed 1 Morale Call per week for 15 minutes. When this happened I was in training on shift and all 3 BMEWS sites world wide and the 56 Dewline stations and NORAD inside Cheyenne Mountain Colorado Springs went on "minimized" voice communications. What a introduction to the Cold War for me. I worked there until May 1982. What a time what a place to be at such a young age. One of the best times of my life.

For those too young to remember that time and wonder how this was possible, you have to know a couple more things. First, the US military was still feeling the effects of the post Vietnam draw down. Inflation was high, unemployment was up, and we were in our 2nd energy crisis in 5 years. At that time, we had gone through a period when you could only get fuel every other day, depending on whether your tag ended in an odd or even number. Also, we were 5 days removed from the fall of the US embassy in Iran and our attention was not on the Soviet Union. If they were going to make a move, the timing was sensible.

I still remember the night this happened. I was in the 6th grade. My dad was the company 1st Sgt. When he got a call and had to report to the base. He was stationed at Ft. Carson which sits at the base of Cheyenne mountain. Right in front of NORAD

I was a lowly sailor in the Royal Navy at that time. On that day we were called to 'action stations' without prior warning (which was normally given for excercises) at (as I recall) about 22:00. We were in the Mediterranean between Italy and Malta at the time. At 06:00 we were 'stood down'. No explanation was ever given (until now) Thank you for clearing that up (it was no great mystery, we were occasionally put 'on alert' from time to time just to keep us sharp)

I was 21 years old in 79 and to this day I never knew this had occurred. Thank you for remembering this history.

In 1982, I was an USAF 306X0 T ( Electronic Communications and Cryptographic Equipment Technician ,E&I). I was a Team Chief installing cryptographic equipment, and I was sent TDY to Cheyenne Mountain for this same problem. After becoming familiar with the system, I was sent to Griffis AFB NY for a conference to discuss how to prevent this from happening again. Got to work on the NEACP aircraft. Scary stuff!!

I was a young USAF lieutenant stationed in Texas in 1979. I may be recalling a different event, but a SAC Minuteman missile crew commander was reassigned to our organization about this time and became my office mate. He told me about the incident and initially thought it was a very realistic drill until the point where they inserted the launch keys. Then the order came to stand down. He was told the mistake was due to the Soviets having conducted an unannounced dual test launch, which was something they had never done before. Our satellites immediately picked up the flares and sent the warning message before calculating the trajectories as being nonthreatening. Perhaps it was a different event, which if true, gives me a case of the willies. Sleep tight America - your Air Force is awake.

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."......."How about a nice game of chess?"

