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Hyten explained the process that would follow such a command. As head of STRATCOM, Hyten is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

“I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,” Hyten added. “And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.”

Hyten said he has been trained every year for decades in the law of armed conflict, which takes into account specific factors to determine legality — necessity, distinction, proportionality, unnecessary suffering and more. Running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order is standard practice, he said.

“If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life,” Hyten said.

These series of paragraphs tells us this safeguard has been in position for decades, spanning many Presidents.

But, of course, CBS spins it to “See how out-of-control Trump is???!?

I am absolutely disgusted by the reaction here. Despite the knee-jerk caterwauling here, Hyten is a fine officer who is doing an excellent job trying to turn around STRATCOM and the nuclear posture that has resulted from a couple of decades of neglect, starting with GHWB. He is also struggling with trying to get force modernization programs in place while taking a cudgel to a broken incompetent and corrupt DOD acquisition process. He is on record for decrying the fact that the Pentagon takes a couple of decades to get much of anything ordered and delivered, after which it doesn't always work as advertised.

We can just burn through Generals and Admirals on a whim or because they served when Obama was President. We don't have a enough to go around.

The attitude expressed here is sickening, actually. It's sophmoric and ignorant. I would have expected better.

One of the places where there is a great deal of ignorance, shared by far too many freepers, is this business of "orders" in the military. Most things that happen are not the result of an order, but a conversation - hey Mr. President, here is our problem. Well General, what do you recommend? Mr. President, we have studied this and thing we should do the following. TRex: but we have some sensitivities with forces so close to the boarder of X? General: sure Mr. Secretary, we can create a buffer zone along that boarder where will keep some surveillance, but we won't have combat forces.

Eventually you might get the whole plan reduced to an OpOrder which the President then approves, but no one gave an order.

As a submarine officer, the only orders I issued were "rudder orders" to control the course, depth and speed of the ship. Sure, order are issued in combat to direct the employment of weapons. But, virtually everything else, training schedules, maintenance, watch assignments were determined not through orders, but as a result of conversations with the senior enlisted who would supervise the work.\\

Of course you always know who the boss is in the military, but that isn't really the point.

The notion that the President would order a nuclear strike out of the blue is preposterous. It would be the result, of a conversation between STRATCOM, SECDEF, the President, and probably the DNI regarding an ongoing crisis and the result would not be a surprise to anyone.

But given the publicity hype on the subject, Hyten has done a creditable job of explaining why folks shouldn't stay awake a nights worrying about a madman ordering a nuclear strike. The order won't be disobeyed or disregarded. Instead the result would be a hey, Mr. President, what's going on. Remember that the president only has information about a military situation because his military commanders or CIA / DIA or NRO have informed him of it. The President does not have his won surveillance and reconnaissance system.