I have been blogging a lot about the possibilities of nuclear war recently. With tensions rising between the only two nations will thousands of nuclear warheads ready at launch each other, this is a valid concern. Many of my posts have had to do with nuclear issues and concerns that are far from my home in Seattle, but a major nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia is a personal threat to me. I don't just mean in the sense that a global nuclear war between these two countries would bring a nuclear winter and spell the end of human civilization and maybe extinction but that there are Russia nuclear missiles aimed at a lot of targets around Seattle, Washington where I live.
Many years ago, I saw a map that showed the primary blast zones for nuclear targets in the Seattle area. There was one small area of Seattle and its suburbs that was not in such a zone. It was a small park on the shore of Puget Sound, north of my home in the Crown Hill neighborhood of Seattle. I decided that if there was a nuclear attack on Seattle, I would make my way to the park and watch the fireworks. Today, I decided that I would list some of the targets and nuclear arsenals around Seattle.
At the Kitsap Naval Base twenty miles west of Seattle, more nuclear weapons are deployed than any other place in the world. It is estimated that there are over thirteen hundred nuclear warheads at the Naval Base. The Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific (SWF-PAC) at the base was completed in 2012 for about three hundred million dollars. There was very little publicity or public debate about the project. This concentration of nuclear warheads is obviously one of the primary targets for Russia warheads.
The Trident Submarine Base in Bremerton, Washington is thirty miles to the southwest of Seattle. Trident submarines which carry missiles with nuclear warheads, are constructed, repaired and based here. Nuclear warheads for the Trident missiles are stored here. This is the only U.S. Trident submarine for the entire Pacific Ocean and is another primary target for Russian missiles.
McChord Air Force Base is forty miles south of Seattle near Tacoma, Washington. The base is the location of the 62nd Airlift Wing whose mission is world-wide strategic airlift for U.S. forces. It is a third primary target for Russian missiles. Ft. Lewis, a major U.S. army base also shares that location and would be a secondary target for attack.
Boeing is a major supplier of aircraft to the U.S. military. There is a Boeing plant in south Seattle and another Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, twenty five miles north of Seattle. In the event of a nuclear war with Russia, these plants would definitely be secondary targets for nuclear strikes.
Ninety miles to the north of Seattle, the Oak Harbor Naval Air Station hosts a number of different squadrons of different types of navel aircraft, including sea planes, helicopters, and surveillance aircraft. It would be a secondary target in a Russian nuclear attack.
In addition, Seattle is home to a major cargo port for the west coast of the United States which makes it an attractive target for nuclear attack meant to cripple flow of goods into the U.S.
All in all, the Seattle area is the primary target for a nuclear attack in the Pacific Northwest. It is a bit uncomfortable to know that I am living in the middle of a huge bullseye. On the other hand, I have no illusions about the probability of my survival following an all out nuclear war where ever I was living in the U.S. There are many threats to life and limb and the possibility of World War III is not the nearest or most likely.
Seattle in red in King County on left, King County in red in Washington State on right:
