Christian Family Services Ministry

2-28-2022 – A Word to the Wise – Two weeks to remember

I lived in a different time, some of you did as well, or have heard of it. A few living during this period are still alive, a few, a very few experienced it more intimately.

I had a front role seat. A few technical matters are necessary.

October 1962, the Russians possessed a total of 45 missiles with ranges from 1200, to 2600 miles armed with nuclear warheads. They also had a few very few (5) R-7 missiles with a 9000-mile range.

It took 24 hours to fuel and prepare these missiles for flight. One of those R-7’s had our name on it In contrast The United States possessed Jupiter, Thor, Atlas, Polaris, and Titan missiles, combined with Great Britain a total of 432 missiles were pointed at Russia.

These missiles required about 15 minutes to fuel and prepare for launch. In addition, there were 66 B-52s carrying hydrogen bombs constantly airborne during this two-week period (October 16-28, 1962).

In October, all leaves were canceled, and we were placed at DEFCON 3 on October 16.

Our task was to see the Titan missiles in silo’s surrounding McConnell AFB, Wichita Kansas was ready for flight, and we have a six-hour notice. It was difficult these birds were constantly going down for one reason or another.

But all of them had to be ready to go. On October 24th we were ordered to DEFCON 2. This had never happened before all the missiles had to be ready for launch in 15 minutes.

It was certain McConnell would be hit first so the missiles had to be on their way. We stayed at DEFCON 2 until November 15. Twelve hours on, 12 hours off.

Years later I learned the president had been told if war occurred, there was a 95% chance that all of Russia would have been obliterated, every square mile and at most we would have taken 1 or maybe 2 hits.

Obviously, McConnell would have taken the hit. The school desk practice would have been useless. Lesson learned? I have never again underestimated the ability of the Lord to bring a swift end to all of His creation.