Another excellent historical video presentation, History Guy! It made me think about "anomalous propagation", the ability of certain atmospheric conditions to bend radar waves in strange and unpredictable ways. In the late 1960's I was an Air Force GCI (Ground Control Intercept) controller stationed at North Truro Air Force Station on the tip of Cape Cod. Our unit was known as a back up intercept control unit and was equipped with the latest third generation air space management system (BUIC III). This system received radar information about the northeast corner of the United States from ten different radar sites in addition to our own search radar equipment peering out across the Atlantic. This radar data was computer analysed and presented on rectangular screens on about a dozen computer consoles in the Operations Center. Our mission was to serve as a back-up command and control center for the much older, larger and more powerful SAGE Direction Centers that were the primary command and control centers for air space military air traffic control in the United States and Canada. The theory was that the SAGE centers would be primary nuclear targets and they would be taken out in any first strike activity. When that happened, aircraft command and control would automatically transfer to the BUIC III sites and at that point control of Air Force interceptors flying against Russian bombers would revert to controllers like me. Once every week we practiced actual, life LEVEL III operations. In Level III, the Sage Directon Center was turned off and our unit at North Truro (called: Sleeper Control) would become the primary control facility for defensive aircraft in the northeast corner of the U.S. I remember one bright and sunny morning when we were Level III. I was not yet fully qualified so I was in the Operations Center as a part of my training. It was a quiet late summer afternoon. Suddenly at around noon the system came alive with a warning alerting operations crews to something strange: east of North Truro suddenly there appeared what looked like a mass attack at relatively low altitude. Where there was nothing that radar displayed at one minute, suddenly there were around twenty radar returns at the eastern most edge of our radar coverage. Those radar "tracks" were all heading west toward the continental United States. Suddenly we went on full alert, NO DRILL inside the control center. In those days we had F106, F101 and F102 interceptors on alert 24/7. There were aircraft on standby at Otis Air Force Base, at Atlantic City, Bangor, Maine, in Vermont (Vermont Air National Guard), Westfield Massachusetts, and often at Loring AFB in northern Maine. There were always two aircraft on five minute launch in at least two locations, the first being always at Otis. There were many interceptors on 15 minute standby and others on thirty minute standby. Our senior director's responsibility was to order the launch of the five minute interceptors once the incoming radar tracks reached a certain distance from the coast. Two things held back a true "flush"...order for ALL interceptors to launch...was the fact that the radar tracks were moving quite slowly AND perhaps most importantly, the only radar that actually "saw" the mysterior radar tracks was the radar located at North Truro. None of the other ten radars saw any mysterious radar tracks over the ocean. I seem to remember the speed varying from less than a hundred miles per hour to mach .5, and the flight level of the tracks also varied from a few hundred feet to ten thousand feet or so. It really made no sense. There was an interceptor training area that was located off the coast and ran north and south along the coast of Maine. We used this for intercept training for both aircrews and controllers. As it happened that morning there were two F106 interceptors practicing various kinds of intercepts under our control. The Senior Director ordered those interceptors out further toward where the mysterious radar tracks were and the aircraft were vectored to the area. The weather was clear but a fog bank was moving east from further out, the pilots reported. The interceptor fire control radars showed no aircraft returns. The F106 fire control radar was really effective up to around 30 miles and had good performance looking forward and up and very little ability to look down, so the F106's descended gradually from their initial twenty thousand feet. Still no radar returns. The F106's were not loaded with weapons and the Senior Director had about a minute or so to launch the uploaded five minute interceptors. Now down to 10,000 feet and heading back to base, one pilot sited down on the surface of the ocean, about twenty or so sail boats scattered but obviously sailing in roughly the same direction which was west. As I recall it now, suddenly the mysterious radar tracks that could have been a massed Russian bomber raid, just faded away. There was a scramble in our maintenance department to verify the quality of the radar signal and the final verdict was that the radar signals from our search radar had been bent and the "Russian bomber raid" was actually the sail boat race out off Cape Cod. At that time the sailboats had all turned from the furthest point off the coast and were headed back to the race finish line and the boats were not hundred of miles off the coast, but much closer in. It was anomalous propagation that had bent the radar waves just enough and for just long enough to give us all a "white knuckle" experience. That had happened once before not long before off the coast of Vietnam when a US NAVY destroyer had fired on several boats that seemed to be attacking it. And we all know how that incident turned out.

I was a Minuteman II ICBM Combat Crew Member during the height of the Cold War and during my 30 year USAF career also worked as a Watch Officer in the Cheyenne Mountain Combat Operations Center. Your piece brings back lots of wonderful memories.

I grew up about 10 miles from NORAD in Colorado Springs, from the late 1968 through 1982 and never heard a word about this. Thank you so much for this tiny look into the history that almost was.

It is both a memory and a warning. I love history, not because I hold on to the past, but because of the lessons for the future. History repeats itself because people don't learn the lessons.

Thanks History Guy: I was on alert duty at one of the Minuteman launch control facilities at Grand Forks AFB on that early morning. I was awake at that time doing homework for a college class I was taking. Then it happened, the quiet of the night was rudely interrupted by a message over the primary alerting system. These messages were routine, happening quite frequent, all that was required was decoding the message preamble and acknowledge to the squadron command post. But, this message was unique. It was real! I woke up the deputy commander who was sleeping at the time, he decoded the message and came to the same conclusion as I, we opened the red box, removed the keys and inserted them into the launch switch. Once the keys have been inserted, they cannot be removed by the crew. A few minutes later, we received a message to stand down and life was back to normal.

