Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

by Eric Schlosser

ARNOLD HAD BEEN fast asleep when the phone rang at about half past three in the morning. The caller told him to report to the base: his EOD unit was heading into the field. The call came at a bad time.

But, as Optimus Prime said, fate does not call us at the time of our choosing. Neither does nature.