When a Bear Almost Set off WWIII
Part of Heroes and Hiccups: True Stories about Nuclear Weapon Risks
Bad Nukes Bear
With tensions sky-high during the Cuban Missile Crisis, officials at a Minnesota military base temporarily hosting nukes detected an intruder scaling the fence. They sounded an alarm for sabotage, triggering alarms at nearby facilities, including Volk Airfield. But instead of the sabotage alarm, the alert noise indicating nuclear war rang out. Pilots boarded their planes with live nukes. A commander, realizing the error, had to drive onto the runway to block the plane from taking off.
The “intruder” turned out to be a black bear.
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The Time A Black Bear Nearly Set Off A Nuclear War | War History Online and How a Black Bear Almost Set off WW3
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When Yeltsin Reached for the Nuclear Briefcase
