The President Had Ninety Seconds: A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited

By Dr. Dave Felsburg

The President Had Ninety Seconds: A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited is a fictional account of actual events set toward the end of the Cold War era. The US and the USSR had completed the largest buildups of nuclear weaponry in history. While the US was the only nation in history to have used nuclear weapons against an enemy, all the nations on earth feared a repeat of the massive destruction, loss of life, and long-term results of the release of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, to end World War II. Nevertheless, the missile warning systems deep within the granite caverns of NORADs Cheyenne Mountain complex rang out its alarms four times between November 1979 and June 1980. Each alarm announced missile attacks on the US more than a thousand times greater than the earlier attacks on Japan. As the warning systems projected the location and time of impact for each of the 250 nuclear missiles launched against us, the presidents missile warning telecon was convened. With only a few minutes left before the missiles began to strike, NORADs senior director recapped the situation for the president. Once the missiles began to hit; no capability would remain for nuclear retaliation. Our nuclear strike force would be eliminated while still on the ground. The senior director announced over the telecon, Mr. President, we now have ninety seconds to approve nuclear retaliation, or our arsenal will be destroyed on the ground. The President Had Ninety Seconds: A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512715552

Dr. Dave Felsburg

Dr. Dave Felsburg offers a fictional novel from the technical side of his forty-year bivocational ministry career. The doctor holds engineering degrees at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, a seminary diploma, four years of post-graduate seminary work and a PhD in organizational behavior and management. His secular work was in the acquisition of missile warning, space surveillance and atmospheric defense sensors and command and control systems for the US Government. His career traversed civilian and military Government service, and executive management of the four companies he founded. He currently lives in central Florida.

Book preview

THE PRESIDENT HAD

NINETY SECONDS

A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited

Dr. Dave Felsburg

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Copyright © 2015 Dr. Dave Felsburg.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the

King James Version of the Bible.

This volume is a fictional account of actual events. The people mentioned herein

are fictional characters. Any resemblance they have to real characters is

purely coincidental and unintended.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1556-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1557-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1555-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916741

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/16/2015

Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgements and Dedication

Introduction

The Cold War Era

About the Author

Chapter 1 Heading to Work

The Operational Mission

Dugan Meets Salems

From Headquarters to Commander

Staffing the New Orderly Room

Reporting for Work at the Mountain

Working in the Bunker

Inside the CSS

Chapter 2 Just Another Routine Midnight Shift

Crypto Card Changes

The ITW/AA and Z Time

CSS Activity Schedule

Routine Activities Begin

Chapter 3 The Routine is Interrupted

Routine Overcome by Reality

Missile Attack Detected

The 3:00 AM Call

Motivated by Pressure

Switches that Don’t Switch

The Final Data Point

CINCSTRATCOM Takes His Stand

Chapter 4 The Phantom Missile Attack

CSS Computer Maintenance Training

The Process of Error

Systems Expertise

ITW/AA Sensor Architecture

Corroborated Missile Attack

Experts Miss a Sign

Signs Missed on 9 November?

Missile Attack Source

Important Missile Warning Success

SPACECOM Reports Findings

Formal Report Forthcoming

Formal Report Documentation

9 November 1979 Event Report Content

Chapter 5 Reestablishing that Elusive Routine

Missing the Point

The Gate-Keeper

Immediate Procedural Rewrite

Scenario Mishandled, Procedure Violated, System Software Failed

Draft Procedures Accepted for Implementation

9 November 1979: Faded but Not Forgotten

Dugan Returns to Command

UCMJ Actions Taken on Personal Errors

CY-80 begins with Renewed Enthusiasm

Chapter 6 The Elusive Routine Eluded

New Missile Warning Alarms – Real or Not?

Basic Alarm Theory

Data Scopes

The Tough Guys List

New Alarms Repeated

Latest Tough Guys Problem

Chapter 7 Return to the CSS

New Position

Best of CSS Computer Maintenance

Elusive Nature of Intermittent Problems

Past Errors Lead to Present Problems

Testing 28 May - 3 June Computer Problem Solution

Do It Again!

Preparing for the IG Inspection

Verifying the Repair

Celebrating Success

Chapter 8 Preventing the Next False Missile Warning

The Force Multiplier

Unauthorized CSS Computer Mod’

9 November 1979 False Missile Warning Event Anniversary

SPACECOM’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO)

The Slope vs. the Line

CTO Explains to the General

Chapter 9 The Threat of a New Cold War

Deadly Serious Situation

Does Past Speak to Future?

