In her 2016 book The Pentagon’s Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America’s Top-Secret Military Research Agency, Annie Jacobsen describes such an incident.
On October 5, 1960 the newly operating radar station at Thule Air Force Base in Greenland registered several hundred incoming missiles coming over the horizon. Computers confirmed the numbers and concluded that there was a 99.9% certainty of attack.
It was estimated that NORAD had approximately 10 minutes to make a fire/no-fire decision before the missile strike would hit the continental United States. DEFCON 1 was ordered and and the officer in charge attempted to contact the head of NORAD for authorization, only to find that he was airborne and out of contact.
They then got through to the Canadian deputy commander who was in Ottawa. He thought it unlikely that the Soviets would launch a missile strike as Nikita Khrushchev was in New York to deliver a speech at the UN. When they contacted Thule AFB, someone took the time to look out the window.
There, coming over the horizon was the full moon, which the newly minted Greenland Ballistic Missile Early Warning System had mistaken for a nuclear attack.
In the 1970′s we experienced an oil embargo. It shut our economy down as well as those of our allies. It endangered our national defense and the chief instigator was Saudi Arabia.
I was a squad leader in an Infantry company in the 3nd Battalion/47th Infantry regiment in the 9th Infantry Division. The 9th Division was a straight leg outfit designated as the first response unit. We had no mechanization which meant we could be deployed quickly. It also meant we could never leave easily. We could either prevail or die. For some reason, that made us happy.
Soon after the embargo started, a strange officer came to us and said we were at ALCON 1 (Alert Condition-Never heard of DEFCON). He explained it was a time when readiness was increased. All leaves were cancelled and all married men had to stay in the barracks.
The next day, another strange officer came with some attorneys who helped us make out wills. He told us we were at ALCON 2. As the days passed, we got a lot of quick training on how to fight in a “sandy desert environment”. For example, in such an environment, the M16 is lightly oiled because otherwise, sand will get stuck in it and it will jam (I experienced later that the opposite is true in a jungle).
Each day, we received more training, had inspections, and were generally at better and better readiness. Each day, we were told our status had progressed: ALCON 3, ALCON 4.
The fifth day, we were told we were at ALCON 5, war. The next morning we were to form up, then go to McChord Airforce base to be sent to war in C130 Hercules. This was it!
The next morning was eerie. We got up at zero dark thirty, like we always did. We held formation, then went to chow. There was no talk and no explanation. Through osmosis, not official sources, we heard the oil embargo was lifted. No talk, no explanation, never. We went back to our normal routine.
Under the circumstances, I can only surmise
(A fellow grunt from the 47th Infantry)
we stood eyeball to eyeball with Saudi Arabia. They blinked and we didn’t. The Saudis did the smart thing.
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Update: I am honored by the many positive responses I received for this post in such a short time. I have become reflective on what I did and have turned to writing. I have written many things but most are not on Quora. You may enjoy the book I wrote about a US Navy ship at Normandy. It also is a true account.
Forest Gump: Some of you have missed that the photo of Forest Gump was meant as light-hearted irony. The fictional Forest Gump was also in the 47th Infantry regiment and I have almost the identical khaki uniform he had which I wore back home from Central America. It is hanging in my closet now. The uniform is not fictional, nor are the units.
Would I fight for oil? No, I would fight to follow the oath I gave to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to follow the lawful orders of those appointed over me.
Did the United States threaten those who would not sell them oil? No. About five years ago I was attacked from behind by a thug who completely cut off my breathing. My only thought was survival. I escaped by smashing him against a cinder block wall and attempting to bite a chunk out of his arm. I did not stop to ask whose oxygen it was. I just took the oxygen. I am still here to tell you this story.
This is what Saudi Arabia did to the whole world and almost the world quietly supported us. Even China and the Soviet Union were for this action. The alternative was to plunge the world into a depression much greater than the Great Depression. Imagine 50% unemployment for years with a scarcity of food and shelter. Imagine the wars that would have caused. I think the whole world saw this.
Instead, the Saudis learned to be much more careful and the rest of the world became much more energy efficient. A win for all.
