Missile Command

For several weeks leading up to the game, the Red and Blue forces took part in a series of БЂњspiralБЂ«exercises that set the stage for the showdown. The rogue commander was getting more and more belligerent, the United States more and more concerned. In late July, both sides came to Suffolk and set up shop in the huge, windowless rooms known as test bays on the first floor of the main JFCOM building. Marine Corps, air force, army, and navy units at various military bases around the country stood by to enact the commands of Red and Blue Team brass. Sometimes when Blue Team fired a missile or launched a plane, a missile actually fired or a plane actually took off, and whenever it didnБЂ™t, one of forty-two separate computer models simulated each of those actions so precisely that the people in the war room often couldnБЂ™t tell it wasnБЂ™t real. The game lasted for two and a half weeks. For future analysis, a team of JFCOM specialists monitored and recorded every conversation, and a computer kept track of every bullet fired and missile launched and tank deployed ...»