For Nearly Two Decades the Nuclear Launch Code at All Minuteman Silos in the U.S. Was 00000000

December 2nd, 2013

Via: Today I Found Out:

Today I found out that during the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes.

Oh, and in case you actually did forget the code, it was handily written down on a checklist handed out to the soldiers. As Dr. Bruce G. Blair, who was once a Minuteman launch officer, stated:

Our launch checklist in fact instructed us, the firing crew, to double-check the locking panel in our underground launch bunker to ensure that no digits other than zero had been inadvertently dialed into the panel.

One Response to “For Nearly Two Decades the Nuclear Launch Code at All Minuteman Silos in the U.S. Was 00000000”

  1. afterhours says:

    That’s a different explanation for it than was given in a previous post (was a video but I’m just going from memory), where it was said that the generals in charge did it more or less out of spite at being forced to have launch codes at all.

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