Incoming!

Now Pearl Harbor has a bit of a history for you millennials. There was this thing on December 7th 1941. You may not have covered it in your new history courses. But let us assume the Captain of the nuclear attack sub in Pearl is on the deck at 8 AM raising the port flag. His Chief Boatswain Mate tells him an alarm of an incoming ballistic missile strike has just been received from the State (See the NY Times). What do you think may happen. Think Peter Sellers! Dr Strangelove!

He cannot confirm but there is no way he is going to be stuck here when he has a belly filled with nukes. So, without hesitation he dives, and heads full steam, nuclear engines turning, out to sea, hopefully to survive and launch his full belly of 30 Mega Ton nukes at where ever! Yep, that could have happened. Thanks to our Government officials. Fortunately the Navy is not that bad, but....remember Peter Sellers.

Then again if an incoming 10 MT warhead explodes 5000 ft above Pearl you end up with two smaller islands. Duck and cover does not really work. Then you may also set off a volcano or two, a few massive earthquakes, a tsunami, and the list goes on. Perhaps we should better understand the total devastation of a single nuke!

Prior planning prevents poor performance, unless...