In the mid 70s my father was Assistant Command Director at NORAD. My brother and I were some of the first people under 18 to be allowed "into the mountain". Can still see it, impressive complex, even then. Due to the times, no cell phones, etc, if something "happened", they would go to "lockdown", and shut the doors. There were a few times we wouldn't hear from Dad for 2-3 days. When he did get home, he would lock himself in his office with a bottle of scotch. Always wanted to ask him just close we came to being dust. Years later, he talked about it a little. The stories that made my skin crawl were the times he said they were tracking something going faster than any man-made object was capable of, being on the phone with the Russians, "Is that yours? No, is that YOURS? No". As he told me, "Blue book hell, they have an entire library" Strange place. The stories it could tell.

"Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks."

I'm still amazed humanity survived through the cold war

My old man was in the RCAF at the time. His duties included recovering aircraft and their missiles that crashed while nuclear armed. On that day he went on alert and was sent to a staging area in the north of Canada waiting for any mishaps with dud missiles or crashed aircraft. He says he was actually convinced he was involved in a nuclear exchange. Said he never got back to base and stood down for 72 hours.

Driving to my new duty station at Fort Carson in 1987, I pushed on through darkness trying to get there. About 2200 I took a wrong turn and headed towards Cheyenne mountain. When I saw a N.O.R.A.D. sign I knew I'd screwed up. Moments later I heard a siren and saw blue lights. But it wasn't the cops. I stopped and looked back and saw a jeep with Airmen bailing out and pointing their M16a1 rifles while another swung a pintle mounted M60 machine gun my way. Yikes. Fortunately my orders and I.D. and tag number all matched and I was politely directed to go in THAT direction. Serious times.

My grandmother celebrated her 100th birthday on 9 Nov 1979. I'm glad the party was able to go on.

Scary day. I was in boot camp in the Coast Guard in Cape May, NJ and they woke us up early that morning without explanation and had us out drilling long before sunrise. They never did tell us why, lol.

Mr.History. Love your style, content, subject matter, delivery, and pace in which you deliver events form the past to future students at the present, especially 20th century history which boggles the mind how fast we moved forward technologically, but are reeling backwards from its consequences affecting the entire planet now.Setting the record straight is a noble thing, thank you History guy.

The Inspiration for "War Games" and, by extension, "The Miracle Mile"

Another history related tidbit is how NORAD began tracking Santa Claus.

I really want to hear this guy exclaim, "Inconceivable!"

I love learning history too, but what I especially love is the way you narrate your stories.

Nice job with telling this story with a sense of urgency in your voice as if it were happening at present and not over 43 years ago as I watch this.

I was a motor route paper carrier around FT. Carson that year. I remember every military person I delivered to was awake, their engines idling, fully dressed, with their families awake. That was a night I was not sure dawn would come with my family in Colorado Springs alive.

Instead Cheyenne Mountain is now hosting the Stargate.

Wow, this should be a movie !!! Your stories are amazing for the most part. Thank you history guy and wife. You educate me quite often. God Bless. Let's hope we never see the day such stragic battles are fought. We as humans seem to be obsessed with ruining each other. Sad to say this is such a huge part of being human.

The 80s movie, "War Games" was loosely based on this. “A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?”

I was a SAC missile launch crew commander on alert in a Minuteman III launch control center for a couple of these events. One of the emergency checklist items (everything was on a checklist) was a conference call with the other crews in the other launch control centers. I remember one of the deputy commanders on the conference call saying, "The first checklist item should be 'put on clean underpants'!" We practiced emergency war order and missile launch procedures in the simulator every month but there were always instructors or evaluators watching us. To go through those procedures in the actual steel-reinforced concrete capsule 60-80 feet below the surface with no one else watching was surreal.

