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Re: World Trade Center attack


From: "Mark C . Langston" <mark () bitshift org>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 18:47:06 -0700


On Tue, Sep 11, 2001 at 09:26:42PM -0400, Christopher X. Candreva wrote:
On Tue, 11 Sep 2001, Mark C . Langston wrote:

DEFCON 2 has been reached, I believe.

DEFCON 1 does not necessarily equate automatically to war, however.  It
is merely the maximum level of force readiness.

Wargames had it backwards. DEFCON 1 is peace, DEFCON 5 is war.

The DoD Dictionary
(http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/new_pubs/jp1_02.pdf) doesn't
explicitly state the order, but does imply it progresses from 5 to 1.

Army Regulation 2510
(http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:99rWu1xnDgQ:www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/r25_10.pdf+defense+readiness+condition+defcon&hl=en)
implies that the restrictions on information transfer during an
emergency increase as the DEFCON level decreases from 5 to 1, implying
that 1 is the highest state of operational readiness, not the lowest.

Further, most every reference available, military and non-military,
recognizes DEFCON 5 as the state of lowest operational readiness.

Were I so inclined to search further, I'm sure I could dig up a
definitive military or governmental document that explicitly states
the rank ordering of defense readiness conditions.  However, I think
the evidence above suffices.


-- 
Mark C. Langston
mark () bitshift org
Systems & Network Admin
http://www.bitshift.org


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