My Cold War Years (Part Five): Missile Field Duty, Entertainment And Meals
- Tracy's Thoughts
- Jan 10, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 16, 2019
Okay, so now here we go. Just one of the ways to "fight" all that boredom out in the missile field was to watch a lot of movies when nothing else was happening. And I do mean a lot of movies! Some many times over and over. Yes, they had televisions, VCR's, some locations had LaserDisc players and eventually all even had satellite TV at the LCF's. Those on alert would sometimes spend hours upon hours upon hours watching movies. Of course you know when there was a military related movie being viewed that it would usually be picked apart for all the mistakes and inaccuracies it contained. "Wargames" and "The Day After", previously mentioned, are just two of many more that had them, and Hollywood is good at making such goofs.
Coincidentally I was actually on alert out in the field when "The Day After" first aired on the ABC television network in the evening of November 20, 1983. In an August 28, 2017 article I read, it stated that this movie "traumatized a generation with the horrors of nuclear war". ABC even took the rare step of issuing a special "Viewer’s Guide" that provided a series of discussion questions and thought "exercises" for both before and after watching, then set up 1-800 hotlines for anyone who needed counseling. And the movie was said to have greatly influenced Ronald Reagan, who wrote in his diary that watching it "left me greatly depressed". After signing a 1987 nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union’s Mikhael Gorbachev, Reagan sent a telegram to director Nicholas Meyer, saying, "Don’t think your movie didn’t have any part of this, because it did". I'll be honest, I laughed my ass off watching it even though it was about the U.S. being poised on the brink of nuclear war. But as I've said in other places sometimes, I've never been normal! Another interesting thing to note about this movie is that it was shown just a few days after NATO's command post exercise Able Archer 83 of which I'll speak on later in this series. For now let us fast-forward to the future and in the series finale of the 2015 German-American television series on AMC Networks' SundanceTV, "Deutschland 83", the Able Archer exercise is highlighted. This series was renewed in 2016 and named "Deutschland 86". A third season, "Deutschland 89" is planned and will take place the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Some of those often viewed movies, many of which are among my more liked and in no particular order, may have included "Caddyshack", "Blue Thunder", "Beverly Hills Cop", "An American Werewolf in London", "The Road Warrior", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Witness", "The Karate Kid", "All The Right Moves", "Risky Business", "The Legend of Billie Jean", "Splash", "Gremlins", "Poltergeist", "Footloose", "The Terminator", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Platoon", "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial", "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi", "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back", "Back to the Future", "Weird Science", "Sixteen Candles", "Real Genius" and "The Breakfast Club", among far too many to keep listing.
There may have been a few times when some "adult-oriented" movies were viewed by some personnel, but I can neither confirm nor deny that any such event ever took place. When they were not running around playing like the next war was about to begin and the world was going to end, others may have spent their "down-time" reading books, playing basketball, lifting weights, or sleeping (not on-duty of course). Board games, card games were also played and some would even indulge in Dungeons & Dragons. By the way, my D&D character was named Alpheus, he may have been a Wizard. I don't actually 'recall', my memory has gotten a little hazy and it has been a long time.
The meals we had out in the missile field were pretty good. The lunches and dinners mostly consisted of "Foil Packs". Think an over-sized frozen TV Dinner in single portions and you'll get a good idea of what they were like. Now for some reason the 1983 tune from ZZ Top, "TV Dinners" is "goin' to my head". For those who had spent a lot of time in the missile field, we may have griped and complained about them, but "they really can't be beat". Well yes they could! Because breakfast, to me, was always the best meal. You could get eggs, bacon or sausage and toast made hot each morning.
On holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Cooks and Facility Managers also made it very special for everyone on alert during that time. Traditional style meals were made and enjoyed by all. In the 6 years I was there I lost count at the number of holiday meals I ate out in the field. Every once in awhile, not during a holiday, a few very caring Cooks and FM's would treat the Crews to other special meals as well, such as deer venison.
[NOTE: This is Part 5 of a 10-Part series of stories about some of my memories of when I was in the US Air Force from 1982 to 1988 and stationed at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, South Dakota.]
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