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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihu1e!gps
From: gps@ihu1e.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: ACCIDENTAL LAUNCH
Message-ID: <167@ihu1e.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Dec-83 12:44:01 EST
Article-I.D.: ihu1e.167
Posted: Wed Dec  7 12:44:01 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Dec-83 07:18:20 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 17

I keep hearing talk of the possibility of an accidental launch on
this net. I'm not sure what kind of accident is being referenced,
but if is the kind where some crew member inadvertently leans on
the "LAUNCH BUTTON" then I'm afraid there are many uninformed people
doing alot of needless worrying.
I spent four years in the Air Force, three of which were on a
Titan II missile crew. One of those three was spent on an instructor
crew. The crew on site has no authority to launch whenever they decide
they want to. There is no "LAUNCH BUTTON" and the procedures to initiate
a launch are incredibly complex. When I say the crew has no authority I
don't mean verbal authority. The sites are electronically disabled and it
takes two people to turn keys, that are normally locked in a safe, simultaneously upon the absence of the disable signal. This isn't even half of what
has to happen. I can't get into details but I really don't see any possible
sequence of events that could lead to an accidental launch of an ICBM by
a crew, not even a "deliberate" accidental launch.

                                   Greg Stephens