The Day Everyone Went Ballistic
13 January 2018 started off just like most every other morning on the beautiful island of Oahu, beautifully! Nelli had woken up early with the kids and was downstairs making breakfast while I caught up on a few more minutes of sleep.
At approximately 0800 I rolled out of bed and made my way downstairs, eager for my morning cup of coffee! After good morning hugs were given to all, the coffee was made and I had just picked up my much-anticipated breakfast, a fresh cinnamon raisin bagel.
As I picked up the knife to cut the bagel the quiet Saturday morning sprang to life as all phones and iPads began blaring the Emergency Broadcast notification tone at 0807. I jokingly blurted out “warning, coastal flooding…” as I half expected it to be something surf related, but somewhere inside I said to myself “please don’t be anything attack related.”
Upon looking at my phone my stomach sank as I read a notification I pray none of you ever have to see;
“Emergency Alert – BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
Nelli and I looked at each other and while neither of us were visibly worried, we both acknowledged each other’s gaze with a simple “hmm…”
I also recall making some comment about "why do these things always happen before coffee and breakfast!”
We immediately powered on our emergency radio and in a surreal, almost comical fashion we were greeted by reggae music from one of our local stations. A few turns of the dial and we were keyed into an automated emergency broadcast I am positive I will one day forget but not any time soon. Something to the effect of:
“…a ballistic missile threat has been identified heading inbound to Hawaii. A missile would be expected to make landfall in approximately 15 minutes. This is not a drill. Seek immediate shelter. Remain indoors. Stay away from windows. If you are outside make all attempts to move indoors. If you are in a car, carefully pull to the side of the road. Await further instructions...”
I have to say that our reaction was a bit unorthodox. While I have now heard stories of families barricading windows and doors, and seeking shelter in storm drains in the street (a rather ingenuitive idea!) Nelli and I opened the front door and we walked outside and enjoyed a quick look out into the ocean.
Reassessing the situation, I don’t know exactly why we walked outside but I have boiled it down to three possibilities. One, I somehow felt that this was not real, a feeling I actually recall having. Two, I believed that if there was really a ballistic missile inbound, that our guys would save the day and knock that baby out of the sky. Third, perhaps the understanding that there really is no point in seeking shelter inside my wooden house because if we are close enough to need shelter from the blast, we are not walking away from this one… I was with my wife, I was with my two boys, this was my life, this is all that matters to me. Our shelter was just a few feet away and if this was going to happen, it was going to happen; nothing was going to change this.
I must say that this entire time something told me that this wasn’t real. While we were outside Nelli and I made note at how strange it was that we did not hear any sirens, no “air-raid” sirens nor any emergency vehicles. Everything was quiet. A neighbor was washing his car, another, outside smoking a cigarette.
I rushed inside and turned on the TV; surely if this were real there would be something on the news. Nothing… Nothing on FOX, nothing on BBC, not CNN nor NBC. I thought that to be strange. Either they were really gathering the facts or something wasn’t right. Was our system hacked? Was it set off in error? Is it possible the news agencies don’t know?
Nelli and I then resorted to the next best source of information… Facebook! As members of a local community page, the panic and worry was apparent. Spouses home alone with their kids as their husbands were deployed were asking for help. People were asking if this was real, if there was any further news, it was digital chaos.
The wife of one of my Marines works downtown in Waikiki and he relayed to us that there was mass pandemonium on the beaches. People were running for their lives to get inside to shelter. We were told it looked like a scene out of a disaster movie.
I fired a quick text to my dad just to let him know what was going on. Not knowing exactly what was going on, and feeling like this wasn’t real, I hesitated in sending a message out to the rest of the family because I knew they would understandably worry. I think the common thought that Nelli and I shared was that we would notify everyone when everything was resolved.
It was right at this time that I received a phone call from a young Marine I had the honor of serving with about four years ago. He was an absolute stud at that time and I ensured that I took extra care in mentoring him because I immediately sensed that this Marine would be a game changer!
Now stationed halfway around the world from one another, he called me to ask if everything was ok! We exchanged a few pleasantries and I ensured him I would shoot him a message once we got the all clear and if he didn’t hear from me… well it’s been an honor!
Shortly after hanging up the phone I received a message from him “thank you for everything you’ve done for me!! To this day you are the best SNCO I’ve ever had!!” It was immensely kind of him to say and I replied that I was very proud to have worked with him.
I don’t think there is anything greater a Marine can hear from one of his Marines. I was immediately filled with warmth and pride in that reminder that I had done things right. It also hit me that, while this Marine likely had been ready to express these comments all along, his timeline was likely expedited when he realized that this may be his last chance to express them!
The 15 minutes had come and gone and I looked at my family one more time. I began to feel a moment of worry but something kept on telling me that this wasn’t real.
It wasn’t a minute later that I receive a mass notification from my Headquarters; “TEAM – false alarm! Hawaii released the alert by accident! There is NO INBOUND MISSILE! Please push this out to everyone!” … 38 minutes after the fact…
While many likely expressed a sigh of relief, I did not. It must be my sick humor as a Marine but my first thought was, “man, it’s our first day of a four-day weekend and now we are probably going to get recalled for accountability!” My second thought was that I felt bad for that poor SOB who pushed the “red button” instead of the “green button!”
About this time the news agencies began rolling out with their non-stop coverage on this event. Speculation of hackers activating the system to a procedural error at the Emergency Notification Center ran ramped as each news agency strived to captivate the attention of those who were dialed in.
I fired a few messages out to my mom and the rest of the family in our family group chat and no one replied. I jokingly stated that “I want to know what the hell they are all up to that is more captivating than our nuclear war going on over here in Hawaii!”
And that’s pretty much the end of the story… We ended up only having to do a phone recall, a well entertained task considering I was expecting to have to head into work for a physical head-count.
We let the news roll for about 30 minutes and then we decided we have heard enough of this today. We simply turned the channel to something else.
I walked into the kitchen, toasted my bagel and rewarmed my coffee and sat down to my delayed breakfast.
Although there was no real danger, we were led to believe there was. This event that made us believe we may only have 15 minutes remaining, led us all to thinking, if not for a fraction of a second, that this may be it.
Events like this, and this line of work I am in, specifically the events that I have lived through, help me counteract what I believe to be one of civilization’s greatest delusions, our belief that we are in any way eternal.
In believing this delusion we are brought into a condition of inaction. Similarly, to a project with a due date far in the future, we procrastinate with the belief that there is always tomorrow. This belief shapes us to live in more fear, as the sense that we are eternal leads us to believe that our failures will stick with us forever. Once you understand that nothing in this world is eternal, not even the universe itself, you will be able to operate unrestricted by the fear of embarrassment and failure because like everything else, those feeling too will fade away.
All that being said I am happy that this was just an “accident” and I will continue to enjoy my family and each day to its fullest because hey, you never quite know when you may only have 15 minutes left to live a lifetime!
