[ad_1]
We wake up quietly
Then it was a very stressful time, the height of the Cold War. The Soviet Union in Cuba, on the outskirts of the United States, installed its missile bases, it could be said, framed a dagger in the throat of the Americans. Then-US President John Kennedy had a hard time controlling Pentagon generals, enraged by such Russian arrogance, who demanded that those Soviet missile bases be allowed to attack and be destroyed. But the president, the one in charge, realized that this would lead to a nuclear war and did everything possible to resolve the conflict through diplomacy. It was limited to the Cuban blockade, which prevented the entry of foreign ships, especially Soviet ones. The tension was enormous and continued to mount.
This is especially felt by those of us who served in the Soviet Army at that time. The United States and the Soviet Union were competing to produce more missiles and nuclear cartridges. Soon new divisions and new missile units were formed. Similarly, in the Estonian city of Tapa, at the base of the former artillery regiment, our medium-range missile unit was created to destroy objects in Western Europe. For the sake of conspiracy, we carried artillery shoulders, not airmen, like other rocket launchers, as if the same artillery regiment was still here …
The base of our regiment was in Tapa, in the barracks of the old artillery regiment, and the missiles themselves – in the forests of the center of the district – Rakvere. There were also hastily built barracks-type barracks, where we lived when we got there to watch and learn how to fire those missiles.
And here one night, when we were on duty, I felt like someone was moving my shoulder, waking up. With my eyes closed at dusk, I saw the platoon leader. the face of Lieutenant Matveyev. “Get up, get dressed, cover the bed, grab your vending machine and you can continue to rest,” he said. Raising my head, I saw other battery officers also walking between the beds and silently waking their soldiers.
We didn’t understand what was going on here now, something unusual – the watchman didn’t turn on the lights, he yelled “Podjom! Trevoga!” (Celta! Alarm!). Usually raised according to the alarm signal, we all ran like a hangover, we hurriedly dressed, grabbed our vending machines to the field, from there, to the teeing ground, and now, they say, you can still lie …
Where do you sleep here! … We realized that something unusual was happening, we guessed what would happen now, what we would have to do. The Enlightenment has already been ordered to be lifted, it has lined up outside and the battery commander has said that there is danger of war, the entire army is announcing greater combat readiness, that there are tense negotiations with the United States and we must be ready. for all …
But why did they wake us up so unusually, quietly, without an alarm? … Perhaps they did not want to scare their enemies, they did not want to give up that the Soviet army was preparing for an attack … After all, the Americans did not use it, they followed every move of the Soviet army. And we had something to follow: hundreds of satellites did not lose our eyes. After all, in today’s war, it is very important who will attack first, who will launch the missiles first, so every minute is expensive. After all, the missile bases were installed as close to the enemy as possible, to fly faster to the planned runways, to hit better.
[ad_2]
