Prologue

 

     In the novel, an inventory error occurred in Switzerland in 1970 as a result of moving three cylinders a few meters to the left for cleaning purposes and not putting them back, thus creating an empty inventory space. That produced an unsolved Empty Quiver condition for over 50 years.

     Empty Quiver is the term used by the US military to designate an intact lost nuclear weapon. That has occurred eight times in US nuclear history. In some circles, the term Broken Arrow is used to designate lost, jettisoned, and damaged nuclear weapons. That has occurred 32 times in US nuclear history.  

     Your author adds the term Rogue Sword to designate an intact lost nuclear weapon (Empty Quiver) that has fallen into the hands of a terrorist outfit that has the capability to make it detonate as a nuclear weapon.

     Five decades later that Empty Quiver problem turned into a Pinnacle Rogue Sword condition. That became a national emergency.

     The story describes the development of the lowest-yield nuclear weapon ever made - the Davy Crockett - and involves specialized intelligence gathered on a certain vitriolic Sunni Arab cleric and an Arab charity in Saudi Arabia that was dabbling in international affairs.

     A desperate race occurs to prevent a major US catastrophe.

​

***

​

     Pentomic Era Test

​

     “Fire!” yelled First Lt. Miles Grimm. He was one member of a five-man ABG (Atomic Battle Group). The date was July 17, 1962. They embarked on something never previously done. Fire an armed atomic bomb out of a gun and in addition, survive!

     The 10:00 am desert temperature hovered at 90ºF. The top-secret vermillion red 11-inch diameter 51lb watermelon-shaped Cold War nuclear weapon sat on a three-foot-long high-strength hollow aluminum spigot, muzzle-loaded down the smooth-bore barrel of the 155 mm launcher tube (M29).

 

***

 

     The lieutenant was not especially nervous at this time. The M101 tracking sabot from the 37mm rifle ripped out of the barrel suspended under the Illinois Rock Island Arsenal-built, smoothbore 155 mm, launcher tube, and within a second or so, his spotters saw the puff of desert dirt as the M101 spotter round hit the desert grid 2.49 miles away. He was satisfied.

     They had the correct elevation of the launcher to hit his target on the weapons’ range. 

     He looked at his five-man ABG of soldiers - they nodded - all of them now looked and felt nervous. This was going to be the real thing.

First Lt. Grimm took in a deep breath, paused, and then yelled, “Fire!”

     This time, Grimm was exceptionally nervous - a misfire now would vaporize himself and his ABG.

     The pressure inside the recoilless rifle barrel and inside the hollow aluminum spigot rapidly rose to about 800 pounds per square inch as the propellant charge exploded. This 800 psi overpressure caused a set of two shear pins in the tail-well of the M-388 W-54 to separate and arm the nuclear weapon. The Little Feller bomb climbed away from the aluminum rod which fell to the nearby desert floor. This occurred about fourteen feet after leaving the muzzle of the M29 launcher.  (The UK made a similar weapon referred to as the Wee Gwen).

     President Trump, following his election, was concerned that many existing US nuclear weapons were “too big to use” in terms of yield, and, despite significant pushback, in February 2018, he issued a new NPR directive (Nuclear Posture Review). He instructed the nuclear bomb designers at Pantex in Amarillo, Texas, where retired weapons are stockpiled or disassembled in what are called “gravel gerties” and new weapons are designed, to design a new, low-yield nuclear weapon. The designers took the W76 (yield 100kt - which would flatten an entire city) formerly deployed on the now-retired Trident nuclear submarines and converted it to the W76-2, employing an M4A ICBM reentry vehicle ~95kg. The mod-2 W76 version has a yield of 5-7 kt. The conversion is based upon the doctrine described as 'escalate to de-escalate’ to counter Russian tactical nuclear weaponry. The yield reduction is obtained by removing the secondary and replacing it with an inert object while retaining the first phase detonation on the W76 munition and retaining a variable amount of injected deuterium/tritium gas to control the yield between 5 and 7kt. That makes this nuclear weapon about a third as powerful as the bomb dropped in Hiroshima (15kt) on August 6, 1945. These new low-yield nuclear weapons were initially deployed on the USS Tennessee in October 2019, and are in active deterrence service today. Each submarine has two W76-2 and a mixture of W76-1 (50 kt) and W88 (480kt) strategic nuclear missiles. Each W76-2 weapon is fitted with an MC4700 AF&F (arming, fuzing, and firing) mechanism which is designed to detonate the device by computer management over the target GPS coordinates and thus increase accuracy in case of potential overshoot. It is obviously safer to use some sort of missile rather than a plane that would be threatened by enemy antiaircraft weapons.

