The Cold Warrior

 

 

"Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war"

 

Julius Caesar

 1601

I am a retired Cold Warrior. I served during the Cold War, I lived during the Cold War, and I worked for defense contractors during the Cold War. Much has been told about the brave men and women who fought the "hot" wars for our country. The bravery and valor of these folks were many times unmatched. However, very little has been told about our Cold Warriors. Their battles were much different than our combat forces, yet also important.

First and foremost, before the story even begins, I need to get this on the table - Ronald Wilson Reagan played his hand during the Cold War just about a good as anyone could. More on this later.

The Cold War started just about as quickly as World War II ended. In fact, some of the historians believe the distrust between the United States and Russia started before Germany even surrendered. However, most historians agree the start date of this protracted conflict started in 1947.

Many Cold Warriors spent their military careers playing a life and death version of cat and mouse. It did not matter which service one was in - many served by air, sea, under the sea, or even on land. The Cold War affected the vast majority that served between 1947 and 1990.

Tom Clancy was the first to shine the light of truth on the technical aspects of the Cold War. Countless others wrote fictional and non-fictional accounts of the non stop cat and mouse dueling that took place between super power military forces as well as agencies such as the CIA, NSA, FBI, GRU and KGB.

Some of the most interesting interactions in the Cold War took place between the navies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The United States had it's ballistic fleet of Ohio Class submarines, each equipped with D5 SACE missiles. These were constantly tracked by Soviet attack submarines, such as the very fast and capable Alpha Class. On the other hand, the Soviets also had their ballistic fleet of "boomer" submarines, fully equipped with MIRV ballistic missiles. This included the monster of the fleet, the Typhoon Class. Each of these were tracked by our Los Angles Class attack submarines. In this high tech game of cat and mouse, one misstep, one mistake, one trigger happy ship captain could have led to the Cold War becoming very hot in a flash.

Terms like TACTASS, SURTASS, SOSUS, LAMPS and MAD became part of the lexicon with U.S. Sailors. Mk-48 Torpedoes and P-3 Orion ASW aircraft were also part of the mix. We were at war with an enemy which distrusted us and much as we distrusted them. Not a shot was fired, and yet battle lines were formed all over the globe. We were in a tinder box and walked a tight rope every day of the year.

One very important note about our Commander in Chief in the 80's. Ronald Wilson Reagan had no fear of the Cold War and knew the United States had the will and the resources to end it. I worked on many of the programs in the 80's which were cutting edge technology programs specifically aimed to bring this conflict to an end. My opinion is we hit the Soviets with the trifecta of programs which spooked them and they knew they could not compete with. Those programs were the Cruise Missile, Pershing II Missile and Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). Star Wars and the Pershing II were never deployed - they did not need to be. It was a poker hand played on a global stage with the utmost of cunning. Nobody really knows if the Star Wars "shield" would have worked or not - the important thing was that the Soviets thought it might, and that was all it took. The Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Empire dissolved, and the rest is history.

The Cold Warrior is now gone, faded into history. All we have left are the memories of that most critical of times. As the world tilted towards mutually assured destruction, it was only the skill and acumen of our politicians and Cold Warriors which kept us safe. The foe was vanquished, and the world goes on. Many stories, many, many stories on this victory will never be told - but trust me, they are there.