So at some point yesterday, amidst all the cheers and music and joy there was a very sober moment. It's a totally routine event; something that happens when every incoming president is inaugurated—but nonetheless it's a little bit scary. The new president receives a briefcase that harnesses inside it the power to put it all to an end. Everything. Let's let the Atlanta Journal Constitution fill in the blanks:
A military officer carrying the most explosive information in the world will accompany President Bush to the Capitol on Tuesday. Then he or she will accompany President Obama back to the White House.
As simply as that, the “nuclear football” will pass into the new president’s care —- a peaceful transfer of extraordinary power that has become routine in this country.
The leather-bound attache case contains launch authentication codes; a secure phone that gives the president access to the 1,300 strategic nuclear weapons always on alert; and a listing attack of options, from one shot to Armageddon.
Heavy stuff. Supposedly it gets its name from an old early launch plan code named "drop kick" and the name stuck. Over time, The Football (it doesn't feel right to leave that word lowercase) has been used to take a series of political cheap shots: like when Bush got made fun of for having an aide carry the case in the presence of the pope, or when Clinton (and numerous other presidents) have left it behind with an aide. Most memorably to me is when Carter left the launch codes in a his suit pocket. Instead of winding up in the hands of evil doers the suit only found its way to a dry cleaners, and a possible international crisis was averted. Here's to world peace.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons and used under a Creative Commons License
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Other ways to examine the "joke" behind the name "Football."
As in long pass...except the receiver evaporates in a fireball, or several thermonuclear fireballs.
Interesting trivia: the United States is the only country to actually USE nuclear weapons... two on Japan. Lots of post-war handwringing there...about the poor Japanese. Of course they imagined themselves to be the Asian version of the Aryan Race, and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, and so forth. And did similar horrific medical experiments including live dissections and plague infections and what not. But hey...
Leaving the Footbsall behind, as well as having it at hand, must be very weird for the President of the USofA. But let's face it, when it comes to sabre-rattling... nothing, absolutely nothing beats a 1-megaton warhead. Yeah, even in todays so-called "asymmetrical war" environment. Having the biggest stick to back up that carrot still carries weight.
Speaking of interesting trivia...
The first nuclear warhead dropped of Japan was sent by sea from Hunter's Point, California to the Island of Tinian in the Pacific Ocean aboard the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser originally built in the 1930's.
Moreover, the cruiser set a sea-speed record over the distance, due in no small part to the hard work and professinalism of the men in the engine room. Not unlike Star Trek's famed "Scottie," one of the Chief's in charge of that engine room was Albert E. Ferguson...a first generation American born of Scottish immigrants to the United States.
Chief Ferguson....happens to be the paternal grandfather... of the blogger Kevin Ferguson.
Talk about "small world." Blogger Kevin Ferguson's grandfather helped deliver the first atom bomb...the one that was loaded onto the Enola Gay B-29 and dropped...and exploded... above Hiroshima.
Connections...connections.
Of course I know all this... because I am the son and the father.