| Submission rejected on 5 August 2024 by C.Fred (talk). This topic is not sufficiently notable for inclusion in Wikipedia. Rejected by C.Fred 7 days ago. Last edited by C.Fred 7 days ago. |  |
Comment: The topic does not rise to the level of stand-alone notability for an article, and it is already covered at Volk Field Air National Guard Base#False alarm incident. Further, the text there is superior to this, so no merging need be considered. —C.Fred (talk) 03:39, 5 August 2024 (UTC)
They don't tell you much about world-destroying bears in school, since there are no bears capable of that.. except one.
At midnight, October 25th, 1962, the Cuban missile crisis was at it's peak. It was quite close to all out nuclear war, and most of the USAF was on Defcon 3, and the main bombing group used for Nuclear attacks was on DEFCON 2- one step away from nuclear war.
Suddenly, a Sentry assigned to a Duluth airbase, holding 140 nuclear weapons, spotted a man climbing the fence. It was clear what was about to happen- the Soviets had sent a saboteur to sabotage the nukes. The sentry shot, but missed. Scramble alerts blared out, indicating readiness for nuclear war. Suddenly.. they noticed a black bear. There was no Soviet.
A jeep rushed to the runways to stop the planes as it blared it's lights on and off to indicate that it was a false alarm, control towers signalling them to stop. But one airstrip had no control tower. They frantically tried to stop them, and succeeded. They had stopped nuclear war.
And that, ladies and gents, is how one bear literally nearly caused nuclear war and the extinction of the human race.
References
editWar History Online, National Security Archive