6. October, 1973

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As the Arab-Israeli war ground to stop after a U.N.-sponsored cease fire, new violence erupted as Israeli and Egyptian forces engaged each other in battle in the Sinai Desert. The United States believed that the U.S.S.R. was preparing to intervene in order to assist the Egyptians and decided to send them a warning. With President Richard Nixon preoccupied with the Watergate scandal, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger conferred with other officials and decided to raise the U.S. Forces alert status to “DEFCON-3.” In an a particularly poorly-timed mishap, mechanics at a nuclear alert base accidently set off the nuclear alert signal while performing maintenance, sending pilots racing to man their aircraft. The mistake was realized in time to stop the aircraft before they departed.