The National Emergency Airborne Command Post, the airplane that is supposed to carry the president during a nuclear attack to ensure his command over the nuclear arsenal even took off, though without President Jimmy Carter on board. SAC was alerted immediately and US missile crews were on the highest alert level possible, and nuclear bombers were preparing for takeoff. general and a Canadian air marshal work jointly to control the air defense of North America, shown January 26, 1966.Īt 3:00 AM on November 9, 1979, computers at NORAD HQ lit up with warnings that thousands of nuclear missiles had been launched from Soviet submarines and were headed for the US. Luckily, the F-102s never encountered the MiGs, and escorted the U-2 back to Alaska.Ī U.S.
Kennedy reportedly said that “there’s always some son of a b- that doesn’t get the word." Upon learning of the situation, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara reportedly yelled "this means war with the Soviet Union!" President John F. Strategic Air Command, worried about the prospect of losing another U-2, sent F-102 Delta Daggers armed with nuclear Falcon air-to-air missiles. The spy plan accidentally crossed into Soviet airspace and lost track of its location, spending 90 minutes in the area before turning East to leave.Īs it did so, at least six MiG fighter jets were sent to shoot down the U-2 while it was trespassing. On the very same day, US Air Force pilots almost caused WW III to break out over the Bering Sea, the body of water between Alaska and Russia.Ī US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was en route to the North Pole for an air sampling mission. Fortunately, the B-59's second in command, Vasili Arkhipov, disagreed with his other two counterparts, and convinced the captain to surface and await orders from Moscow. The captain of the B-59, Valentin Savitsky, thought the submarine was under attack and ordered to prepare the submarine's nuclear torpedo to be launched at the aircraft carrier USS Randolf.Īll three senior officers aboard the B-59 had to agree to the launch before it happened. The destroyer USS Beale dropped practice depth charges in an attempt to make the submarine surface. Later, a Soviet submarine, the B-59, was detected trying to break the blockade that the US Navy had established around Cuba. On the morning of October 27, a U-2F reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by the Soviets while over Cuba, killing its pilot, causing tensions to escalate to their highest point. Two of the instances actually occurred on the same day - October 27, 1962, arguably the most dangerous day in history. Soviet submarine B-59 on the surface, with a US Navy helicopter circling above, in the Caribbean Sea near Cuba, October 29, 1962.
They were stopped by a car that had raced to the airfield to tell the pilots to stop. The pilots were ordered to their nuclear armed F-106A interceptors, and were taxiing down the runway when it was determined the alarm was false. Pilots at Volk Field in neighboring Wisconsin to panic, since they knew that no tests or practices would happen while the military was on DEFCON 3. This triggered air raid alarms to go off at all air bases in the area. The guard, worried that the figure was a Soviet saboteur, shot at the figure and activated the sabotage alarm. Just after midnight on October 25, a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center in Minnesota saw a figure attempting to climb the fence around the facility. Tensions were already high during the crisis, and the US military was placed on DEFCON 3, two steps away from nuclear war. Four instances over the 13-day event stand out in particular, the first one happening on October 25, 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis is perhaps the closest the world has ever come to global nuclear war. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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