Bush was evacuated. Safe to assume he was killed in Mount Weather or Raven Rock. As for Reagan, we knew he was on his way to the West Coast as per canon...
I like to think they made it out of the rubble months later, find out Liddy Dole was President, and Bush just goes, "Rats, foiled again!"
1. Carter also survives in the 1983: Doomsday timeline since former Presidents and families get Secret Service protection for the next 15 years.
@wolverinethad , I worked on the 1983: Doomsday TL for a number of years and developed the scenario where nearby Auburn, Alabama survived their exchange (a small enough bomb destroyed the nearby military base in Columbus, Georgia along with much of that city). What do you see as Auburn's fate in this TL, especially since it's fairly close to SW Georgia and the Florida panhandle?
As Miss Emily Littella:@Shevek23
While I appreciate the thoughtful analysis, I was simply being snarky about Bush. I'm sure he ate a missile or ten wherever they took him (probably Mount Weather, Raven Rock was meant to be an alternate Pentagon), and even if the bunker survived, they'd be in a real fix trying to dislodge thousands of tons of radioactive rock from the inside.
I just want to note for readership's sake--I will be shifting back to my Connally story soon, but overall I'm in a better place now mentally and there should be less of a gap here in between chapters going forward.
Also, @Chipperback, I know that you wanted to diverge in with my story once I hit a certain point...please let me know, here or in PM, what your plans are so I can sketch mine out.
@Shevek23
While I appreciate the thoughtful analysis, I was simply being snarky about Bush. I'm sure he ate a missile or ten wherever they took him (probably Mount Weather, Raven Rock was meant to be an alternate Pentagon), and even if the bunker survived, they'd be in a real fix trying to dislodge thousands of tons of radioactive rock from the inside.
Yay, great to hear things are going better! Looking forward to more End of Watch (and more Connally!)!
Gen. Patton killed Bush pere off in Duck and Cover, I believe, but did so by sending him to CheyenneMountainLake along with most of Congress...not sure what would have possessed him to go to a facility targeted by an entire Soviet missile regiment rather than, say, visiting Dubya in west Texas (Midland and Odessa were both hit per the Prospero list, but west Texas is a big place).
Dubya would have survived right?
Yay, great to hear things are going better! Looking forward to more End of Watch (and more Connally!)!
Gen. Patton killed Bush pere off in Duck and Cover, I believe, but did so by sending him to CheyenneMountainLake along with most of Congress...not sure what would have possessed him to go to a facility targeted by an entire Soviet missile regiment rather than, say, visiting Dubya in west Texas (Midland and Odessa were both hit per the Prospero list, but west Texas is a big place).
I have a big issue with that. It flies in the face of the nascent COG plans in place by Jan. 1984 to have Bush go to the same place as Reagan, let alone Reagan trying to get to Cheyenne Mountain--Reagan had been briefed years before that NORAD considered the bunker an eventual death post! I know that Reagan's fate is canon and it was done superbly, but Bush had to have been elsewhere, and would have been elsewhere from the moment war broke out. COG plans depended on it, same as Whitelaw having been moved to CHANTICLEER while Thatcher stayed in London.
Since Macragge isn't around we could always make the assumption of an unreliable narrator with regards to Operation Prospero. It was clear that the men selected for the mission were pscycogically very damaged.
Who knows how much of what they said they saw, or did actually happened? The Commando, for example, may have been convinced he killed Regan, when in fact he may have never met him, or simply encountered an alread dead body and convinved himself he made it happen.
From my understanding the VPOTUS was supposed to be evacuated aboard his own E-4B aircraft. So Bush would likely be airborne until the exchange was over. After that, I suspect he would have been taken to a survivin COG facility. Mount Weather, for example, was supposed to be highly surviveable.
A breakdown in communications could easily lead to a belief that Elizabeth Dole is the senior surviving member of the Cabinet. Once communications are restored it could be discovered that there is a government led by Bush at Mount Weather, or another COG facility.