# A new US president is told that jets can be scrambled in X minutes, he calls them on it. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2015, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027 "2015-07-13T08:23:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/1 "2015-07-13T08:23:51Z")
I’m sure this has been answered here, but I can’t think of good search terms for it. I wanna say it was Nixon, or near that era. When told by a senior official that resources could be made ready at a minutes notice, he said something along the lines of “Do it now.” They failed and tripled the response time IIRC. Was it Johnson? Also, hey guys, it’s been a while. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/2 "2015-07-13T11:08:28Z")
I heard that it was Carter. The story is not so much that he said “Do it now”, but, rather, that he said “Let’s test this rascal”, with a big fat Fail. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/3 "2015-07-13T11:26:23Z")
Why would the prez have to do that? The military is kind of known for practicing what they need to do. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/4 "2015-07-13T11:37:33Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Why would the prez have to do that? The military is kind of known for practicing what they need to do. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they fail and cover it up. As a former military man himself, I bet Carter knew that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/5 "2015-07-13T12:14:06Z")
The story as commonly told is that shortly after his inauguration the relevant security folks promised Carter they could evacuate him from the White House to a safe place on no notice in a very short time. Like in response to a warning of an incoming nuke aimed at DC. He pulled a no-notice drill & the Keystone Kops routine began. Or so the story goes. AFAIK, there’s not been a publicly released official investigation into the actual event and the changes made in the aftermath. Google forth oh Curious One, and report back any primary sources you find. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/6 "2015-07-13T12:51:24Z")
Hell, drive him home with you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/7 "2015-07-13T17:32:25Z")
I don’t know if it’s true or not but the story about Carter ordering a surprise evacuation was mentioned in a Tom Clancy novel. I think it was _Executive Orders_. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/8 "2015-07-13T17:43:55Z")
I tried my Googlefu and found that … > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t know if it’s true or not but the story about Carter ordering a surprise evacuation was mentioned in a Tom Clancy novel. I think it was _Executive Orders_. … **Little Nemo** [also mentioned this in a similar thread 11 years ago.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=258919) That thread was 3rd hit Googling “Carter testd emergency evacuation.” First hit was [Chapter VIII of Brackman’s _Jimmy Carter Provocateur-in-Chief_ (pdf)](http://romanbrackman.com/Assets/carter_pr_ch8.pdf). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/9 "2015-07-13T19:01:40Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > … **Little Nemo** [also mentioned this in a similar thread 11 years ago.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=258919) That guy seems credible. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/10 "2015-07-13T19:09:04Z")
It’s worth noting that Carter is a Naval Academy graduate and served on nuclear submarines. He’s almost certainly the President who came to office with the most experience about nuclear weapon procedures. So he may have been more aware then most Presidents about the possible gap between how procedures worked in theory (including preplanned drills) and how they worked in real use (including unplanned drills). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/11 "2015-07-13T19:09:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That guy seems credible. Certainly modest. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/12 "2015-07-13T19:41:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Google **forth oh Curious One** , and report back any primary sources you find. Alright here’s what I found: [http://lmgtfy.com/?q=forth+oh+Curious+One](http://lmgtfy.com/?q=forth+oh+Curious+One) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/13 "2015-07-13T20:09:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s worth noting that Carter is a Naval Academy graduate and served on nuclear submarines. He’s almost certainly the President who came to office with the most experience about nuclear weapon procedures. So he may have been more aware then most Presidents about the possible gap between how procedures worked in theory (including preplanned drills) and how they worked in real use (including unplanned drills). He served on nuclear submarines, but were they fast attack or boomers? Or in nuclear war planning? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-us-president-is-told-that-jets-can-be-scrambled-in-x-minutes-he-calls-them-on-it/725027/14 "2015-07-13T20:45:55Z")
[Carter’s Naval record.](http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/jec/jcnavy.phtml) He was trained for serving on nuclear submarines as an engineer, but it seems he never actually did before his separation. His at-sea submarine service was all on diesels. Still, he knew the game.