—General David Shoup
22nd Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps,
Medal of Honor Winner

Friday December 16, 1960 – Power’s Briefing on SIOP-62, the Pentagon, Washington, DC

​Even with air conditioning, according to the EPA heat related deaths in the United States have totaled over 11,000 since 1979. Heat exhaustion happens when your body overheats and can't cool itself down. ​It usually results from physical activity in hot weather. ​The symptoms include dizziness, confusion and nausea. Heat emergencies have three stages; heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke which can prove deadly.

Tensions in the Korean Peninsula grew as Pyongyang tested the Hwasong-18, an intercontinental ballistic missiles with sufficient range to reach the United States. The main reason for deploying the nuclear submarine is to cut down on the response time should North Korea launch a nuclear attack against South Korea. It is doubtful that the North Koreans have perfected a capable reentry vehicle at this time.

Christopher Nolan's $180 million Oppenheimer film will be in the theaters starting July 21st, 2023. J. Robert Oppenheimer directed the Manhattan Project which developed the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I am writing about the movie because J. Robert Oppenheimer appears prominently several times in the First Strike Series where he argues for the use of tactical nuclear weapons as a substitute for strategic weapons as a key member of Project Vista in 1951.

The time to build a fallout shelter or think about where you might shelter in place is not when the intercontinental ballistic missiles are in the air. Unless you live in a dense urban setting or near a counter-force target (sub-pen, minuteman missile site, USAF Base) you could survive the initial blast with proper planning.

At the start of this series, I promised you that I would investigate the history of nuclear near misses, where either human error, Intelligence failure, rogue elements, or sensory malfunctions created conditions conducive to the accidental rather than intentional outbreak of nuclear war.