Also, a large number of warheads would have been targeted at the mountain. No need to take the risk of having the commander-in-chief in that location. He'd be better off aboard NEACP to be sure. The risk of being shot down by enemy fighters would not be very high. It's hard to be shot down by an incoming MIRV. Even though Colorado is far from DC, I'd imagine they'd head west away from population centers to ride it out.
I suspect they'd go north (from DC or nearby) via a dog leg to the east, once you clear where the Canadians live (which is mostly bunched up on the border) there isn't much up there the Russians or Chinese would want to vaporise and they can dip south to refuel (assuming anything is left to take off to refuel).
Of all of the Clancy-esque fictional warfare I've consumed, I've never read anything about what these scenarios would be like. I'd imagine an armada of planes (or whatever you call the equivalent for planes) would be available as support to NEACP. Not just fighters for defense but fuel tanker support, possibly AWACs in case ground stations are taken out as well. But where they'd actually fly is an interesting question. They could go out over the Atlantic and turn south and be away from targets faster than flying over land. Of course, that's assuming they know where any hostile fleets would be to avoid. Lot's of options though, which is the point of being airborne instead of stuck in a bunker
Those types of books are where I learnt about kneecap back in the late 80s/early 90s as a kid, which is why I didn’t know it had been renamed post Cold War.
They obviously don’t discuss it for obvious reasons but given the options I’d say east then either north or south, Canada is nearer and air fields with sufficient length to be able to land (and is in NATO) which is why it’d be my guess at least to start with, loiter over an unpopulated area and at least the likelihood is reduced of been near a detonation is reduced, the continental US simply has too many targets, though with modern warheads been lower yield they’d likely be OK orbiting unpopulated areas out west I guess.
> Also, a large number of warheads would have been targeted at the mountain.
Yeah, the Loonies in "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" keep pounding away at it with space rocks launched from the Moon. It worked in the end, overall.