Emergency Broadcast Scare Of 1971...!

During a time where the United States and Russia almost constantly feuded with one another, this had to be a scary thing!

Of course, I wonder what would happen in this day and age should an announcement like this get out, especially across the Internet? I reckon a few cages might get a little rattled, don't you?

February 20, 1971

The United States and the Soviet Union found themselves in constant world-ending scenarios during the Cold War. It’s understandable then that Americans panicked when radio and TV stations across the country suddenly left the air and issued a broadcast from NORAD to wait for an incoming emergency message from the government. 

For the audience, that could only mean one thing: World War III had begun. But after what must have been the longest 44 minutes ever, NORAD finally canceled the broadcast, to the country’s collective relief. 

Civilian employee Wayne Eberhardt from the National Emergency Warning Center in Colorado had mistakenly loaded a tape containing a code word calling for a real warning instead of a practice one, transmitting it to radio and TV stations nationwide. In the aftermath, Eberhardt—who was just as shaken up by his mistake as the general public was—kept his job. His boss subsequently moved the real warning tapes far away from the transmitter as a precaution.

I'm thinking that moving the real tapes to another far away place was an outstanding idea. Maybe a little self monitoring would have been a good idea as well!

Coffee out on the patio agan this morning.