I was stationed at Barksdale AFB when the 1979 event happened, all of the alert bombers were parked on the Hammer Head with engines running. I was an aircraft radio repairman and had to do a repair on one of those bombers. The conversations in the cockpit with the crew put a bit of a scare in me because I could hear it in their voices. I don’t remember how long the bombers sat there waiting to be called to stand down, but I bet to them it felt like forever.

I was stationed at March AFB during these "glitches". I don't remember the one on November of 1979 (I was probably asleep at the time, but my 4 years in the Airforce are kind of a blur these days 45 years later ) But I was on duty when one of the "glitches" in 1980 happened. Being a SAC base at the time with B52D model bombers with Nukes on board were on alert and KC135 tankers as well, I still can recall that it happened (I wish I can remember the exact date), the B52's and KC135's on alert taxied out and after what seamed like forever (we were waiting for the aircraft to do there usual monthly high speed taxi and dump there water on the runway) the first bomber started rolling down the runway for takeoff! 15 seconds behind the first bomber, the second bomber started to roll. (MITO Minimum Interval Take Off). The recall was received, just as the first bomber was at V1 (rotation speed) and the commander of the aircraft decided not to fly and deployed the chute and stood on the brakes! Pretty exciting for a 21 year old!

I used to know an Air Force missile Officer who was on duty that morning. I don't know the launch procedure but he did. The missiles were loaded and warmed up with only the final launch button/key left to go when the stand down and return your missiles to the ready state order came. They were pages and pages past the point of no return to ready state. Thank God these were very educated Officers who then began writing the book on how to turn off an ICBM. It took days to bleed down pressurized tanks and reset computers. Every missile returned to the ready state safely.

I was there in 1980. Ran out to our EC-135C to launch off alert. Canceled 7 minutes later. Gets your heart going. We were told the next day 'it never happened so don't talk about it'.

I remember weekly drills in my school where we had to hide under our desks during the cold war to prepare for the imminent nuclear attack.

This video was meant for me to see. History deserves to be remembered. Thank you

I remember that day well. I was a SAC crew member on a alert B-52D when that happened...we all thought WW3 was about to begin.

I was 15 at that time and remember that this was reported as a by-line in the local paper ... I commend you sir for your great delivery and teaching. It is fantastic to see history told as it was, no slant, just the facts as they happened. I have subscribed and "rang the bell" because I don't want to miss anything you put out. Even though I'm 55 now ... you should never stop learning.

I was delivering a motor route of morning papers near Fort Carson that night. every officer was awake, and had their cars running with the doors open, some had suitcases in the trunks. A few took their papers in person, they were all pale as death. I will never forget that night.

I've watched nearly all of the History Guy's videos and this is my favourite one of all. Great storytelling - the tension and jeopardy really come through the narration.

I was a copilot on nuclear alert at Anderson AFB, Guam when we got klaxon. Odd since we had already had the usual practice scrabble earlier in the week. It was after bedtime when the klaxon went off. Crew of six roused from sleep and responded. I remember sitting in the cockpit in my pajamas and a helmet, when the EW, electronic warfare officer and the radar navigator decyfered the message and it said launch. Six twenty somethings all of sudden became very somber. The aircraft commander ask them to to verify the message again and it said go. We started the engines and began taxing out to takeoff to drop out nukes on (xxxx) before a message came to cancel the launch. We were understandingly relieved, but would have filled our mission as ordered

I remember this channel when it had less than 1,000 subscribers and I followed it over the years. Love the content and will keep watching. It might be worth pursuing the story of the early days of NORAD. In the summer of 1940 FDR met with the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King in New York State in the small town of Ogdensburg where FDR's private train was parked while he reviewed troop training exercises in the north country. Even then they knew that it was only a matter of time before America would join the other allies in WWII. They moved the train to the even smaller town of Heuvelton, not far away and after an overnight visit, the Prime Minister and FDR signed an accord that would eventually give rise to NORAD. In 1955 a misprinted phone number led to the tradition o NORAD tracking Santa on his ride from the North Pole each year. It is a part of history that should be remembered. Cheers.

