(02 Feb.87) I stood on the coral rocks near the pavilion at Emon Beach. Families were having cookouts and the smell of burning charcoal flowed by on easterly tradewinds. A young boy waved a sparkler around his head, the glow reflecting off rustling palm fronds. Somewhere in the park a stereo was playing. The night was perfect, with only a few puffy, cotton ball clouds drifting across a clear sky. A voice from my police radio announced, “We have five minutes and counting.”
Someone asked my advice on the best viewing location. I said I didn’t know since this was also my first time. The flow of people to Emon Beach increased.
“We have confirmed liftoff,” the voice announced.
After a few minutes I began to search the eastern sky for the MX Peacekeeper Intercontinental Ballistic Missile that had been launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 4800 miles across the Pacific.
Anticipation made the time drag. I began to wonder if it had been destroyed in flight. Twenty-six minutes later, however, the post boost vehicle began to pierce the outer edge of the earth’s atmosphere. I picked it out among the many stars, a white and green ball of fire, like a planet, growing larger every second. It moved quickly and quietly toward the place where I was standing. I felt a sense of impending tragedy. This, fortunately, proved to be an illusion. When the boost vehicle disappeared behind a cloud, two RVs (warheads) separated from it and sped off to targets in the western lagoon, trailing white vapors behind them. The delayed third warhead took a couple of seconds longer in descending to Illeginni Island or in the lagoon on the western side of the atoll.
And then it was over. If the warheads had been armed, the shock waves from three hydrogen bombs rated at about one megaton each would have reached our little group by now. And the only evidence that might remain to show that I ever existed would be a shadow imprinted on the rock beneath my feet.
But tonight everyone strolled home while gentle tradewinds blew across the island and the stars flickered quietly on a pristine sky.
Filed under: Almost Paradise Volume 2
Trackback Uri
