P A Gawel

Ivy Mike and the Second Sunrise Murders P A Gawel

Holy Devafreakinstation! Two Nukes Aimed at the Motor City. That can't be good.

All was well with the world apart from for a trifling skirmish simmering in the background between the USA and Russia, known as the Cold War. Each Superpower flexed its muscles hoping the other would blink, but they persisted until President Ronald Wilson Reagan challenged the Communist Party Chairman, Mikhail Gorbachev, on June 12, 1987 to '...tear down this wall.' That was the Berlin Wall then, but that's not what our story is about. Our adventure begins in 1952, a historic year that ushered in the birth of a new and devastating weapon, nuclear fusion hydrogen bombs. Both sides knew the other was working on one, both sides had one and both sides tested them hoping the other wouldn't find out, with fingers crossed behind their backs. The fireball produced as a result of the first fusion device tested by the USA, known as Ivy Mike, was likened to a second sunrise from over 200 miles away. Before long, technology kicked into high gear transforming Ivy Mike from an 80 ton ground installation into a deployable, go anywhere weapon of world domination magnitude. Shortly thereafter, second and third generation deployable hydrogen bombs were built, tested and shelved until the next generation of smaller, more powerful weapons took center stage. Some were destroyed, others dismantled and two were somehow misplaced. Now, that's what our story is about.