Lima… Juliet… India…
Some say that when the end of the world comes, it will be with a shout, or a trumpet. In this room, it comes in a calm, measured monotone.
It’s a fairly quiet room, sitting quietly in a semi-secret location. Within, we pass the time reading, or conversing and joking around, or drinking bad Army coffee. Suddenly a radio crackles to life with a “Stand-by” message. Everything stops, except for the well-rehearsed reaching for a pencil and pad. All attention focused on what comes out of the radio next.
“SIERRA DELTA LIMA ROMEO OSCAR WHISKEY EIGHT FOXTROT…”
You listen, and write, as the alphanumerics flow in a steady rhythm. There is no time to think -- that will come later. Hesitating, unsure of what letter or number you heard, will cause you to miss more. Just write them as you hear them. Others are writing, too. You can compare later.
“…OSCAR SEVEN ROMEO ECHO YANKEE OSCAR ROMEO TANGO SIERRA ECHO DELTA TWO ECHO HOTEL TANGO FIVE…”
I hadn’t really thought about this for years, until I saw a recent episode of the television show “Fringe.” The plot involved the existence of mysterious “number stations,” which would recite strings of numbers and letters on certain global radio frequencies. This was not just a sci-fi TV invention, number stations are real. It is commonly believed they are coded messages by and for various spy or military intelligence networks. But since everything about them is obviously classified, and it is suspected they are used by every major power, no one officially says anything about their nature.
I don’t know anything (honestly!) about most of these. But there was a time when a few of those messages were for me.
“…HOTEL TANGO ALPHA ECHO DELTA FIVE ECHO MIKE OSCAR CHARLIE ECHO BRAVO FOUR MIKE ALPHA SIX INDIA ONE WHISKEY OSCAR NOVEMBER SEVEN”
The letters and numbers stop, and everyone taking them down cross-checks that there are two clean copies. Two-person control is critical. The codebook is opened, decoding starts immediately - clocks are ticking, don’t think about to what. The message’s intention is clear. I hit an alarm. Within seconds crewmen and computer techs are running to the missiles. The numbers and letters give up their secrets. Two locks on the safe open. Authentication proceeds.
Within a tense few minutes, we either congratulate ourselves on another successful exercise, or there is the pushing of buttons or turning of keys, and with a flash and sonic boom, our mission is complete. Our nuclear-tipped rockets are in flight. In another several minutes, multitudes die by our hands. Odds are, the karmic reward from the Soviets is already seconds away from arriving to turn us to dust.
You can understand why, even a quarter-century later, I’m not big on talking about this. Still, if no one says anything, people forget.
A recent discussion in my online Veterans group notes that because we Cold Warriors “didn’t see combat” we are not eligible for organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion. Actually, technically, I could join the Legion, but only because of an accident of the calendar - my service coincided with the dates of the Grenada invasion, an action I had nothing whatsoever to do with. Earlier missile jockeys qualify by serving while others fought in Vietnam.
Then again, maybe they have a point in excluding us, since part of our job was just sitting around listening to the radio.
This myopia towards history could endanger everyone soon. Right-wing activists are still furious over the approval of the new START treaty with Russia, limiting our frighteningly-large stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Never mind that generals and military experts from both Republican and Democrat administrations endorsed it, it still leaves both sides with the ability to wipe out humanity many times over, and without it we have no inspectors in the former Soviet Union. Short-sighted shouters proclaimed it bad, because it came to a vote while a man they hate is in the White House.
Now one of their number is challenging Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), saying he is somehow not Republican enough, using the treaty as Exhibit A. Lugar has been one of the rare voices of sanity, especially for the GOP, in defense issues. Via his Nunn-Lugar legislation, he has helped with the destruction of nuclear weapons on both sides, making the world a little safer with each one taken off-line and dismantled. He has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Granted, the man has been in office a long time, and someone else might do the job better. But whoever is in Congress after 2012, someone must continue Lugar’s disarmament work. Otherwise, we continue with a world in which certain ears still wait to hear certain messages -- the numbers and letters that spell our doom.
- - - - - - -
Entry for LJ Idol Week 16: Open Topic.
