Question: The disagreement between Hunter and Ramsey centers on the interpretation of the message that got cut off - Hunter says it might be a recall order so it has to be verified before they launch missiles; Ramsey says it is meaningless because it got cut off, so they should proceed with their original orders. I do understand that the captain was working within a scary time limit (one hour till the Russians could fire their missiles), but I don't understand how anyone could justify not spending part of that hour trying to confirm the cut-off message. Naval command would hardly have radioed them again to say "Yes, we really want you to fire your missiles, we're just telling you again for emphasis," so that means it was not just possible but extremely likely that the cut-off message was a recall order. Given that, how could anyone in their right mind want to cause a nuclear holocaust without first trying to find out what the cut-off message really said?
GalahadFairlight
6th Nov 2008
Answer: In a war situation, the Captain is absolutely NOT allowed to try and contact anyone, lest it gives their position away, which is why he was unable to question or confirm the order.
GalahadFairlight
All respect to GalahadFairlight, but Hunter was not asking the Captain to 'contact' anyone, but rather to use all possible measures to receive the EAM. Active contact was not required, and in fact, going shallow would have been 100% necessary just to launch the missiles, at which point VLF reception would have been easily possible. No nuclear submarine captain would ever have been so stubborn, nor so dismissive of his own XO. Both of these were pure Hollywood inventions.