Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

DIRECT—Defense Improved Emergency Message Automatic Transmission System Replacement Command and Control Terminal, the Pentagon computer system currently deployed to send and receive a nuclear attack order

DUL—the Deliberate, Unauthorized Launch of a missile

ENIAC—the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, America’s first large-scale electronic, digital computer, built for the Army to calculate the trajectory of artillery shells and later used at Los Alamos to help design a thermonuclear weapon

EOD—Explosive Ordnance Disposal, the rendering safe of warheads, bombs, and anything else that might detonate

FCDA—the Federal Civil Defense Administration, which from 1951 until 1979 advised the American public on how to survive a nuclear war

H-Bomb—a hydrogen bomb, the most powerful weapon ever invented, deriving its explosive force not only from nuclear fission but also from nuclear fusion, the elemental power of the sun

ICBM

—Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, a missile that can propel a nuclear warhead more than 3,400 miles

JAG—the nickname for a military attorney, a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps

K crew—a backup crew for the Titan II missile, on call to give advice during an emergency

LOX—liquid oxygen, a propellant that was used as an oxidizer, in combination with rocket fuel, to launch Atlas and Titan I missiles

MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction, a nuclear strategy that seeks to maintain peace by ensuring that adversaries have the capability to destroy one another

MANIAC—the Mathematical Analyzer, Numerical Integrator, and Computer, an early electronic, digital computer used at Los Alamos to help design the first hydrogen bombs

MART—Missile Alarm Response Team, the security police who responded to problems at Titan II missile sites

MFT

—Mobile Fire Team, a heavily armed four-man team of Air Force security officers

MIMS—Missile Inspection and Maintenance Squadron, the repair crews who kept Titan II missiles ready to launch

MIRV—Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle, a ballistic missile carrying two or more warheads that can be aimed at different targets

MIT—Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MSA—a nickname for the vapor-detection equipment built by the Mine Safety Appliance Company and installed in Titan II silos

NATO—North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military alliance formed in 1949 to defend Western Europe against an attack by the Soviet Union

NORAD—North American Air Defense Command, an organization created in 1958 by the United States and Canada to defend against a Soviet attack, later renamed the North American Aerospace Defense Command

NRC

—Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that licenses and regulates civilian nuclear power plants

OPLAN—Operations Plan, the term used since 2003 to describe the nuclear war plans of the United States

PAL—Permissive Action Link, a coded device installed within a nuclear warhead or bomb, much like a lock, to prevent unauthorized use of the weapon

PK—Probability of Kill, the likelihood of a target being destroyed

PPM—Parts per Million

PTPMU—Propellant Tank Pressure Monitor Unit, the gauge in a Titan II launch control center that provided digital readouts of the fuel and oxidizer pressures within the missile

PTS—Propellant Transfer System, the facilities and equipment used to handle the fuel and oxidizer for a Titan II missile

RAF

—Royal Air Force, the armed service in Great Britain that during the Cold War was responsible for land-based aircraft and missiles

RAND—a think tank in Santa Monica, California, created by the Air Force after the Second World War, whose name was derived from the phrase “Research ANd Development”

RFHCO—Rocket Fuel Handler’s Clothing Outfit, a liquidproof, vaporproof outfit with an air pack and a bubble helmet that looked like a space suit, commonly known among Titan II crews as a “ref-co”

RV—Reentry Vehicle, the nose cone of a missile containing its warhead

SAC—Strategic Air Command, the organization that until 1992 was responsible for the long-range bombers, the land-based missiles, and most of the nuclear weapons deployed by the U.S. Air Force

SAGE—Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, an air defense system built in the late 1950s that linked hundreds of radars into a network guided by computers in real time

SIOP—Single Integrated Operational Plan, the name given to the nuclear war plan of the United States from 1960 until 2003

SOCS—Strategic Operational Control System, a communications network employed by the Strategic Air Command during the 1950s, featuring a red telephone at its headquarters in Omaha that could be used to call every SAC air base simultaneously and broadcast a war order through their loudspeakers