     About two miles away from ground zero at Area 18, on the Nevada Test Site in relative safety, was a collection of military brass, nuclear physicists, and politicians - some in observation trenches, others in highly reinforced concrete bunkers with armored glass. The military and Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist observers totaled 396 individuals - including Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and JCS and presidential adviser, General Maxwell D. Taylor. The bunkers were loaded with recording equipment. Another 1,000 troops were present to simulate battlefield conditions also positioned about two miles distant from the target site. They were in trenches and also justifiably nervous, especially regarding falling radioactive debris and then the possibility of encountering 7 PSI atmospheric overpressure at the shock wave time. They probably would not survive that level of overpressure wave should that occur. The authorities stated at two miles that would not be an issue. But this was a first containing known unknowns. Twenty-six minutes post-detonation, the troops, and tanks would roll across the detonation site to simulate battlefield conditions. The equipment they had set up included - colored sand columns buried in the ground, overpressure barometric sensors, radiation sensors, electromagnetic pulse sensors, modified Krause-Ogle tubes for measuring selected subatomic particle flux, thermometers for measuring superheat, crater measuring post-blast, and the like. There was a distant buzz from aircraft flying high in the western sky - they were loaded with cameras and other sensing devices. Some were to fly into and sample the Wilson cloud. The pilots were authorized by the Atomic Energy Commission to receive up to 3.9 rem (radiation equivalent in man) during the series. (Other observers were limited to 3 rem). The actual aircraft in military jargon were designated as L-20s, but in civilian terms, they were Cessna 180s with Park 6-inch focal length cameras flying between 1,200 and 1,500 ft. They flew west well away from the test site to avoid the violent thermal updraft at detonation. Their job was to take pre and post-crater site photography and the atomic Wilson cloud at detonation, and film it as it tore toward the heavens.          Others were ordered to dive into and sample the rapidly rising radiation cloud - a significantly hazardous function.

     This Pentomic-era test was one of the “Atomic Annie’s.” It was code-named Project Sunbeam (also Dominic II). The detonation was carried out at the Nevada Test Site Area 18, some 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The area is now called the Nevada National Security Site.

     The projectile roared out of the recoilless launcher at 400 mph. The 155 mm launcher was welded solidly to the reinforced right rear fender of the Willys Jeep. The jeep rocked crazily on its suspension springs under the back thrust of the launcher. The projectile was hurled in theory 2.49 miles downrange from the Jeep. The ABG members held their collective breath as they watched the atomic bomb hurl downrange. Then they dove for cover behind the Willys Jeep and quickly slipped on very dark glasses and peeped over the Jeep’s fenders.

     The nuclear bomb actually only made 1.7 miles downrange and detonated 20 feet above the desert floor as designed. The yield was calculated at 18 tons of TNT equivalent. (That is many times the explosive force of the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing). The typical double flash of a nuclear detonation occurred, followed by a deep growling sound as the earth vibrated. The shock wave raced over the jeep within seconds of the blast. All members of the ABG survived and were later checked and found to be negative for radiation and burn exposure. The blast cloud quickly rose to 20,000 feet in the sky and was disbursed by the jet stream above 20,000 ft.

     “Little Feller” I was the last above-ground nuclear test conducted at the Nevada Atomic Test Site and all subsequent detonation tests were completed underground until all nuclear bomb testing was stopped, as mandated by multiple international agreements. 

     The “Little Feller” bomb, also called the “Davy Crockett” was the smallest nuclear weapon ever designed and built and deployed by the United States. About 2,100 of the devices were built and stockpiled. They were deployed in Europe, (especially about the Fulda Gap area), an area between the Hesse-Thuringian border (the former intra-German border) about 60 miles northeast of Frankfurt am Main. Fulda Gap contains two corridors of lowlands through which tanks would have driven in a surprise attack effort by the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies to gain crossing(s) of the Rhine River.

