The Real A-Team

[mustang ali]

We all know (or at least most of us know) who the A-Team as Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, 1Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck, MSg. Bosca Albert Baracus, and Cpt. H.M. "Howlin' Mad" Murdoch. Their adventures in the 80's entertained adults and children alike. They usually end up establishing some MacGuyver style plan to win the day.

But.....

How many of us acknowledge the real A-Team.

Lt. Boris Korchilov
Chief Starshina (CPO) Boris Ryzihikov
Starshina 1st Class (PO) Yuriy Ordochkin
Starshina 2nd Class (PO) Evgeny Kashenkov
Seaman Semyon Penkov
Seaman Nicolai Savkin
Seaman Valery Charitonov
Cpt. Lt. (Ltcmdr) Yuriy Povstyev

These men braved the horrors of a nuclear reactor that was about to boom, and managed to prevent an explosion that would have triggered World War 3.

K19 A-Team, I salute you

[Teuchter]

Yes Ali - having read the K19 story - I totally agree with you there!

Very, very brave men indeed

[Jackaroo]

True Heroes of the Soviet Union.

[mustang ali]

It just goes to show that even in war there are heroes on both sides

[steve roberts]

Hi Ali.I could not agree with you more.Had it not been for those men entering the reactor compartment,and sacrificing their lives.That could have been a nuclear disaster on a grand scale.The reactor cores may have not exploded,but the resulting steam explosion,could well have set off two very unstable nuclear warheads in her missiles.Those brave men saved the world from nuclear war at a very unstable time.
Many Regards Steve.

[Jackaroo]

Spot on Steve. I think the movie captured that very well.

[mustang ali]

Havent seen the movie yet, ordered it off amazon for 99p so hopefully watch it at the weekend. i hear Harrison Ford's "russian accent" is on pat with Sean Connery's

[Jackaroo]

Havent seen the movie yet, ordered it off amazon for 99p so hopefully watch it at the weekend. i hear Harrison Ford's "russian accent" is on pat with Sean Connery's

Wait till you hear Liam Neeson's Russian accent. However, having said that it is a good movie.

[mustang ali]

i can't be as bad as sean connery's accent in The Hunt for the Red October, since when did Russian Naval Captains sound Scottish.

At leats Sam Neill "tried"

[r.morrison]

The rest of the crew must have suffered too in the long term; no infos on this?
:(

[Jackaroo]

The rest of the crew must have suffered too in the long term; no infos on this?
:(

Trailer from the movie K19
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz-eb3-p9X8&feature=related

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19
List of crew members who died after the accident on 4 July 1961

Several crew members received fatal doses of radiation during repairs on the reserve coolant system of Reactor #8. All of them died between one to three weeks after the accident from severe radiation sickness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_sickness).
Name Rank Dose of radiation Date of death Boris Korchilov Lieutenant 5400 rem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen_equivalent_man)[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19#cite_note-3) 10 July 1961 Boris Ryzhikov Chief Starshina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starshina) 720 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 25 July 1961 Yuriy Ordochkin Starshina, 1st class 990 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 10 July 1961 Evgeny Kashenkov Starshina, 2nd class 845 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 10 July 1961 Semyon Penkov Seaman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman) 890 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 18 July 1961 Nicolai Savkin Seaman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman) 930 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 13 July 1961 Valery Charitonov Seaman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaman) 935 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 15 July 1961 Yuriy Povstyev Captain Lieutenant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Lieutenant),
Commander of the division of movement 629 röntgen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen) 22 July 1961 Many other crew members also received doses of radiation exceeding permissible levels. They underwent medical treatment during the following year. The treatment was devised by Professor Z. Volynskiy and included bone marrow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow) transplantation and blood transfusion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_transfusion). It saved, among others, Chief Lieutenant Mikhail Krasichkov and Captain 3rd class Vladimir Yenin, who had received doses of radiation that were otherwise considered deadly. For reasons of secrecy the official diagnosis was not "radiation sickness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_sickness)" but "astheno-vegetative syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Astheno-vegetative_syndrome&action=edit&redlink=1)". This deliberate misdiagnosis meant that the surviving crew members had problems in obtaining future employment.

[Don Boyer]

Just a little post on the nuclear weapons bit associated with this thread.

Nothing --- absolutely nothing -- can generate a nuclear explosion in any nuclear or thermonuclear weapon other than the precisely timed detonation of the COMPLETE high explosives package accompanied by the discharge of the neutron generators in the exact manner specified by the weapons components and its safey devices. No steam explosion, partial detonation of the explosives package, fire, hitting it with a hammer or giving it to Hollywood movie producers or any other scenario will cause a nuclear detonation.

Obviously, however, an explosion that tears apart a nuclear weapon or causes the asymetrical detonation of the warhead's explosive will of course scatter lethal nuclear material about. Plutonium, uranuim, tritium, etc. How far it's scattered depends on the explosion involved. The heavier elements don't go too far. However, lethal as this material may be at close range, or drifiting in a cloud of dust or smoke, it is nothing compared to the full detonation of the weapon. It can be cleaned up, contained, etc. and is by far the lesser of the two evils.

This is why those Hollywood movies with the ticking terrorist bombs are so silly.

As to my qualifications for this statement, I spent a good number of years building the little darlings. They are elegant simplicity personified, despite the major engineering it takes to manufacture one.

[r.morrison]

Many thanks to you both for the replies.

Yes Don, many A-level physics students know exactly what you are on about, but that doesn't sell hollywood wise!

Most of my fellows burst out laughing when they see the "serious" army films produced by Mr MIckey too!:)

[mustang ali]

Hollywood don't really think about things like that tho, it's more "oh that looks good(despite being incorrect), lets do that"