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...Mount Weather since 1968 is Bernard ("Bud") Gallagher. A former Air Force bomber pilot who was shot down over Denmark and held captive by Germany's dreaded Gestapo during World War II, Gallagher flew through the mushroom clouds of 12 nuclear tests in 1952 and 1953 to record radiation levels. He later went to the White House, serving in the Office of Emergency Preparedness. Now 69, Gallagher is described as a superpatriot and a student of such dire scenarios as the postattack consequences of nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. Says Becton: "He's a solid citizen...
Even though cold war tensions have eased, Washington planners insist that, along with airborne command centers and underground military installations, Mount Weather remains an essential element in national defense. A former National Security Council staff member says the consensus among people who think about the unthinkable is that Washington is a potential target for nuclear attack -- even outside a cold war framework -- because any foe would be tempted "to decapitate" the U.S. government by killing its leaders. In recent years FEMA has shifted the focus from a potential Soviet attack to one by a Third World nation or even...
...Labor from 1985 to 1987, ranked 11th in the order of presidential succession and was on the evacuation list. Brock said he never went anywhere without his special card. During one exercise, he recalls, he went to the Mall in the center of Washington and was helicoptered to Mount Weather. Brock said he took "absolutely nothing" with...
FEMA spokesman Marvin Davis, who says the facility is still needed, concedes that political change in the world may ultimately redefine the role of Mount Weather. "But public policy rarely closely follows current events," he says. "It's too soon. We're less than a few months into the new world. It's going to take some time before that's fully assessed." Says Becton: "We are no longer faced with a bolt out of the blue from Russia, but no one has the assurance that someone else won't pop up in the next five or 10 years...
...changed since the planners of 1953 mapped out their scenarios. The nuclear weapons of the 1990s are far more accurate and more penetrating, and while satellite surveillance has been enhanced, warning times in case of attack have been reduced. The helicopter flight time from the White House to Mount Weather is about 20 minutes, but a missile fired at the U.S. by a submarine lying just off the coast could strike within 10 to 15 minutes after launch. And there are some nuclear-weapons experts who say, all planning and testing notwithstanding, a direct nuclear hit on Mount Weather would...