40 years since the Stanislav Petrov incident - where were you on Sept. 25/26, 1983? Would you have survived if the nukes were launched?
- Thread starter ILPD45
- Start date
My Mother was living on the Isle of Wight. She would've initially survived but may have been killed by the radiation from Portsmouth.
My father was living in South Africa, probably the best country to survive (if you're white). I don't think it would have balkanized like in the 1983 doomsday fandom. The SADF and government wouldn't let that happen and would crack down on any disorder.
My father was living in South Africa, probably the best country to survive (if you're white). I don't think it would have balkanized like in the 1983 doomsday fandom. The SADF and government wouldn't let that happen and would crack down on any disorder.
I had just turned 9, from what I’ve seen of the likely targets in Northern Ireland the nearest would have been the radar station at RAF Bishopscourt about 35 miles from where I lived. So assuming the warhead didn’t overshoot we’d likely have survived the opening exchange. After that….
Ive posted this info before, but to answer the question, I would not have survived:
I live in central New Jersey, about midway between New York City and Philadelphia. If you draw a line between the two cities (about 100 miles), the following are probable targets around that line in 1983:
- NYC
- LaGuardia Airport
- JFK Airport
- Picatinny Arsenal
- Newark Airport
- Secaucus shipping port and nearby oil/gasoline storage tank farms
- Earle Naval Weapons Station. One pier location on the shore and the larger storage facility 15 miles inland (rumored to store Nuclear Weapons)
- Bell Laboratories
- Lakehurst Naval Air Station
- McGuire AFB
- Fort Dix
- Fort Monmouth
- Philadelphia
Plus Grumman is on Long Island, and Groton is about 150 north. So there’s always the possibility of some warheads over shooting.
So yeah, I would have been gone in the first few seconds, and there probably would have been a new bay created between Pennsylvania and New York.
ric350
I live in central New Jersey, about midway between New York City and Philadelphia. If you draw a line between the two cities (about 100 miles), the following are probable targets around that line in 1983:
- NYC
- LaGuardia Airport
- JFK Airport
- Picatinny Arsenal
- Newark Airport
- Secaucus shipping port and nearby oil/gasoline storage tank farms
- Earle Naval Weapons Station. One pier location on the shore and the larger storage facility 15 miles inland (rumored to store Nuclear Weapons)
- Bell Laboratories
- Lakehurst Naval Air Station
- McGuire AFB
- Fort Dix
- Fort Monmouth
- Philadelphia
Plus Grumman is on Long Island, and Groton is about 150 north. So there’s always the possibility of some warheads over shooting.
So yeah, I would have been gone in the first few seconds, and there probably would have been a new bay created between Pennsylvania and New York.
ric350
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Don't forget the following events were happening on the same time (depending on timezone)
Bon Jovi Concert in New York - September 24, 1983
Australia II wins the America's Cup yacht race off Rhode Island - September 24-25, 1983
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was in Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterparts on how to cooperate against the Soviet Union - September 25, 1983
The 35th Emmy Awards was being hosted by Eddie Murphy and Joan Rivers in Pasadena, CA - September 25, 1983
Bon Jovi Concert in New York - September 24, 1983
Australia II wins the America's Cup yacht race off Rhode Island - September 24-25, 1983
Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was in Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterparts on how to cooperate against the Soviet Union - September 25, 1983
The 35th Emmy Awards was being hosted by Eddie Murphy and Joan Rivers in Pasadena, CA - September 25, 1983
So many "I wasn't born yet" or "I was only a child" responses... Y'all make me feel old here 
Aviano AB, Italy. At the time a base without an actual "job" being the forward deployment base for the Fighter-Bomber squadrons stationed at Zaragoza, Spain. We stored and maintained the conventional and "special" weapons* for those units and the Soviets knew this so we'd likely be a target for some chemical or nuclear IRBMs.
(*For some odd reason Spain was unwilling to let the US store nuclear weapons on their soil )
Randy
Aviano AB, Italy. At the time a base without an actual "job" being the forward deployment base for the Fighter-Bomber squadrons stationed at Zaragoza, Spain. We stored and maintained the conventional and "special" weapons* for those units and the Soviets knew this so we'd likely be a target for some chemical or nuclear IRBMs.
(*For some odd reason Spain was unwilling to let the US store nuclear weapons on their soil
)Randy
I was still minus ten-and-a-half years old in 1983, so I'll apply the question to my parents and grandparents instead:
Really, I can't think of any potential targets in the immediate vicinity of where my parents lived. I think the USSR would just have levelled parts of Helsinki and Tampere, and destroyed the Service Depot in Jyväskylä and the Haapamäki marshalling yard in Keuruu.
