Well, on the bad side, it could have led to the end of the world as we know it. On the good side, if the balloon had gone up, I might have gotten the commission I was otherwise denied...
I wonder if SGM Mills (one of my ROTC instructors) knew about all that. He had pipelines into just about everywhere in the armed forces, including those in other countries -- it was a benefit of being in the special ops community for so long.