Training For Nuclear War

E-6B Mercury nuclear command and control aircraft.

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense: When The Football Comes Out, Who Watches The President?

WASHINGTON: The men and women of US Strategic Command watched a clock count down. When it did, they knew their base would be “a smoking hole in the ground.” It was a simulation, sure, but “it’s deadly serious,” said Army Brig. Gen. Gregory Bowen. As STRATCOM’s deputy director of global operations, he commanded the 10-day Global Thunder 2018 exercise when STRATCOM chief Gen. John Hyten had to sleep.

At the end of the final exchange of missiles, down in…what we call the battle deck, which the commander operates from (at Offut Air Force Base), there’s a countdown clock to when Omaha is going to become a smoking hole in the ground,” Bowen told the DefenseOne conference here. “When that clock hit zero, they shut down all the screens, and the lights dim, and everybody just sat there for a minute and thought about what just happened.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: They can train and conduct nuclear drills all that they want .... but if the nightmare does occur (i.e. nuclear war) .... my gut is telling me that for many all of these preparations will mean squat when the missiles are coming in.