What if we get an incoming ICBM alert like Hawaii?

[Skier]

I was the Wing Historian for the 22nd bomb wing and worked at the 15th airforce in the early 70's. Wrote the history for linebacker ll before cross training into Rescue.

Cool. Thank you for your service. I was under of the 379th (in MI), both the 92nd and the 2nd (in WA).

Interesting to know we were actually flying with nukes in the air during that time. In my time, we didn't normally do that.

 

[Skier]

I did 3 years at USNORTHCOM

Cool, thanks you for your service. How'd you like your time in US North Command?

 

[Skier]

Thanks. I got a couple ordered.

No prob. Happy to help.

 

[Argonaut]

Cool. Thank you for your service. I was under of the 379th (in MI), both the 92nd and the 2nd (in WA).

Interesting to know we were actually flying with nukes in the air during that time. In my time, we didn't normally do that.

You knew about the weapons lost (and found) on and off the southern coast of Spain?

 

[Skier]

So.......you were a missile guy? Was that at Malstrom or Minot? ... I always had an invitation to fly with the General when he was traveling to Fairchild.

I was a "little missile" guy. ALCM/SRAM/ACM... AFSC 411, then 466, then 2MO. Wurtsmith and then Fairchild.

 

[Skier]

if their nuclear technology is anything like this NK training photo, we probably dont have anything to worry about....

View attachment 423481

Wow, I didn't even notice more than the one guy with that awesome camo. ;-)

 

[Koda]

Wow, I didn't even notice more than the one guy with that awesome camo. ;-)

they must use the force to be able to shoot with their eyes closed.



random find on google under North Korea military, no idea if thats a real pic... but based on what I see in the news when they show pics of their military I wouldnt doubt it...

 

[Skier]

You knew about the weapons lost (and found) on and off the southern coast of Spain?

That was before my time, but I read about it.

You hear about the ALCMs that were "accidentally" flown from Minot to Barksdale in 2007? I have a VERY hard time believing it as an accident. There was never a time that I, or anyone I worked with, didn't know if an ALCM had a W80 in it or not, and I have a hard time believing that the quality of the people working on those systems could deteriorate so terribly in just ~10 years after I left. My thinking is that someone decided it would be quicker/easier/cheaper to just fly them down (instead of removing warheads, and shipping them separately via SST), and that when they somehow caught, the cried "accident" to cover up the violation of standard procedures. If it truly was an accident, that's a pretty sad state of affairs from a training and personnel point of view. All the people I worked with were WAY better than so incompetent to make a mistake like that.

 

[Argonaut]

I was a "little missile" guy. ALCM/SRAM/ACM... AFSC 411, then 466, then 2MO. Wurtsmith and then Fairchild.

My unit at Hill did a lot of support for the initial testing of your systems. I used to watch them fly by with a T38 or F4 chasing them across the range in Nevada and Utah. That was a major part of my units mission for several years. Air launch, sea launch and ground launch. Incredible systems. We would install HAMOT stations along ridgetops that would track there flight and recover the "asset" after they grounded. What an E ticket ride the chase planes had.....I would talk to the (systems command) pilots afterward sometimes. Pretty intense traveling 500 mph 100 feet over the desert floor chasing a rocket powered telephone pole.

 

[Ura-Ki]

I did my most of my 20 under Gen. Chuck Horner, back when the A.F. went through the infamous "transition!" We went from a 50-60% failure to launch of fighter and bombers to 99% in a little under 8 years! When I went in, we were still doing SAR like they did in Nam, and the A.F. was in a bad way, moral was way down, drugs were rampant, and Ft. Leavenworth was jammed up with sex offenders and druggies! We lost so many officers, and lifers, that things were dismal at best. Worse was the losses of planes and pilots to stupid things like muffed up maintenance to outright criminal lack of responsibility! It was a hard thing to go through, and being CSAR wasn't insulation for most of it! On my side, we had a lot of fun re inventing our mission, and developing and tuning it to a razor sharp fighting force! Under the 'New" leadership of Gen. Horner, we were handed control of our destiny, we were invested personally and we grew out of that in to a lean and mean A.F. like never seen before! When I retired in 08, the U.S.A.F. was capable of taking on any three Air forces, and handing them there Azzes, and walking all over ground forces! All with fewer Planes, and fewer personal!

