Thank You, American Legion

Thank you, American Legion for the fine time I had as a kid playing American Legion baseball, learning how to make government work at Boys State, and using the scholarship you gave me with the Americanism Award to start my trek through college and graduate schools. More recently thanks for recognizing that ten of the thirteen Smokejumpers killed in the Mann Gulch Firefighting tragedy 75 years ago were World War II military veterans. Partly because of Mann Gulch there now exist ten Standard Firefighting Orders. You can get a clear idea of how and why that happened by listening to Norman Maclean’s book, Young Men and Fire, at johnbdriscoll.blogspot.com I want to draw your attention to six of the orders: #7. Quickly recognize changed conditions and immediately revise plans to handle. In Montana’s Eastern Congressional Disctrict we have 150 Minuteman III nuclear missiles in underground silos and have entered in an unstable nuclear war fighting environment. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has forced us to abandon the Theater Nuclear Forces Treaty to distribute nuclear weapons among NATO allies, while he has been ignoring the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, and is forming military alliances with China and North Korea. Without either of them he already has enough nuclear warheads and launch vehicles to overwhelm the “sponge defense,” expected to be performed by the nuclear missiles here in Montana. We’re not able to read Putin’s intentions and there still is no natural firebreak between tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons. With the 2-year delay in the start date of Minuteman III modernization we need to know if our National leaders are using the delay to revise nuclear war-fighting plans for a dramatically changed situation. #4. Have an escape plan in mind in case of a blowup. While we are waiting to learn of any changes it seems wise for eastern Montanans to have their own escape plans in mind by using the “BlastSim” cell-phone application. Locate on its map the nearest nuclear missile silos, control centers and wing headquarters and plot the escape route you and your family would likely travel. Detonate at least a 1KT warhead on each missile silo and control center, and something larger on Malmstrom Air Force Base. Then plot routes around the fireballs and blast radii, allowing for changing wind. This should be as fun for the kids as it was for us when we used to scan the northern skies for Russian Bear bombers, using Ground Observer Corps aircraft recognition cards. #1. Keep informed on fire weather conditions and forecasts. #2. Know what your fire is doing at all times. #3. Base all actions on current and expected fire behavior. We have been hospitable neighbors to the nuclear missiles, but, unlike the people in Gaza, in America we must expect to be informed about current nuclear war-fighting conditions and changes in strategy. If our nation’s leaders decide the Minuteman/Sentinel still has a cost-effective role to play, then as your Congressman I’ll be asking that the U.S. Air Force accompany these missiles on our land with a fire behavior model similar to the fire behavior models used by the U.S. Forest Service since the Mann Gulch Fire. No one wins a nuclear war and, right now, Montanans are sure to lose more than most. Fire behavior modeling will improve our survival in an attack. If our nation’s leaders decide the ground-based leg of our nuclear Triad might serve a higher purpose in exchange for a long-term multinational nuclear arms control treaty, then as your Congressman I’ll be asking the U.S. Air Force to share all of its soils and geology information about the Western Inland Seabed with the Montana School of Mines, as part of a peaceful effort to combat Climate Change by safely disposing of High Level Nuclear Waste. And lastly, #8. Post a lookout for dangerous situations. If you vote for me I’ll be your lookout in Washington for dangerous situations here.