Name: Erick J. Santiago Jr.
Social Justice Group: Nuclear Weapons/Nuclear Proliferation
Date of Fieldwork: January 20, 2023
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Lawrence Bullock – Former Missileer
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:
On the Friday of January 20th and on the Friday of January 27th Ajax, Ajev, Tyler, and I interviewed Lawrence Bullock, an ex-missleer. Lawrence gave us a multitude of answers to our questions. First he gave us answers to what the experience was like as a missleer. He explained that during war, there were a total of 3 men in a secret bunker. 2 men were waiting eagerly with a key to turn when the President would give them a code to launch and he was one of them. The code would also have to be decoded by the 2 men to determine whether it was a code to either stay put or to launch at the same time. There are 2 keys because in order to launch the nuclear bomb, the 2 missleers would have to turn their key at the same time in order to launch. This is the case because it is almost impossible for 1 person to lanuch the missle by themselves because they would have all the power in this case. Going back to the bunker, the third person would stand at the entrance while being armed in case someone intrudes their base. If one of the 2 missleers hesitated the command from the President to fire the armed soilder had the right to shoot that person. Moreover, even if the armed soilder killed both of the people awaiting the President’s command, it still wouldn’t be possible for him to launch the nuclear weapon by himself. There would be a new shift of soilders awaiiting for their time to come. There is always the question of what happens when the soldiers think that they should set off the bomb because they think it is the right time to use it. Well yes it could be done but the armed soldier in the back will try to make sure that doesn’t happen. Another question that can be asked is who is checking the President. Most people don’t have an answer for that; some people say the Secretary of Defense should keep the President in check. That is just one flaw of the military when it comes to nuclear bombs.
He also talked to us about the training needed for in order to be a missleer which isn’t a tough task. There would have to be a background check done on you to make sure you have no criminal history on your record and these backgroud checks surpirisngly cost the government a lot of money to perform them. They cost around $7,000-$9,000 dollars to perform said Lawrence. This is the only task perfomed in order to be a missleer.
Going back to the bunker, Lawrence would have to wake up very early, 4 a.m. specifically, and live atop high peaks to get a good view of the battle. For example, one time he lived on the highest peaks of the Alps.
Lawrence came to work during the 1970’s specifically in 1976 and he told us about some of the treaties that has been made around his time. One of the treaties during this time was the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (I.N.F.T.) was a treaty between Russia and the U.S. that decreased the number of nuclear weapons owned by both of the countries. There are also treaties like the Outer Space Treaty which denies access to store nuclear weapons in outer space. Overall there is a lot to nuclear weapons and new information keeps on pouring out of our world.
One of the outstanding stories was when he got an alert that Russia is attacking them. He was in a state of shock he couldn’t believe what he saw. When he realized what he was facing he looked through a scope on a van and saw 30 aircrafts coming his way. Lawrence and the rest of his soilders were quickly used the radar to track the movement of thr aircraft but the Russians used fake radars to confuse the U.S. Overall, it was very bad time for the U.S.
When we asked Lawrence are there any other countries that the U.S. should be scared of, we didnt expect the answer he gave us. Lawrence said North Korea is a big threat and arguably a greater threat than Russia. We were all in shock when we heard this and we of course asked why. North Korea recently backed out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.). The N.P.T. is a treaty which states only 5 countries are allowed to have nuclear power in their weaponry. Those 5 countries are the U.S., Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom (U.K.). Since North Korea backed out of the treaty they are aloud to own nuclear weapons and use them in warfare. They have already started a nuclear program says Lawrence and even though they don’t pose a genuine threat to us at the moment, they are slwoly trying to creep up to our level.
The difference in presidency is also notable when it comes to nuclear weapons. Since Lawrence has had experience with many different presidents, he told us information on what presidents tend to do. Democrat presidents and Republican presidents are very diffrerent. While Republican Presidents tend to give the military more money to upgrade tech and more, Democrat presidents tend to fund the military less. An example of each of these is when Ronald Regan was president. He thought having a strong military is best for the U.S. and I agree. Democrats like Jimmy Carter think more about the democracy and the people. Jimmy also wanted more treaties to prevent nuclear warfare being used.
Lastly he talked to us about nuclear weaposn modernized and are still fitting the new tech today. Lawrence told us that highly enriched uranium is the core, the item that makes the bomb active and the explosion was thought out very thouroughly by scientists. The military does have to be careful with it because it is very fragile and you do not want to make the bomb blow up on your land accidentally.
We all learned a lot which was showed in the paragraphs above. Lawrence had so much to say and it was great listening to his voice and stories and really listening to him speak made about it from experience made it all the better. I want to give a huge shout out to him and all of my groupmates.