 

[Argonaut]

I did my most of my 20 under Gen. Chuck Horner, back when the A.F. went through the infamous "transition!" We went from a 50-60% failure to launch of fighter and bombers to 99% in a little under 8 years! When I went in, we were still doing SAR like they did in Nam, and the A.F. was in a bad way, moral was way down, drugs were rampant, and Ft. Leavenworth was jammed up with sex offenders and druggies! We lost so many officers, and lifers, that things were dismal at best. Worse was the losses of planes and pilots to stupid things like muffed up maintenance to outright criminal lack of responsibility! It was a hard thing to go through, and being CSAR wasn't insulation for most of it! On my side, we had a lot of fun re inventing our mission, and developing and tuning it to a razor sharp fighting force! Under the 'New" leadership of Gen. Horner, we were handed control of our destiny, we were invested personally and we grew out of that in to a lean and mean A.F. like never seen before! When I retired in 08, the U.S.A.F. was capable of taking on any three Air forces, and handing them there Azzes, and walking all over ground forces! All with fewer Planes, and fewer personal!

I met General Horner.......can remember his face. Not sure where it was. He was very well known. Did he get in trouble over the conversion he did on his command KC135? SAC didn't suffer many of those ills. It was set up by Curtis Lemay, later a VP candidate with George Wallace. He was legendary and didn't suffer fools well. He was the one that advised Kennedy to take out Cuba during the missile crisis. I loved him......he was the person that convinced me to go into Rescue.

 

[Skier]

My unit at Hill did a lot of support for the initial testing of your systems. I used to watch them fly by with a T38 or F4 chasing them across the range in Nevada and Utah. That was a major part of my units mission for several years. Air launch, sea launch and ground launch. Incredible systems. We would install HAMOT stations along ridgetops that would track there flight and recover the "asset" after they grounded. What an E ticket ride the chase planes had.....I would talk to the (systems command) pilots afterward sometimes. Pretty intense traveling 500 mph 100 feet over the desert floor chasing a rocket powered telephone pole.

Sounds pretty cool. Ever see the video of the SPs trying to stop the ALCM that still had it's parachute blowing in the [high] wind and it pulling their jeep around when they tried to stop it. LOL

 

[Skier]

I did my most of my 20 under Gen. Chuck Horner, back when the A.F. went through the infamous "transition!" We went from a 50-60% failure to launch of fighter and bombers to 99% in a little under 8 years! When I went in, we were still doing SAR like they did in Nam, and the A.F. was in a bad way, moral was way down, drugs were rampant, and Ft. Leavenworth was jammed up with sex offenders and druggies! We lost so many officers, and lifers, that things were dismal at best. Worse was the losses of planes and pilots to stupid things like muffed up maintenance to outright criminal lack of responsibility! It was a hard thing to go through, and being CSAR wasn't insulation for most of it! On my side, we had a lot of fun re inventing our mission, and developing and tuning it to a razor sharp fighting force! Under the 'New" leadership of Gen. Horner, we were handed control of our destiny, we were invested personally and we grew out of that in to a lean and mean A.F. like never seen before! When I retired in 08, the U.S.A.F. was capable of taking on any three Air forces, and handing them there Azzes, and walking all over ground forces! All with fewer Planes, and fewer personal!

All the more reason to doubt the truth of that "accidental" ALCM from from Minot to Barksdale in 2007.

 

[Argonaut]

Sounds pretty cool. Ever see the video of the SPs trying to stop the ALCM that still had it's parachute blowing in the [high] wind and it pulling their jeep around when they tried to stop it. LOL

No....but did whiteness the Systems command H53's catch them by the parachute on there (reinforced) refueling probe. They tried to program the missile to pop up and get some elevation before they ran out of fuel so they could be "captured"

 

[Skier]

No....but did whiteness the Systems command H53's catch them by the parachute on there (reinforced) refueling probe. They tried to program the missile to pop up and get some elevation before they ran out of fuel so they could be "captured"

That's cool. I've seen pictures of that. Would be cool to see a video.

 

[ob1]

It's also the After effects of the Blast! Even outside the immediate blast zone, you still gotta deal with the fall out! There will be a LOT of crap floating around for weeks, and even after it settles on the ground, it will be kicked up and spread around for a very long time after!

Strange...my wife tells me the same thing almost every night

 

[Ura-Ki]

Gen. Horner was a F-16 driver brought in to take over the entire Air Force and figure out what was wrong with it, and fix it! He did just that while giving the airmen ownership and pride in the mission ( that's why you see the crew chiefs name below the pilots on the side of air craft) Gen. Horner then went on to command all Air Forces in Gulf-1 and provide Stormin Norman with all the air power he wanted! While in command, Gen Horner also invented the famous Air Tasking Order so that Every one involved could simply look at the White Board and not only understand the days missions being flown, but could read each aircrafts individual tasking and know where that aircraft was. you could also follow the proceeding 24 hours action and leading 24 hours in advance! I first met the General while sitting on Command Alert Watch, and would report directly to him with the last 12 hours intel on any Air Rescue actions, brief him of any shoot downs or other losses, and make recommendations! The good General held our leash on any rescue missions, we were NOT allowed to fly into enemy airspace more then 134 nautical miles, and were not allowed refueling assets, thus, the losses we had, had to be absorbed. We could NOT risk the air crew or air craft or a refueling ship and crew! Gen Horner went on to command National Space Command, and teaching jobs at the Air Force Academy before retiring! If I had a choice of any General to answer to, or get my azz chewed off by, it was Him, best leader the A.F. Had since Lemay, and when you have a Fast Mover in command, he generally under stands CSAR better then a desk monkey ever could, and he was responsible for turning us P.J's into something truly awesome, we finally had some one that understood our mission and our needs and he made things happen that others were ether afraid to do, or couldn't! You needed it, you ask, and if you could show him the mechanics of it and explain all sides, he would move mountains to make it happen! He had a standing order, if you had a real need, bring it directly to him, and he would take care of it!

 

[bbbass]

From everything I've read it had to do with weather/visibility for the bombers

Ummm, Hiroshima was bombed to stop the war. As others have said, to save American soldiers lives. We were winning the war in the Pacific and had worked our way to where Japan was the only target left. But they wouldn't quit and so a land invasion of Japan seemed inevitable. Having experienced the high cost in lives to retake islands under Japanese control, it was estimated the cost in lives to fight on Japan mainland to be very prohibitive. Since we had just developed the "bomb", it was worth a try to strike fear into them. But their generals didn't care, they didn't surrender after Hiroshima. Maybe thinking it was a fluke or a one time event. When we dropped the second bomb, the original target was indeed obscured by clouds, so the secondary target was Nagasaki. Even then, their generals did not want to stop fighting. The cabinet met, it was three politicians for, three generals against surrender. The Emperor, in a break with tradition, cast the deciding vote.

Netflix has a great docuseries called WWII in HD Color. The last episode, 13, deals with the end of the War in the Pacific.

 

[Ura-Ki]

There were conservative estimates that invasion of the Jap islands would have cost 1.5 million allied lives! That's a pretty compelling reason to drop a bomb that may change the minds of those who would lead Japan to certain death and destruction! BTW, those estimates were only for the initial invasion, and not the occupation of!

 

[wired]

My grandfather was on his way to the invasion of Japan when the bombs were dropped. Thank You Harry Truman !