Yeah, WW3 in the 80's would have been a blast.

FUCK NO!!!!!

That would have been a no win for a lot of people.

This, except "YOU ARE CRAZY!!!"

Fuck no!
We were considered a speed bump for the 3rd shock army...

No.

I was in the Navy in the mid 80's so fuck no. We thought that it was probably going to happen and that while we would utterly obliterate the soviet navy from the worlds oceans, it was still going to suck.

No.  Fuck No.

OP is insane.

No one in their right ever wanted the cold war to go hot. We wouldn't be here today if it had.

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.

Is that the Silver lining theory?

Watching The Day After cured any kind of thoughts like that.

Whenever the units I was assigned to did ''War In Europe" exercises Day 3 was when nuclear weapons were loaded onto Phantoms and as the planes took off with silver practice bombs in the centerline station the exercise ended with the words: "It's SAC's war now."

You might consider googling Able Archer 83.

Sickels AAF 81-84
Rasdorf
Hunfeld-Eiterfeld-Schenklingsfeld
Not mere names.

First book I read after finishing 19D OSUT.

You've got to be pretty young to say yes.  Or stupid.  Or both.

I was in the military during the Cold War and it wasn't a matter of if the balloon was going up. It was only a matter of when. And it was also assured that the Soviets were going to deploy NBC, which added to the charm, especially when you realized your combat effectiveness in MOPP 4 was pretty much fucking zero and that your only defense against tactical nukes was "ass to the blast."

On the positive side, I single handedly won the cold war.  I have certificate somewhere that says so.  You're welcome.

But for you OP, here's your certificate:

By "quickly escalated" I agree.  How long is quickly?  In my opinion an hour or two.

No.

80's WWIII is only fun through simulations and "experts" bitching at each other and ultimately insulting each others mothers in the most disgusting, and entertaining way.

$1 says that OP was not alive during the cold war.

So, I happened to be an Infantry Lt in Germany from 1978-81.  3ID, 2nd Bn 30th Inf at Ledward Barracks in Schweinfurt.  In Nov 1978 I arrived in country and was assigned platoon leader to 2nd Platoon, B Co.  At that time I had 17 guys out of a TO&E of 41 (table of organization and equipment).  Yeah, we were a little under strength.  We were briefed that 1st Brigade of the 3ID was opposed by the 57th Guards Motorized Rifle Division of the 8th Guards Army.  We had M113's and M60A3's and not much else.  TOW and Dragon missiles and little training ammo.  Carter was President so the military was sucking.

Our GDP (General Defensive Position) was north of Hasfurt between Schwienfurt and Bamburg.  North of the Main River.  That means we had the GOSFG (Group of Soviet Forces Germany) across the border from us and the Main River behind us.  No Class 1 bridges were near us and due to the bank angle of the river we would not be able to swim our 113's to the South of the river.   At the time, the Army also had a record number of Cat 4 recruits (less than desirable).  Eventually I got 26 or 27 guys but was always short handed.

Fighting the Soviets for us would have been short and nasty. And our Battalion shared a boundary with a German unit whose doctrine of not giving up land was not in sync with the US idea of trading space for time.

It would have been interesting to see if REFORGER and POMCUS would have really worked, but 2Lt Cool E would have probably not lasted long enough to find out.  For those that do not know, the US knew the idea of sailing shit loads of men and equip to Europe in the event of a war ala WWII would not work in WWIII as time and ships were limited and the commies had over 300 submarines.   The idea was to fly divisions to Germany (REFORGER: Return of Forces to Germany) and have them draw out equipment already there in storage for them (POMCUS:  Prepositioning of Material Configured in Unit Sets).

Pics:  Me at Grefenwohr training area in Nov 1978 firing AK47.  Second pic is 7  of the guys from my platoon with the Platoon SGt on far left.  Yeah, you tell me what the odds of lasting would have been.

Yup.  Most of the technologically advanced nations would be devastated, tens of millions if not hundreds of millions dead.

FPNI

I've known several Russian. They are nice people. At least the ones I knew were. I would not want them to be dead in some obscene war.

It is a great read.

There was someone who wrote some kind of what if about the Soviets taking the 83' Able Archer exercise serious and launching a surprise attack.  It was a long read and very intriguing because of course NATO was on a signals exercise but not at all expecting an invasion.  Nukes fly, people die by the bucket loads.  It was interesting to read the back and forth but god no would anyone really want that to happen.

Well, we wouldn't have "inner city" problems now, would we? And a solid conservative base in the rural areas? Since that's all that would survive.



And you are thinking of nuclear winter being overblown, not he cost in human lives.

This honestly has to be the dumbest thing I've read on here since I began lurking here in 2006.

Fucking hell.

@DK-Prof

No.  You would have been raped, then you would have died.

hell no, I would have had a front row seat, used to do the czeckoslavakian border patrol with 2nd acr on the southern end, right up until the wall came down in 89

This.  It would have gone nuclear- no good for anyone.

this

No.

Especially since I was in a Mech unit in Germany in 1987.  Going hot would have been exciting and extremely short for us.

Nope.

Always looking on the sunny side of life eh...

Oo yeah and chemical and bio weapons and nukes too

This.

We won that decisively and without a lot of issues.  Had we fought Russia, even if we won....we'd still then be China's bitch now.

Fighting always needs to be an option, but it's never the best option until it's the only option.  The art is in being able to know when it's the only option...

no shortage of stupid shit on here

As one of the boomers that had to do the "Duck and cover drills" in the early 1960's I say no thanks.
Anyone wanting those hellish Hydrogen bombs to let loose at anytime over the world is an absolute unhinged mofo.

ACCELERATE

OP is a silly goose.

The only winning move, is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

I was safe OP. I was under my desk at school.
You had to be certain age to understand this.
And the answer is NO!

You've got to be kidding?

Nerve Agent attack followed by a Blood Agent Attack while you are changing the slime-contaminated gas mask filters......
Uh, No.

"The Soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the Soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest scars of war."-Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower.

"Threads" - no thanks.