How a black bear that got lost and climbed a fence almost started World War Three
One oblivious black bear almost changed the course of history.
October 1962 is the closest the world has ever come to ‘the abyss of nuclear destruction and the end of mankind,’ said Robert F. Kennedy.
The Cold War had reached boiling point with the Soviet Union using Cuba as a base for their nuclear missiles, while America’s were at the ready in Italy and Turkey.
US officials responded by implementing a naval ‘blockade’ around Cuba, meaning no more nuclear weapons could be transported into the island.
The US military was on DEFCON 3, meaning all out nuclear war could have begun at any moment, with John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s negotiations going nowhere.
But what the two leaders didn’t factor into discussions was the fact that a disastrous world war could be sparked by an innocent black bear.
During the darkness of the night on 25 October 1962 at Duluth Air Force Base, Minnesota, a sentry spotted something.
The base was home to more than 130 nuclear weapons meaning security was tight, so when the sentry saw a figure, which he assumed was a Soviet spy, climbing the fence he opened fire before sounding the alarm.
Neighbouring bases were notified that there was potential danger thanks to connections with Duluth’s alarm. At Volk Field in Wisconsin, though, the system malfunctioned and a Klaxon rang out across the airbase.
Pilots thought everyone’s nightmare had come true and nuclear war had begun. Two squadrons of fighter jets scrambled to their planes, which all had a nuclear-tipped rocket strapped in their belly.
But as the sentry approached the trespassing figure, he noticed that he had shot down a black bear, not a Russian spy.
He hastily notified his superiors and alarms were ceased as pilots hopped out of their planes. Disaster avoided… just.
That’s not the only time a trivial accident has almost caused nuclear disaster, though.
In 1988 in Arkansas, a maintenance worker clumsily dropped a 9-pound wrench more than 70-feet puncturing the fuel tank of a thermonuclear Titan II missile.
The accident set off an explosion that propelled the bomb out of its underground bunker and into a nearby ditch.
To the huge relief of that worker, the bomb didn’t detonate and no one was hurt – he must have got an almighty telling off, though.
And as recently as 2018, a million residents in Hawaii were sent into a frenzy when a miscommunication during a drill at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sent out a missile alarm.
After a whole 38 minutes of panic, Hawaiians were finally notified of the mistake and chaos was brought to a halt.
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