being made. I now wonder if they had in their software a "recovery path" for when the person at the screen says, "Oh shit, I just sent out an Incoming Missile alert. What do I do now?"

I worked on the development of the Safeguard missile defense system, in the area of threat analysis, and the algorithms used to process radar returns to determine what are the warheads, and what is chaff. It's a disturbingly difficult task. Later in my career, I worked in a Consumer Lab where we did a fair amount of human factors work.

Earlier in my life, I served in a semi-mobile Nike Hercules battery, and then as XO of a Hawk Missile battery in Vietnam. One night, about 2 a.m. while serving as Battery Control Office, we picked a radar target coming in from China at mach 3. After a frantic call to 7th AF HQ in Saigon, we were told to disregard the target. We could only assume it was an SR-71 returning from a mission.