Anyway, my father had turned 16 in the summer, and was living in a medium-sized city in southern Ostrobothnia in Finland. He almost certainly would have survived along his parents and older sister, though his older brother might have perished; I'm not sure where he was living in 1983, could be that he was already in the greater Helsinki area at the time.
Father took up computing at a fairly young age and was something of a math prodigy. I'm also fairly sure he did own his programmable calculator by fall 1983, so I could conceivably see him getting hired to do accounting and calculations for the recovery authorities.
My mother was 14, and was living with her parents in Tavastia in the south-central part of the country. She almost certainly would also have survived, but her 61-year-old father might not – he had lost one of his lungs in the war and was an epileptic, so in the event of him falling ill he might be triaged from receiving anything other than palliative care, if even that. Her mother in turn became a triplegic in the 1990's, and it's not inconceivable that the shock of a nuclear war could trigger something akin to that in her already at a younger age. Under such circumstances, it would almost certainly have been a death sentence.
So with enough terrible rolls of the dice, my mother could have become an orphan. She might have been able to get her half-brother as her guardian, as he was over ten years older than her, though he might have been out of the country at the time.
Really, I can't think of any potential targets in the immediate vicinity of where my parents lived. I think the USSR would just have levelled parts of Helsinki and Tampere, and destroyed the Service Depot in Jyväskylä and the Haapamäki marshalling yard in Keuruu.
Anyway, my father had turned 16 in the summer, and was living in a medium-sized city in southern Ostrobothnia in Finland. He almost certainly would have survived along his parents and older sister, though his older brother might have perished; I'm not sure where he was living in 1983, could be that he was already in the greater Helsinki area at the time.
Father took up computing at a fairly young age and was something of a math prodigy. I'm also fairly sure he did own his programmable calculator by fall 1983, so I could conceivably see him getting hired to do accounting and calculations for the recovery authorities.
Also, in the event that they would have needed kindling during the coming winter due to power cutting off, I'm fairly sure father's war comics would have been first on the chopping block – can't exactly imagine stuff like this being a particularly welcome sight post-war:
My mother was 14, and was living with her parents in Tavastia in the south-central part of the country. She almost certainly would also have survived, but her 61-year-old father might not – he had lost one of his lungs in the war and was an epileptic, so in the event of him falling ill he might be triaged from receiving anything other than palliative care, if even that. Her mother in turn became a triplegic in the 1990's, and it's not inconceivable that the shock of a nuclear war could trigger something akin to that in her already at a younger age. Under such circumstances, it would almost certainly have been a death sentence.
So with enough terrible rolls of the dice, my mother could have become an orphan. She might have been able to get her half-brother as her guardian, as he was over ten years older than her, though he might have been out of the country at the time.
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My parents were already married, but I was not born until 1984. They lived in Northern NJ, but both worked in NYC at the time. So I'd be victim of a nuclear abortion.
I was not alive at the time however for my parents my mother and father were both teenagers at the time my mother would have not been living in the country at the time so she would not have been affected however my father lived in the outer suburbs of a large city so it kind of depends where the nuke is dropped and the power of the bomb dropped if he would have survived.
Captain Homicide
Kicked
The survivors would certainly envy the dead. I’ve always thought about what the millions of prison inmates and criminals in the struck countries would do given no law and order to stop them. I had an idea for a film called Kings of Hell where a group of death row inmates escape from prison during a nuclear war and roam the ensuing wasteland.
I was coming up to my second birthday about four miles away from your mum over the river, so I'm likely dead too.
In September of 1983, I was 3 going on 4. Given that my father was in the Canadian Forces at the time, and we lived in PMQs on base in Cold Lake, I would be very dead. As in most of the housing was close enough to the base that it would have been largely incinerated before the shock wave blew it into dust.
I don't like how the official tl became this massive celtic wank. Ireland would be too weak from the collapse of trade and radiation coming from across the Irish sea and Atlantic gulf stream. We would likely see a Bosnia-style war in Northern Ireland sometime in the late 80s or early 90s and Dublin wouldn't be able to do anything about it except take catholic refugees.
I was in Central London, so I'm dead
Or is there some TL on this forum where Ireland largely survives a Nuclear apocalypse?
Sorry do you mean this thread and AFAICT the single post in it referencing Ireland or any any other nominally Celtic region were "After that…." signifies likely also sorts of bad things?
Or is there some TL on this forum where Ireland largely survives a Nuclear apocalypse?
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Ah OK, cheers
I never read the TL so can't comment on that bit, but the post makes more sense to me now!
I was working in Sheffield and living (with bride of 1 month) in a small town about seven miles from its centre. Would probably have been at home rather watching a football match or shopping in the city. Might survive initial blast(s) (even if aimed at the surviving steel works about a couple of miles closer) depending on their size.
Thereafter? Seems unlikely
Thereafter? Seems unlikely