Possumblog

Ah, yes, I remember it well. I was a young lad living on a ship in the middle of Holy Loch, Scotland. A ship that may have carried enough nuclear firepower to vaporize all the large cities in Asia, but I can neither confirm nor deny that. Except for the frequent drills, I was pretty oblivious to the strategic weapons that were stored, moved around, and repaired every day on that same ship.

We were ordered to get the ship ready to get underway immediately, which was odd for us, because we usually sat parked for years at a stretch, servicing submarines. We all figured it had something to do with the Marine barracks getting attacked in Beirut. After a day or two we stood down without leaving the anchorage. It wasn't until this year that I read about this exercise, but I immediately remembered when it happened. I'd always been curious about what was going on then.

Interesting article except for a couple of clinkers . . .

Military build up during the Carter Administration? I'd have to check the figures but I can't recall that happening until say the Russian invasion of Afganistan if memory serves, Ol' Goober thought that was dealt with by the Olympic boycott.

As for goading the Soviets, if saying NO you don't have a free reign to take whatever action you want and YES we will take steps to adequately defend ourselves. . . well that's the only way I could spin that.

I believe they were probably referring to the MX program, which had been in the planning stages for a while (since the early '70s), and the final engineering go-ahead was signed by Carter in June of '79. The Soviets rolled into Afghanistan later in December of the year. Other than the MX, though, I believe US military build-up was negligible.

As for goading, I think it is too loaded a term in this context, especially considering the Soviet Union's status as the chief exporter and supporter of worldwide "liberation" movements and terror organizations--Nicaragua, Chad, Angola, El Salvador, IRA, ETA, Red Brigades, etc.

The military build up in the early 80's started with the government fiscal year 1981 which began in October 1980 during the Carter Administration. In April 1981, I received a postcard inviting me to a two week Reserve training session even though I was a Ready Reservist (available if things get really bad and they need an out of shape Captain). The reason was the Army had received so much money for training, it needed us RR guys to help spend it. In October 1981, I returned to active duty during a mini-buildup. The first $300 billion Defense budget was Carter's last Defense budget.

A few weeks ago I read a much more in-depth account of the people involved and the events leading up to the brink. Naturally, I have no idea where I saw it or how to get there.

Maybe you could follow the trail of bread crumbs you left!

Well, I was at home, and I left a trail of pixels, but then the CounterStrike guys came tromping through in their muddy boots, and then a Railroad Tycoon put down a station over part of the trail, and a bunch of Yahoos wandered in and out. Don't even get me started on the mess that the bloggers left. Pigs! My monitor has greasy smudges on the inside!

Let's just hope grease is all they left...