Deadline is Sunday, so voting will be next week.
It’s a fairly quiet room, sitting quietly in a semi-secret location. Within, we pass the time reading, or conversing and joking around, or drinking bad Army coffee. Suddenly a radio crackles to life with a “Stand-by” message. Everything stops, except for the well-rehearsed reaching for a pencil and pad. All attention focused on what comes out of the radio next.
“SIERRA DELTA LIMA ROMEO OSCAR WHISKEY EIGHT FOXTROT…”
You listen, and write, as the alphanumerics flow in a steady rhythm. There is no time to think -- that will come later. Hesitating, unsure of what letter or number you heard, will cause you to miss more. Just write them as you hear them. Others are writing, too. You can compare later.
“…OSCAR SEVEN ROMEO ECHO YANKEE OSCAR ROMEO TANGO SIERRA ECHO DELTA TWO ECHO HOTEL TANGO FIVE…”
I hadn’t really thought about this for years, until I saw a recent episode of the television show “Fringe.” The plot involved the existence of mysterious “number stations,” which would recite strings of numbers and letters on certain global radio frequencies. This was not just a sci-fi TV invention, number stations are real. It is commonly believed they are coded messages by and for various spy or military intelligence networks. But since everything about them is obviously classified, and it is suspected they are used by every major power, no one officially says anything about their nature.
I don’t know anything (honestly!) about most of these. But there was a time when a few of those messages were for me.
“…HOTEL TANGO ALPHA ECHO DELTA FIVE ECHO MIKE OSCAR CHARLIE ECHO BRAVO FOUR MIKE ALPHA SIX INDIA ONE WHISKEY OSCAR NOVEMBER SEVEN”
The letters and numbers stop, and everyone taking them down cross-checks that there are two clean copies. Two-person control is critical. The codebook is opened, decoding starts immediately - clocks are ticking, don’t think about to what. The message’s intention is clear. I hit an alarm. Within seconds crewmen and computer techs are running to the missiles. The numbers and letters give up their secrets. Two locks on the safe open. Authentication proceeds.
Within a tense few minutes, we either congratulate ourselves on another successful exercise, or there is the pushing of buttons or turning of keys, and with a flash and sonic boom, our mission is complete. Our nuclear-tipped rockets are in flight. In another several minutes, multitudes die by our hands. Odds are, the karmic reward from the Soviets is already seconds away from arriving to turn us to dust.
You can understand why, even a quarter-century later, I’m not big on talking about this. Still, if no one says anything, people forget.
A recent discussion in my online Veterans group notes that because we Cold Warriors “didn’t see combat” we are not eligible for organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion. Actually, technically, I could join the Legion, but only because of an accident of the calendar - my service coincided with the dates of the Grenada invasion, an action I had nothing whatsoever to do with. Earlier missile jockeys qualify by serving while others fought in Vietnam.
Then again, maybe they have a point in excluding us, since part of our job was just sitting around listening to the radio.
This myopia towards history could endanger everyone soon. Right-wing activists are still furious over the approval of the new START treaty with Russia, limiting our frighteningly-large stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Never mind that generals and military experts from both Republican and Democrat administrations endorsed it, it still leaves both sides with the ability to wipe out humanity many times over, and without it we have no inspectors in the former Soviet Union. Short-sighted shouters proclaimed it bad, because it came to a vote while a man they hate is in the White House.
Now one of their number is challenging Senator Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), saying he is somehow not Republican enough, using the treaty as Exhibit A. Lugar has been one of the rare voices of sanity, especially for the GOP, in defense issues. Via his Nunn-Lugar legislation, he has helped with the destruction of nuclear weapons on both sides, making the world a little safer with each one taken off-line and dismantled. He has even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Granted, the man has been in office a long time, and someone else might do the job better. But whoever is in Congress after 2012, someone must continue Lugar’s disarmament work. Otherwise, we continue with a world in which certain ears still wait to hear certain messages -- the numbers and letters that spell our doom.
- - - - - - -
Entry for LJ Idol Week 16: Open Topic.
Deadline is Sunday, so voting will be next week.