History Guy, your delivery is great. Fast but really clear. Thanks for your work.

My father was a pilot in the Philippine Air Force at the time. We were never told, but we detected an unusually high and tense level of activity in the USAF facilities at Clark AB. Now I know, after all these years, thanks to the History Guy.

This is a awesome video, you explained the climate that existed in the late 70's early 80's well. Pop culture also jumped on the accidental Nuclear War theme with movies such as Wargames.

From what I understand, Cheyenne Mountain is now half museum, half "we spent way too much on this to close it".

Brzeziński's wife probably suspected something happened the next day, when washing his pants...

This channel is amazing! Thank you for all of the great videos!

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was on duty that night. I was alone and received an order to recall all troops in my department. I was at Offutt AFB. I worked maintenance for the 55th. We launched the Looking Glass' primary alert bird. We had at least one Looking Glass already in the air doing routine patrol. I can't remember if we launched the cocked spare. The E-4 was ordered to launch. It's crew arrived and it taxied. It held up on the hammerhead waiting because their might be an error. Those little computer errors were a near death experience for all of us. The memories of those issues are enough to stop me in my tracks while I relive the memories.

Wow! I had no idea this occurred. I was just 4 years old at this time. I’m so glad this was just a false alarm. Thanks History Guy!

Although I have previously known of this incident, listening to your report gave me chills all over again. As a child I remember duck and cover bomb drills in school.

Love the content! Thanks for sharing with us all. I find history fascinating and the way you cover these different topics is excellent.

I admire your bandwidth: story telling, facility with technology, and enthusiasm that is hypnotic. Very many thanks, your videos are like mini University courses.

It would only be fair to follow this up with the 1983 soviet nuclear false alarm incident.

I remember this event. I was stationed at Grand Forks AFB, ND as a Gunner on B-52H bombers. I was on alert and was woken in the middle of the night by the klaxon, Up and dressing while technically asleep was odd. Funny note, I dressed so quickly and charged out the door that much later I realized my boots were on the wrong feet. Not knowing what was going on as the crew went to their pre-launch checklist as 6 bombers and 6 tankers fast taxied to the end of the runway where we sat for a couple of hours. I did eventually have time to put my boots on the correct feet to my chagrin as the crew ribbed me for quite some time.

That is such an amazing story. Having a pressure suit just barely work is golden -- the difference between surviving or not. 👏👏👏👏👏

Love your explanation. Cousin was inside Cheyenne Mountain that night. Said it was beyond belief but everyone did their job.

My Father was a B-52 Pilot stationed at Fairchild AFB, that cold November day. I can close my eyes and hear the alert sirens very easily. Providence is a mercy not often granted. I hope that the that "lucky" rabbits foot will always be there!!

Now I want to watch Dr. Strangelove again.

I worked at NORAD during the Granite Sentry upgrade, to replace the hardware that was part of this event. We were all briefed on this event and the contributing factors which lead to this frightening event. New systems and upgraded software were installed, and a Cheyenne Mountain Training System (CMTS) were in the works as part of my project management responsibilities. Very interesting work - all gone now that Cheyenne Mountain has been closed due to it being obsolete. 427M - I had forgotten about that, and this is a fantastic reminder. Thanks for yet another great video.

Excellent report! We all need to know these things!

Just stumbled upon your vids. Love them. You have the distinct honor of being the ONLY person that I have clicked the bell icon to get notifications from. Keep up the great work

I was stationed in Fulda with 1/11 ACR in 1983 when we went on full alert, issued ammo and rolled out to the FEBA in at 3am in a driving sleet storm and remained for a week Never knowing it was due to Able Archer 83 It really is MAD and the world seems to have lost the fear we used to live with

I never tire of your videos. I was 19 in 1979 and I did not know this. In about that time, maybe 1980, Seattle, in the cast distance from my parents property had a massive electrical storm. I remember at the time asking my Mom, what was that, was it a nuclear attack. She didn't know but said, it was sad we had to wonder. It turned out to be just a very unusual and massive electrical storm (which were relatively rare in WA)... We had them but not like that one.

