My Cold War Years (Part Six): Bomber Alert Facility Duty And Back To The Missile Field
- Tracy's Thoughts
- Jan 11, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 16, 2019
I did have a short time away from the field myself when I applied for a Temporary Duty Assignment as an Alert Force Controller at the B-52 Bomber Alert Facility on base. In this job it was my duty to stay in contact with and be aware at all times where each B-52 Crews were during their Alert time while on duty. If they wanted to go anywhere on base away from the Alert Facility they had to check in and check out with me. If a Klaxon sounded any time they were away from the facility, in addition to the Sirens, very loud ones, that sounded throughout the base, I was to notify them by phone if necessary too.
On the desk in my office I had two old style rotary-dial phones that had 5 lines each. In addition there was a direct line to the Command Post and one to Security Control. Of course when that Klaxon sounded both of those phones with 5 lines each would all start ringing at once. Some callers may have been a few of the Crews informing me that they were en-route back to the Alert Facility. Other callers would be family members of those on alert asking to speak with their loved ones, perhaps in order to find out what was going on. The Crews didn't really have time to talk to anyone as they were on their way to their Aircraft. There, they were to begin whatever checklists they were supposed to be doing for start up and possible taking off to deliver their loads of nuclear and conventional weapons to whatever determined target location they may have been designated for. Or again, this could just be a simple exercise to check their response times. Remember in SAC, there was ALWAYS a CHECKLIST!
As it turned out, back when I enlisted and signed up for those 6 years of active duty and got the quicker promotion after graduating Basic Training, there was also a clause in my contract that stated that I could not retrain into another field until I had completed 3 years of service. I didn't see this as re-training myself and you would have thought the Air Force would have known this before I was accepted into this position in the first place. But we are talking about our government and sometimes they really don't seem to know what they are doing. I ended going back out into the missile field, but at least this was a nice little break for me. I served the remainder of my time at Ellsworth in the missile field chasing those rabbits, shoveling snow and freezing during the winter, burning up in the summer, watching many more movies, along with responding to those exercises simulating an attack on an LF or LCF and pretending like we were going to war and that "It's the end of the world as we know it...".
By the way, the "Chow Hall" at the Bomber Alert Facility was one of the BEST on Base! But yet here I was once again, relegated to those missile field "TV Dinners". In my mind I kept thinking, "And they're mine, all mine, oh yeah And they sure are fine". Never did see any of that blue sauce on any of the chicken though.
[NOTE: This is Part 6 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.]
Comments