Posted by
James Gibbon-2 on
URL: https://www.shado-forum.com/New-Person-tp1489453p1489572.html
[hidden email] wrote:
> Servus!
>
> L> made me think about what someone said to mu hubby the other day: that
> L> in Russia most likely every army or navy guy going on a dangerous
> L> mission would have one of those pills that cause one to die instantly.
> L> Cyanide, I guess?
> Are you really sure of this? Even at the time of NASA's Apollo missions the
> rumours were going around that the astronauts had those misterious pills
> with them e.g. in case their lunar lander wouldn't launch again. Here the
> rumours proved to be totally off, there were no such pills (as explicitly
> stated by Jim Lovell in his book "Lost Moon".)
>
I read that book .. brilliant read (if anyone's interested it was
released under the name 'Apollo 13' as the book of the film a few
years ago as well). It must have been NASA's worst nightmare that
the lunar module motor wouldn't work, and the two astronauts
would be left to wait for their oxygen to run out. I'm sure they
would have pulled the plug on the TV & radio broadcasts, but even
so .. years ago it emerged that a Russian spacecraft had suffered
the loss of a heat shield and the cosmonauts were doomed to die on
re-entry.
Kruschev (or Brezhnev, can't remember which) actually spoke to
them in person, to say thanks, sorry and goodbye, in tears .. they
hid this from the rest of the world but apparently the CIA (or
similar secretive US information-gathering organisation) were
listening in anyway. The US didn't let on about this until many
years later, since they didn't want to compromise their listening
post.
But I have read accounts of missions where cyanide pills _were_
issued. In fact in some cases they were actually issued in the
form of false teeth so they couldn't be confiscated - in the event
of capture, the unfortunate prisoner was supposed to bite down
hard and expire in order to avoid interrogation under torture.
I can't remember where I read this, but there was one mission in
WW2 where the cyanide-flavour teeth were fitted and the recipients
were supposed to parachute in - so they spent the outward flight
trying to pull them out in case they had their teeth knocked
together on a bumpy landing.
I expect the suicide option is only offered for top-secret missions
where you have avoid giving away information under torture. So I
don't suppose SHADO personnel would have had them, still less the
Russian Navy. But I suppose you can always shoot yourself if
necessary.
James