     Fulda Gap: This is a highly strategic lowland corridor - it was also where Napoleon departed Germany after his decisive defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations was fought October 16-19, 1813, at Leipzig, Saxony. The coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden, led by Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, decisively defeated Napoleon I, Emperor of France, and his 177,000 strong army - some 73,000 French troops were lost in the three-day battle.

     Fulda Gap resumed critical importance and was heavily militarized during the Cold War. It remains a strategically important piece of real estate should something go wrong.    

     There were two main areas of “hot” Cold War – (1) the DMZ separating North and South Korea and (2) the Fulda Gap in West Germany, very close to the (IGW) Inner German Wall – dotted line. Put in place by Stalin and East Germany at the conclusion of WWII to stop East Germans from departing to West Germany. Churchill’s expression, the “Iron Curtain” has descended over Europe described what had occurred rather aptly.

***

     Other sites for the W-54 weapons deployments were - Switzerland, Guam, Korean DMZ, and the US mainland. The Little Fellers were decommissioned and withdrawn in 1971.

     (There is, however, an uptick in their potential use against North Korea should things get out of hand with that rogue nation). They have been modernized since the end of the Cold War. Probably using computer modeling, rather than repeated nuclear detonations. (W76-2).

     Ten days before 1st Lt Grimm fired this M-388 W-54 nuclear bomb away from the specially decked out Willys Jeep, another top-secret atomic bomb detonation had occurred. This was “Little Feller II.”

     That particular date was July 7, 1962.

     The reasons why the United States built, tested, stockpiled, and deployed such tactical (low-yield) nuclear weapons was a recognized persistent Soviet threat certainly by 1952, which became acutely worse in 1961, and that threat became much more desperate by the following year involving the Cuban missile crisis.

     In early 1952, the so-called Inner German Wall (IGW) formerly just a scrub-cleared land corridor was rapidly constructed to prevent citizen-flight from the communist bloc to the west. Soon after the conclusion of WWII, Stalin, using the power of eminent domain, had made all property and industry a state-owned entity. That did not sit well with the intelligentsia or the industrialists. If they resisted he had them killed and eliminated the problem. He finished up eliminating about 30 million people. In addition, on May 26, 1952, the GDR instituted a “special regime on the demarcation line.” A ten-meter wide strip of land was cleared for a distance of 1,393 km from the Baltic Sea south to Czechoslovakia dividing Germany into West and East segments. That strip of no-man’s-land was continuously patrolled by 50,000 East German troops and tanks with orders to shoot crossers. It was mined and over time, a wall much the same as around Berlin went up. In opposition, the West Germans set up the so-called BGS - Bundesgrenzschutz Federal Border Protection - that consisted of 20,000 troops equipped with armored cars, anti-tank guns, helicopters, trucks, and jeeps. The BGS was backed up with police (BZV) and border police (BGP), the latter supplied by the Bavarian Government. The IGW was abruptly dismantled in November 1989, when a reformed Hungary supported Gorbachev in his USSR dismantling program. This occurred soon after former President Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

     Almost thirty years before President Reagan’s speech, commencing on the night of August 12, 1961, on orders from former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, East German soldiers drove about 400 trucks loaded with barbed wire under the nominal Operation Rose (Betriebsgbӓude Stieg) to selected sites around West Berlin.

