The “drill” version is in Wargames, though, as has been pointed out, what was he going to do, shoot his partner? Then he certainly couldn’t launch.
The Crimson Tide version has the captain threaten not to murder the only officer who knows the combination to the launch-key safe, but to shoot one of his subordinates in the head, and in that film the officer caves in.
In Wargames, the USA ends up installing a computerized doomsday system that can automatically launch a full-scale nuclear strike, like (the popular/Hollywood conception of) the Soviet/Russian “Dead Hand” Система «Периметр».
about an hour from here in 1961 near Goldsboro NC a B 52 crashed and 2 atom bombs were dropped on purpose before the crash. One was found and the fail safe switch was set to off. the other one was in a swamp and only partly recovered.
I don’t recall seeing that scene in the edited-for-TV versions of Wargames though. But that was an Atlas missile and an Atlas “set” in the scene.
Still is! I recall seeing something last year in the Air Force times, how nearly a dozen folks under PRP “popped hot” for marijuana use. This, of course after a crew fell asleep with codes.
Tripler
Morale in the field is getting better, but it’s still fairly low FWIH.
In his memoir, Inside Delta Force, former Army commando Eric Haney states that U.S. governmental/Department of Energy/NEST policy was the same; nuclear materials rank higher in priority than actual hostage/other human lives.
This is still the case, yes. That I will confirm. I was EOD, and still work with those, and certain other response teams.
This is incorrect. “Broken Arrows” are accidents that involve nuclear weapons, that do not create a risk of nuclear war. “Empty Quiver” events are the theft, loss, or seizure of a functioning nuclear weapon. Both are “Pinnacle” reporting events, but may/may not be “NucFlash” reportable.
Tripler
SNM is expensive–it’s not like you can go to the Circle-K for some plutonium.
I was Launch Officer on an SSBN about thirty years ago. (Other than for security drills) I was only ever issued a sidearm when we were doing missile transfers.
Never mind the platoon (battalion?) of Marines with M16s and rocket launchers and attack helicopters up on the tender. Never mind the heavily armed civilian security in motor boats out in the river. Never mind all of my guys, both topside and belowdecks, with M14s and shotguns. I was required to carry a pistol.
Mind you, I wasn’t permitted to load it; the clip stayed on the other side of the belt. I’m sure there were circumstances in which I was allowed to unholster and put the clip in, but I no longer clearly remember what they were.
I wasn’t required to be anywhere in particular (other than on the boat). I wasn’t required to do anything in particular. I was just required to be armed.
Most of my recollections of weapons transfers involve eating tuna fish sandwiches in the wardroom with a .45 strapped to my hip.
That reminds me of my time on the Nimitz. Occasionally there would be some kind of drill, they would say a code word on the 1MC (PA system) and suddenly it was a good idea to be invisible.
One of those drills took place when I was taking a shower. The bathroom door had a plexiglass window in it, and when I was about to leave the bathroom in my tighty whities, carrying a towel, I looked through the window across the corridor into the eyes of a sailor holding a pump shotgun at port arms. He slowly turned his head side to side to let me know it would be a really bad idea to open the door at that moment.
Having the Marine detachment berthing so close to us and a “special weapons magazine” right nearby to our berthing made these kinds of moments all the more harrowing. It usually involved lots of armed Marines appearing suddenly from nowhere and the normal working sailors like me running into the deep recesses of the ship like cockroaches hiding from the kitchen light.