April 26, 1986, one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents, at Chernobyl.

On April 26, 1986, one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the No. 4 reactor sent radioactivity into the atmosphere. At least 31 Soviets died immediately.
I had the misfortune of being downwind of the accident, at the time. I was posted TDY in southern West Germany, with the 2nd Military Intelligence Battalion, in Stuttgart. Someday, the details of the COMINT traffic for that time period may be declassified. But all that I can say now is that late April and early May of 1986 represented an amazing time for me to be working a live intelligence-gathering mission against the Group Of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG or “G-SOF-G”), conducting analysis, and writing reports. – JWR
Today we present another entry for Round 106 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
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More than $800,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 106 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.