     The preceding day, cartographer Hagen Koch then aged 21, walked 30 miles, and marked the wall site with white chalk. During the next evening, 3,150 East German soldiers of the 8th Motorized Military Division installed some 100 main battle tanks and personnel just outside Mitte, the historic center of East Berlin. Another 4,200 soldiers and military police of the 1st Motorized Division were posted around the outer ring surrounding West Berlin. Another 140 main battle tanks left Potsdam to assist in sealing West Berlin’s outer ring. A further 10,000 men were installed to tighten the seal of West Berlin from East Germany. Berliners woke up on the cool bleak morning of August 13, 1961, to find the barbed wire wall had been constructed in total secrecy and great speed encircling their famous city. On the preceding evening of August 12, East German soldiers had laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin to prevent East German citizens from entering West Berlin. Up to that time, some 3.5 million citizens had left East Germany to the west. The GDR Chairman Walter Ulbricht considered this brain drain was unacceptable. The barbed wire was steadily replaced with concrete. The first concrete pilings went up on Bernauer Strasse and at the Potsdamer Platz. Sad East German workers constructed the first wall segments under the hard stares of machine-gun-toting East German and Soviet troops and escape attempts were met with deadly force. During the rest of 1961, and for the next 20+ years, the grim wall continued to grow with concrete walls up to fifteen feet topped with rolls of barbed wire and guarded from a series of guard posts in watchtowers built into the wall.

     The Iron Curtain had slammed down over Germany and the Cold War jerked into place. Two months later, the Cuban missile crisis erupted and the world for thirteen days came perilously close to all-out nuclear war. There was thus a pressing need to build and test and deploy these tactical nuclear devices. They were designed principally to decimate tank and infantry formations the Soviets might surge into Western Europe.

     “Little Feller II” detonation paradoxically occurred before “Little Feller I”. No explanation as to why that occurred is available, but it could be surmised LF 1 was built before II, but II was a static weapon, whereas I was designed to be a kinetic weapon with more risk-exposure potential.

     LF II was suspended on cables, three feet from the ground. It weighed in at 51lb. This was the first detonation of the W 54 top secret plutonium-239 sourced implosion atomic bomb. In the summer of 1971, the “Little Fellers” were all decommissioned, pulled out of Europe, and brought back to America. They were disassembled or stored in Richmond Magazines in Zone 4 at Pantex in Amarillo, Texas. It was during their removal from Switzerland that something went wrong. That accounting error led to a Rogue Sword incident.  

​

     Truth

 

     Throughout the Cold War 1945-1991, the Soviet Union was considered the west’s principal capable enemy. The Cold War followed three important World War II conferences: The Tehran Conference held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran, November 28 - December 1, 1943, next was the Yalta Conference held at Yalta’s Livadia Palace in the Crimea on the East Coast of the Black Sea February 1945, and finally the Potsdam Conference, held at Cecilienhof (home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Victor August Ernst of Prussia) in occupied Germany, July 17-Aug 2, 1945.

     The main contentious issue following these strategic conferences was the intransigence of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. (Stalin translates to “man of steel” in Russian). That was not his birth name which was Iosif Vissariionovitch Dzhugashvili (which translates to “son of trash”). He did not like that name so he changed it to Stalin. As a young man, Stalin was a bank robber and a gangster working for the Bolsheviks, whose Red Army occupied all of Poland and East Germany at the conclusion of World War II. In consequence, he set up communist governments and would not agree to leave. Stalin, (died March 1953 quite possibly poisoned with Warfarin administered by Stalin’s depraved NKVD security chief and mass murderer Lavrenty Beria – Stalin had called him his “little Himmler.”) Stalin was followed by Nikita Khrushchev, (who in turn had Beria arrested, tortured, and executed December 1953).

     Both politicians, Stalin and Khrushchev pilfered almost everything of any value in East Germany. By 1960, almost 3.5 million people had left destitute East Germany for the thriving West Germany. West Berlin, which resided as a bastion of capitalism deep in the heart of East Germany stuck like a bone in the throat of the Soviets, and finally, Premier Khrushchev authorized construction of the infamous Berlin Wall, which appeared suddenly overnight on August 13, 1961, and The Iron Curtain, came crashing down a year later.

     The Cold War slammed into place, and nations became nervous on high alert.

​

***

     Of interest to some, is the fact that the Trinity atomic bomb test was successfully conducted July 16, 1945, at Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was pronounced ready for use against Japan if the warmongering leaders of Japan would not surrender.