References

Appendix A Integrated Tactical Warning & Attack Assessment Systems (Partial List)

Appendix B The Other Books By This Author

ABSTRACT

The President Had Ninety Seconds: A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited is a fictional account based on actual events that took place in the 1979 – 80 Cold War setting as told by an actual participant. On 9 November 1979, the missile warning alarms sounded throughout the Cheyenne Mountain Complex near Colorado Springs, CO. The giant, wall-sized display screens in the 427M Missile Warning System’s Command Post announced 250 enemy missile launches detected by US surveillance satellites 23,000 miles in space. The missiles were launched from within the Soviet Union’s boundaries and had projected impact points on major population centers and attack retaliation facilities throughout the North American Continent.

Long-range B-52 bombers at Air Force bases and nuclear missiles in silos across the US started their countdown sequences for immediate take-off or launch. Bomber pilots already flying race-track patterns within striking range of predesignated primary and secondary targets within the USSR were ordered to open their sealed, Top Secret orders and proceed to fail-safe positions to prepare for delivery of their nuclear payloads. Nuclear retaliation forces had to be launched before incoming enemy missiles could reach them. The President had just ninety seconds to authorize launching our retaliatory resources if they were to survive the initial attack.

The President Had Ninety Seconds tells the story of the preparation, execution and real-time responses to these terrible events as experienced by an Air Force officer deep within the granite walls of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. No time remained for philosophical pontification or considerations of what might have been. Delay on the part of any team member could place US retaliatory forces at risk and our nation’s survival in peril. Global thermonuclear war will destroy everything about mankind’s current way of life. This story is particularly relevant as recent international events make the resurgence of the 1960s Cold War environment imminent.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATION

The story of The President Had Ninety Seconds is woven around the work of the myriad of dedicated military and civilian personnel involved in defending our country against the unthinkable threat of global thermonuclear war. In the uniforms of all four services of the United States and Canada, men and women are trained in the complex disciplines of computer hardware and software systems, and intelligence data gathering and interpretation. They routinely spent countless overtime hours a quarter mile deep in a man-made granite cavity in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The President Had Ninety Seconds is dedicated to those who protected our country and our way of life by assuring our enemies that Détente had real power. It describes the history that may well predict our near-term future.

Many people, ideas and resources combined with immeasurable hours of research were needed to complete a work such as The President Had Ninety Seconds. But certainly no one sacrificed more than my wife, Isabel. This novel is dedicated to them.

INTRODUCTION

The Cold War Era

As political relations between the United States and Russia are once again heating up, it seems appropriate for a reminder of what is at stake for the US and the international community. The President Had Ninety Seconds: A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited is a fictional account of actual events set toward the end of the Cold War era between November 1979 and June 1980. The US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) had completed the largest buildups of nuclear weaponry in history. Recognizing the overwhelming dangers for themselves and the rest of the world, leaders of both nations entered negotiations to reduce existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the hope of limiting overall numbers and preventing further nuclear weapon proliferation. Discussions between Communist Leader Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and President Richard Nixon in November 1969 resulted in a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), which would curtail the arms race. Two treaties were signed on May 26, 1972, comprising SALT I. They were the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. While the US was the only nation in history to have used nuclear weapons against an enemy, all the nations of Earth feared a repeat of the massive destruction, loss of life and long-term results of the release of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan to end World War II.

As if the horrible truth of that destruction was not bad enough, members of the science fiction community were competing to present the worse versions of calamity imaginable resulting from nuclear detonations and subsequent radioactive fallout. Gigantic mutations and monstrous creatures of all kinds were filling the world’s movie and television screens. Other writers and producers were concentrating on the realities of the nuclear threat between the US and the USSR. The newest weapons were called hydrogen bombs (H-bombs) and had destructive capabilities and radioactive fallout that dwarfed the earlier atomic, or A-bombs.

The US and the USSR had each developed, produced and deployed thousands of long-range missiles with nuclear warheads aimed at destroying each other. SALT II was signed on June 18, 1979, by Premier Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmie Carter, limiting each country to only 2,400 nuclear weapon warheads. Scientific research resulted in new capabilities for single long-range missiles to carry multiple, independently targetable nuclear warheads. Discussions of the massive destructive capabilities of these terrible weapons gave way to evaluations of how many times over either nation could be destroyed by the nuclear stockpile of the other.

