I was a newly minted high school freshman when the Cuban Missile Crisis brewed up in the fall of 1962. As tensions mounted, I remember serious debates in the lunch room concerning who was going to “get nuked” first. I was attending a high school in Indianapolis (Long story. Go Trojans! Fight! Win!), so the rivalry between the big city kids and the small-town rube from Kokomo was intense.

My friends from Indy argued in favor of the Finance Center at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Lawrence, Indiana, as being the premiere target for obliteration in the Hoosier state. The theory, as I recall, was that if the Russkies could take out the bean counters, the United States military would be cut off at the knees, and the entire national defense would collapse forthwith.

I, on the other hand, took the position that, as impressive as that case might be, it was in error. My ace in the hole was Bunker Hill AFB, a short 10 miles or so up the road and home to the 305^th Bombardment Wing and its battle-ready group of B-58 Hustler bombers. Capable of supersonic speed, and designed to deliver a nuclear payload, it seemed obvious that in order to avoid a retaliatory strike, this critical component of the country’s defense shield would have to be taken out first, combat-trained accountants notwithstanding.

I was pretty sure that if the Russian missiles were on target, what with ground zero being, as I said, about 10 miles or so up the road, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be vaporized, although Soviet targeting technology could be bit dicey at times. Depending on wind direction, it was possible Kokomo might avoid the worst of the immediate plume of fallout, but admittedly, the longer term prognosis was murky to say the least.

As history records, cooler heads prevailed, and determining which was the more viable of the two competing visions of Hoosier Armageddon became unimportant. Nevertheless, even today, there is disruption in the Force when the leader of North Korea, for example, threatens use of the nuclear option, even though his most reliable delivery option would be to hide the weapon in a shipment of kimchi mailed UPS or Fed Express Overnight to his intended target.

Thankfully, that wacko aside, leaders of the major nuclear powers have progressed beyond treating nukes as some kind of giant firecracker that must, because they exist, have some practical use.

That is, until a few days ago, when President-elect Trump took to the tweeter sphere to muse about expanding our nuclear capacity. If this should cause a new arms race, bring it on, because Team Trump would kick gluteus maximus in any case.

No one is comparing the 45^th president of these United States with Dear Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un. He, that is Dear Respected Comrade, while living the good life killing off relatives he doesn’t like, is certifiably more than a little unbalanced. Likewise, no one is claiming anyone aspires to make this country the North Korea of North America in terms of unpredictability.

However.

When on record as being unwilling to take anything off the table, and seeing unpredictability and brinksmanship as useful diplomatic tools, one should not be surprised when such pronouncements have a destabilizing nervous reaction among members of the international community, who then might feel the need to prepare for the worst scenario.

A phalanx of apologists walking back the tweets might limit the damage, but damage there will be. Rather than having the necessity of reinterpreting what has been consigned to the ether, it might be better to think the thing through before consigning anything to the ether in the first place

Let’s face it. Our new president is an apprentice at this game. He will learn, but he does not have the luxury of time. On Jan. 20, 2017, at roughly noon, he is thrown into the deep end without water wings.

Chest thumping and braggadocio in a president-elect is one thing. The same in a president can ignite a chain of events and misunderstandings that can lead to 14-year-old kids in the heartland debating over their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches who is going to get incinerated first.

Nobody wants that.

By the way, I still think nuking Bunker Hill AFB was the more likely of the two options presented. Happily, we never found out.

We trust out new president to keep it that way.