     This atom bomb development program was titled the Manhattan Project. Although Roosevelt gave the formal order to commence the Manhattan Engineering District (MED) December 6, 1941, (a day before Pearl Harbor), it had actually commenced informally ten years earlier when Harold Urey discovered deuterium (heavy water 2H2O or D2O) in 1931. And then in 1932, New Zealand-born Ernest Rutherford, the UK Cavendish Laboratories director, and his nuclear physics students John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton of the UK, split the atom thereby proving Einstein’s Relativity Theory. At about that same time (1932), James Chadwick discovered the neutron—also at Cavendish Laboratory in West Cambridge, England, (neutrons are essential in the atomic bomb business). Following that discovery, in 1933 Leo Szilard realized that a nuclear chain reaction was possible. That was followed by Enrico Fermi’s demonstration in Chicago of the first nuclear fission pile and on January 26, 1939; Danish physicist Niels Bohr formalized the theory of nuclear fission. Just three days later, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist in charge of the MED, realized the military potential of nuclear fission and the atomic bomb concept simply needed proving.

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II exploded into presence. On February 23, 1941, Glen Seaborg discovered plutonium. Once plutonium had been discovered, it was deduced that two kinds of atomic bombs were possible - an implosion lens type (plutonium) and gun barrel style (uranium). On October 9, 1941, Roosevelt gave the go-ahead for the development of the atomic bomb and it was formalized as the Manhattan Engineering District on December 6, 1941. Proof of concept was demonstrated at the Trinity Test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, when Oppenheimer detonated the first plutonium-styled atomic bomb. He knew the uranium gun-style technology would work, but he needed to prove the implosion lens style (plutonium) would work. It did.

     When advised by the US administration that Japan would be exposed to a “new and powerful weapon”, the Japanese mokatsu’d (ignored) the threat. The first atomic bomb use occurred on August 6, (Hiroshima - Uranium) and the second on August 9, (Nagasaki - Plutonium) 1945. Japan promptly surrendered unconditionally, following these two atomic bomb detonations, and the Pacific component of World War II ended abruptly.

     Some three weeks before the Japan atomic bombing, Harry Truman, who had assumed the US presidency upon the death of Roosevelt was advised of Trinity’s success and he and Churchill agreed to its use. Truman subsequently advised Stalin at the Potsdam Conference (in the Cecilienhof - Crown Prince Wilhelm’s home in Brandenburg, Germany) of that fact July 17 - Aug 2, 1945. Oddly, Stalin displayed notable disinterest in this information. Later, intelligence disclosed the fact that Stalin was in fact aware of this test before Truman, due to the efforts of the atomic spies and dedicated communists - Ted Hall, Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, and David Greenglass - (Greenglass was Ethel (nee Greenglass) Rosenberg’s brother, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by the electric chair at Sing Sing prison in 1953 for espionage conspiracy).

     As a side note, the planned WWII invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall) was projected to result in about 10 million Japanese killed in action, and some 5-700,000 US soldiers killed in action. Opposing that invasion was the planned Japanese Operation Ketsugō. The US government printed up 500,000 Purple Heart medals in anticipation of this massive death calculation (William Shockley). Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bombs has been widely criticized for decades as inhuman; however, that action resulted in less than 180,000 Japanese deaths combined from the double atomic bombs. Several times that number would have been burned and subjected to radiation injury. Japan surrendered unconditionally after the second bombing (Nagasaki), and the Pacific component of WWI ended abruptly. It can be argued the dropping of those two atomic bombs saved millions of Japanese lives and hundreds of thousands of GI soldiers’ lives.

     And that would be true. 

     As the years passed and the Cold War progressed, war planners in the US and Europe were tasked with devising a plan and a method to combat Soviet tank and infantry invasions across Germany’s divided border should that occur. As a spinoff of the Manhattan Project, the US became interested in small-sized, powerful nuclear weapons that might be able to repel such mechanized attacks. One of the weapon systems designed and deployed to do just that was the so-called “Atomic Annie.” These munitions were largely hidden and moved about and deployed as needed. The squad-sized unit was termed an ABG (Atomic Battle Group). They usually consisted of a 3-man squad and a Willys Jeep with a 155 mm recoilless, smoothbore launcher on its rear fender. The launcher was manufactured by the Illinois Rock Island Arsenal whereas the projectile (sabot) was the M-388 W-54 nuclear warhead. It was manufactured at Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Laboratory. This warhead was a modern (at the time) downsized version of the Nagasaki plutonium-sourced atomic bomb. The M-388 W-54 had a simple PAL (permissive action link) ignition system to permit rapid on-site arming, a barometric detonation switch, and it had a variable power selector system, which allowed selectable detonations between 10 tons of TNT up to 20 tons of TNT equivalent. The nuclear sabot weighed 51 lbs. The 155 mm launcher would cast the sabot downrange about 2.49 miles so as to offer some protection to the ABG who were further advised to stand behind a hill to avoid much of the blast. The weapon had an automatic lethal zone of 10,000 REM (radiation equivalent in man) out to a radius of 150 meters. This was influenced by the prevailing winds. These weapons were deployed for a time in Switzerland to deter the East German and Soviet troops and tanks crossing, especially into Switzerland and other Western European NATO countries, but were recalled in the early 70s mainly because Switzerland was considered neutral during the Cold War.   

     The name given to the M-388 W-54 sabot was the Davy Crockett (also known as a Little Feller).

     Legend has it, that Crockett was in the frontier somewhere and came across a bear, but ran out of ammunition and he was forced to “grin the bear to death.” The Soviet national animal was the bear, so the metaphor appeared apt.

     During the 10-year span between 1961 and 1971, approximately 100 Davy Crockett ABGs were deployed in Europe including Switzerland before they were recalled. Other nuclear artillery shells were subsequently designed, which were considered safer for the ABG soldier.

     The arming and fuzing mechanisms of atomic weapons must be designed and engineered so that once a weapon is armed and released - it will detonate. An intact weapon in unfriendly hands could be turned against attackers or disabled or disassembled and reverse-engineered. For these reasons, arming and fuzing systems must be absolutely foolproof, and fail-proof.

     As new PAL systems came on board they had to meet two conflicting demands - be secure at all times, yet be enabled immediately by some method other than requiring an individual to walk up to the weapon, open a panel, and dial in the enabling code.

     The improved design of the Cat A PAL was a reversible DC motor-driven device with wheels that responded to electrical signals from a remote controller. If the proper code was inserted, the wheels would align and electrical switches would close, allowing arming signals to be transmitted deep inside the weapon.

     Once all the design, testing, and manufacturing issues were completed, the NATO W-54 weapons were accompanied by what came to be known as the MC 1541. All that was needed to go nuclear were a couple of 9 volts batteries and the MC 1541 “golden key.”

     Once Cat B PALs arrived, they had a built-in “lockout” capability when too many attempts were made to enable the weapon. That was part of the “strongest link” v “weakest link” system. Cat B PALs were followed by Cat C PALs and these were serially modernized to today’s PALs. 

***

     Most PAL technology, even old decommissioned devices, remain highly classified and pictures are rare or unavailable. The picture is an MC 1541 on the left. This particular model was made by Sandia Corporation. This snapshot was taken around 1961 and is in a ~60-year-old copy of the New Yorker Magazine. Note also, the modern version of PAL is carried by an aide de camp who accompanies the president everywhere while not at a fixed command location, with a bulky suitcase commonly referred to as the “nuclear football.” That case, typically enclosed in a black leather bag, is a modified Zero Halliburton aluminum satchel – interestingly manufactured by ACE Co Ltd [Osaka & Tokyo, Japan]. It contains the current nuclear PAL codes for arming, fuzing and launching nuclear weapons. PALs were originally notated as Prohibitive Action Link that was changed to Permissive sometime in the 80s or 90s.

     There are four things in the “Football.” A Black Book containing the retaliatory options, a book listing classified site locations, a manila folder with eight or ten pages stapled together, giving a description of procedures for the Emergency Alert Conditions (EMCONS), and a three-by-five-inch card with the all-important authentication codes. The Black Book is about 9 by 12 inches. It has 75 loose-leaf pages printed in black and red and itemizes likely targets and their GPS locations. A second book with classified site locations is about the same size as the Black Book and is also black. It contains information on sites around the country where the president could be taken in an emergency. These are referred to as PEFs – Presidential Emergency Facilities and are part of the FRA (Federal Relocation Arc) first organized by President Truman and extended by President Eisenhower. The FRA and PEF numbers are reduced today. 

     The actual number is classified. Some of the locations have been known for decades. Site R, Mount Weather, Camp David, and Crown remain operational today. They were activated during 9/11, and during the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection.  