Also in the late 1970s, discussions began concerning how current air defense systems would be obsolete in detecting these new threats in time for a meaningful response. By the time either nation could detect the incoming missiles from the other, their attack response capabilities could be totally destroyed while still on the ground or in their missile silos. Therefore, any retaliatory capabilities would be eliminated by the initial attack, with any residual capabilities for post-attack reconstruction falling victim to the months of radioactive fallout that followed.

New surveillance systems were designed and deployed into near-earth and deep-space orbits to provide earlier warning than the traditional ground-based (line-of-sight) platforms could deliver. The new technology placed surveillance systems as far as 23,000 miles into space and allowed detection of missile launches several minutes before they could reach North America. New words like interception, retaliation, reconstitution and reconstruction entered the vocabularies of military strategists. With sufficient warning of a nuclear attack, it was almost certain that the country under attack could protect its nuclear arsenal and launch a lethal retaliatory attack. In brief, mutual destruction was assured and that truth generated a natural deterrent to taking the initial act.

Quickly responding to the early warning of a missile attack became absolutely crucial to national survival. Lengthening warning times through better launch detection resulted in both countries developing Sea Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM) technologies. These submarine-based, nuclear missile launch platforms could be positioned just a few miles off the enemy’s coast (international waters), which reduced warning times significantly. The result left only three to seven minutes from the detection of a missile launch until its impact. Once a missile launch was detected, immediate actions would be taken to get vulnerable personnel and retaliatory resources off the ground. Defense system leaders would immediately summon the President and Premier into respective conference calls and present all attack information available. For the United States, the President would be advised of how the launch was detected, the degree of certainty of the attack (e.g., corroborating detections) and times to impact on various military and civilian targets. Other participants on the telephone conference call (or telecon) would be the Commander of Space Command (the ultimate controllers of the warning systems), the Commander in Chief (CINC) of the Strategic Command (the ultimate controllers of response weaponry), primary and alternate National Military Command and Control centers and various military intelligence advisors.

At 3:00 AM (EST) of Friday, 9 November 1979, the President, armed with this information and responses to any questions he might have, would have less than ninety seconds to decide whether to authorize a retaliatory nuclear missile strike or risk having some of the nation’s response options eliminated by arriving enemy missiles; hence, the name of this novel - The President Had Ninety Seconds: A Thermonuclear Holocaust Awaited.

About the Author

Fourteen years earlier, in June of 1965, our author was graduating from high school and beginning a civilian career in industrial chemistry. Six months into that career, however, the country’s military draft required his service in a new career of international Command, Control, Computer, Communications and Intelligence (C4I) systems for the nation’s missile warning, space surveillance and atmospheric defense systems. After seven years as an Air Force enlisted man, Dr. Felsburg was awarded a scholarship for an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering at New Mexico State University. Two years later as an Air Force officer, he gained entry into the world of defense systems engineering and integration. After completing a master’s in industrial engineering at the University of Utah in 1979, and reaching the rank of Captain, he was assigned to Space Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Later that year, he was appointed as the first Squadron Section Commander for the newly formed 47th Communications Group (47 Comm Group) at Cheyenne Mountain AFS, Colorado. Most of the men and women under his command worked in the nation’s Missile Warning, Space Surveillance and Atmospheric Defense Systems. At five minutes before 1:00 AM (MST) on 9 November 1979, the doctor experienced the first of four warnings of massive missile attacks on the US. The other three would follow in the next year on 28 May and 3 and 6 June 1980.

Dr. Felsburg’s personal experience of the actions and conversations during these real events and the associated responses by the President of the United States, the Premier of the Soviet Union, and military leaders across the globe form the basis of this fictional account. The doctor’s list of characters is headed by President Jamie Parkins and Premier Nicholai Matovic. Captain Doug Dugan is the leading character in the novel, as he takes us through the four warnings of missile attack that gave the President only ninety seconds to decide on a retaliatory nuclear missile attack. The result could be an international thermonuclear holocaust that could significantly modify or completely eliminate civilization as we once knew it.

Dr. Felsburg has authored five previous books, including Talkin’ about Christ – Over the Back Fence (Xulon Press, 2010b), How God Gets You Back (CrossBooks Publishing, 2010a), Profiling the Prospect (CrossBooks Publishing, 2011), Making the Little Much (CrossBooks Publishing, 2012). and Inside the Church (CrossBooks Publishing,