I was assigned to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex from 75 to 79 and rotated out shortly before this incident. There were the lighted signs everywhere indicating the current DEFCON status, 1 to 5 and every time the status would change a loud buzzer would sound which would make you jump. The highest Defcon I saw while there was 2 and I recall the status words assigned to them at the time. Defcon 2 was "Lemon Juice" and Defcon 1 was "Big Noise" which was appropriate since Defcon 1 indicated we were at war. I will say that Cheyenne Mountain was the best duty station I had while in the Air Force, a truly impressive piece of engineering. One thing I will say from experience, if there had been a solar flare during this 1979 incident, there's a good chance none of us would be here today. The charged articles emitted by solar flares raised hell with our early warning spy satellites we had back then and caused lots of false alarms of possible missile launches. For that reason NORAD had a unit to keep them advised of occurring solar flares.

"MEIN FUHRER, I CAN WALK!!! "

The documents that give a detailed description of the timing of events are still largely redacted. Some references assert this alarm came at 9am, not 3 am. The description of the 3 am phone call was recounted in Robert Gates 1996 book “The Ultimate Insiders Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War.”

I was on duty that night at SAC HQ. This guy knows what he is talking about. "Peace is our Profession". We collectively, served and ended the Cold War without firing a shot. The dissolution of SAC is a testament to its resounding mission success. Of course, no one really cares outside of those that have served in the U.S. Military. I still hope that some day, the Cold War and its warriors will be recognized for our achievement but I'm not holding my breath.

Thank you very much for a truly terrifying story! I can only recall the old adage "Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it!"

Love your stuff, History Guy...please keep 'em coming! In several bits in this otherwise fine episode, the US jet interceptors shown are F-102(Delta Daggers) not F-106(Delta Darts), the second an improved aircraft from the same manufacturer(Convair). Thanks again!

Hi History Guy! I'm so glad your subscriptions are climbing. You'll be the next great RU-vid celebrity!

You always have interesting shows. The 2 subjects I liked in school were history and science. At 65 it's still how I feel. 🙂👍🇺🇸

Thank you for the history lesson. Well done as always ❤

I was on the alert pad at Mather AFB as a B-52 Crew Chief. I remember the claxton going off at a time it had never before. We stood by at our airplanes for hours before we stood down. Yes, i was a little nervous...

Grew up in North Bay in Canada. it housed Cheyenne Mountains back up facility and had an American Officer as a neighbor. He told a few stories of funny things that happened from ghost radar images that caused concern to the big screen going blank.

I've enjoyed all of your videos. Thank you sir.

We love History Guy who causes us to love history. Thank you History Guy.

I remember passing through those doors many times during its construction, the one thing I remember most was the delicious water from the underground streams and the huge springs on which the buildings sat on.

I was stationed @ Bitburg AFB, Germany, 1975-1976. It had the largest nuclear storehouse outside the CONUS. Everyone on the base had to attend a meeting sometime in '75, so the "Old Man" could make sure we ALL understood our mission. To those of us who had Secret or above clearances, it was a somewhat different briefing. In short, we were told that, of the 85 A/C assigned to the base, we were maintaining a 75% readiness rate, which wasn't good enough. However, he did tell us that, in the event the balloon went up, each capable fighter would be loaded with a nuke, and head to their assigned target. Whoever returned, would be refueled, reloaded, and go out again, followed by another possible refuel/reload for any survivors. By then, it was assured there would be no base left to return to. That was a sobering meeting. Something you wished never happened, because you ALSO realized that 10's to 100's of millions worldwide, were going to be dead within an hour if "it" happened.

"Dr. Strangelove," revisited. It's a great movie from 1964 and predicted this kind of thing. We lived right next to a SAC base in California at the time of this Nov. 1979 false alarm. Would have LOVED to watch the Air Force scramble from the perimeter fence that kept us civilians out. . .

I just stumbled across your channel. Subscribed. Thank you for the interesting and quality content!