     If the president, (who is the Commander in Chief) orders the use of nuclear weapons, they would be taken aside by the “carrier” and the briefcase would be opened. A command signal, or “watch” alert, would then be issued to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president would then review the attack options with the aide and decide on a plan, which could range from a conventional military attack to a single nuclear-armed cruise missile launch to multiple nuclear-armed ICBM launches. These are preset war plans and are developed and frequently upgraded under OPLAN 8010 (formerly termed the Single Integrated Operational Plan). Then, using whatever communications technology the satchel contains, the aide would presumably make contact with the National Military Command Center, or, in a retaliatory strike situation, multiple airborne command posts (who likely fly Boeing E-4Bs) and/or strategic nuclear-armed submarines – SSBNs.

     Before the order can be processed by the military, the president must be positively identified using a special code issued on a plastic card, nicknamed the “biscuit.” The United States has a two-man rule in place at the nuclear launch facilities, and while only the president can order the release of nuclear weapons, the order must be verified to be an authentic order given by the president to the Secretary of Defense. There is a hierarchy of succession in the event that the president is killed in an attack. This verification process deals solely with verifying that the order came from the actual President. The Secretary of Defense has no veto power and must comply with the president's order. Once all the codes have been verified, the military would issue attack orders to the proper units. These orders are given and then re-verified for authenticity. It is arguable that the President has an almost single authority to initiate a nuclear attack since the Secretary of Defense is required to verify the order, but cannot legally veto it.

The football is carried by one of the several rotating presidential military aides, whose work schedule is described by a top-secret Rota - one from each of the five service branches. This person is a commissioned officer in the US Military, with a pay-grade O-4 or above, who has undergone and passed the nation's most rigorous Yankee White (White House level) clearance. These officers are required to keep the “football” readily accessible to the president at all times. Consequently, the aide, “football” in hand, is always either standing or walking near the president, including riding on any form of transport the President may take (Air, Sea, or Land).

     There are two overriding concerns with respect to activating the nuclear football: (a) the authenticity of the order and (b) the confirmed identity of the commander in chief. There are apparently no safeguards with respect to the insanity of the CIC.

     The Cold War is said to be ended in 1991 but that is not quite correct in every detail. There is a collection of antennae thought to be emitting a continuous, monotonous tone signal from somewhere behind rusted iron gates and mud near Russia’s St. Petersburg’s swampland. There are two transmission sites near Moscow - called the 'Pip' and the 'Squeaky Wheel.' Somewhat unexpectedly, its activity increased after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is labeled “MZDhB.” These stations have been broadcasting a low monotonous dull sound continuously that is joined every few seconds by a short-lasting sound like some ghostly ship sounding its foghorn. Once or twice a week a Russian voice will read one or two Russian words which have been translated to “dinghy” and “farming specialist.” They've been doing this without interruption since 1982. And that’s it. None of these stations change frequency and use the “skywaves” as does, for example, the BBC World Service as the charged ionospheric layer moves up and down between day and night. You can listen to this drone on frequency 4625 kHz if you’re so inclined.

     This Russian transmission is referred to as the “Buzzer.” There is no identified information contained in the signal. Its purpose remains unknown but there have been suggestions it is an important component for initiating the so-called 'Dead Hand' apocalypse. The concept is that if Russia is hit by a nuclear attack, the drone will stop and that will automatically trigger a full-scale nuclear retaliation. No questions asked just total nuclear obliteration on both sides. As Russian President Vladimir Putin enigmatically pointed out when questioned about the “Buzzer,” not so long ago, he replied, “Nobody would survive a nuclear war between Russia and the United States. Could the “Buzzer” be warding one-off?”

     If that is its above top secret purpose, it would be good not to find out.

     If a nuclear attack occurred on a major US city by one or more of its own lost nuclear weapons, something similar might occur. Rogue Sword now presents the scenario of three tactical W-54 nuclear weapons misplaced 50 years ago found five decades later by an outfit capable of transporting them in a giant container ship to the US and nuclear detonating them off the coast of Los Angeles.

     That could kick-start the 'Dead Hand' apocalypse.