The Okinawa missiles of October

[grarpamp]

http://thebulletin.org/okinawa-missiles-october8826

John Bordne, a resident of Blakeslee, Penn., had to keep a personal
history to himself for more than five decades. ... The story begins
just after midnight, in the wee hours of October 28, 1962, at the very
height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then-Air Force airman John Bordne
says he began his shift full of apprehension. At the time, in response
to the developing crisis over secret Soviet missile deployments in
Cuba, all US strategic forces had been raised to Defense Readiness
Condition 2, or DEFCON2; that is, they were prepared to move to
DEFCON1 status within a matter of minutes. Once at DEFCON1, a missile
could be launched within a minute of a crew being instructed to do so.
...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov