(1966) STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND "THE STRENGTH OF SAC" PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER

SAC-STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND OFFUTT AFB


USAF COMMAND AND CONTROL

AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE CAME INTO EXSISTANCE, THEY HAD SURPLUS PROP DRIVEN AIRCRAFT AND ALOT OF OTHER HAND ME DOWNS BUT THANKS TO MEN LIKE GENERAL CURTIS LEMAY THEY TURNED THE USAF INTO A ONE COHESIVE TEAM ENTRUSTED WITH THE DEFENSE OF THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES FROM ANY ENEMY RED CHINESE OR COMMUNIST SOVIET UNION,AND THE KEEPER OF THE NUCLEAR GENIE ONLY USED TWICE,THE USAF WAS ENTRUSTED WITH THE TASK OF CARRYING THESE NEW WEAPONS OF WAR DEEP INTO THE ENEMIES HEARTLAND AND DECAPITATING ITS POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERSHIP AND ALSO KEEPING OUR ENEMIES FROM GETTING ANY NUCLEAR DEVICE INTO THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES,THIS NEW MISSION REQUIRED MANY DIFFERENT UNITS FROM THE DISTANT EARLY WARNING RADAR STATIONS, TO THE AIRBORNE ALERT CREWS THAT FLEW MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE COLD WAR 365 DAYS 7 DAYS A WEEK, THE AIR DEFENSE COMMANDS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE NATIONS CITIES WHERE INTERCEPTOR AIRCRAFT IDLED WAITING FOR THE KLAXON TO SCRAMBLE AND INTERCEPT INBOUND ENEMY AIRCRAFT ALSO THE USAF MISSILE CREWS DEEP IN SILOS FROM MAINE TO CALIFORNIA ON CONSTANT ALERT READY TO SEND THEIR ICBMS AT WHATEVER TARGET OUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF APPROVED AND THE OTHER ANTI AIR CRAFT MISSILE SQUADRONS OUTFITTED WITH THE LATEST MISSILE WITH A NUCLEAR WARHEAD, THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE USAF TURNED A BUNCH OF SURPLUS BASES AND AIRCRAFT INTO PERHAPS THE WORLDS TIGHTEST AND DEDICATED BRANCH OF THE ARMED FORCES DURING THE COLD WAR WITH THE MOTTO "PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER" THE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND CONTROLLED THIS NUCLEAR FORCE AND NEVER HAD AN ACCIDENTAL NUCLEAR EXPLOSION EVEN WITH MOST USAF AIRCRAFT CARRYING SOMETYPE OF NUCLEAR ROCKET OR BOMB.THERE WERE ACCIDENTS BUT NEVER A BROKEN ARROW TYPE EVENT ,THE FOLLOWING FILM WHICH WAS POSTED AWHILE BACK IS BEING SHOWN IN ITS ENTIRE TWO PARTS.

Introduction to SAC

Background

World War II left in its wake a conflict in ideology between the United States and the Soviet Union that quickly escalated into what became known as the “Cold War.”  Toward deterring aggression, the U. S. built a vast nuclear arsenal, most of it under the control of the Strategic Air Command.  The Soviet premier banged his shoe on the United Nation’s podium and screamed wildly at the American ambassador, “We will bury you.”  SAC had over a thousand jet bombers that dared them to try.  Tensions peaked in October, 1963 when the Soviets placed nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba and aimed them at the United States.  Leaders of the two nations pushed “brinkmanship” to the limit and brought the world perilously close to nuclear holocaust. Years later, scientists discovered that a greenhouse effect would have resulted from such a confrontation.  A carpet of ash and debris would have orbited the globe and blocked out sunlight.  All plants would have died and this cataclysmic disruption of the food chain would have eventually destroyed all life on earth.      Throughout this chaos, America’s nuclear armada was on a hair trigger.  SAC represented that its complex command and control technology precluded the possibility of an accidental nuclear war.  SAC said it was Fail Safe.  That just wasn’t true.  There was always the threat of an electronic or mechanical malfunction and the ever-present risk that the unrelenting pressure would cause someone to panic and “push the button.”      During the 1970’s, tensions eased and both sides began a process of gradual disarmament. The next decade saw the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.  SAC dismantled many of it’s missiles.  Almost all of it’s bombers were placed in storage or scrapped for their metal.  One-by-one, it’s bases were closed.  In 1992, the Strategic Air Command was officially disbanded.  It was the end of an era.  Today the SAC museum maintains, “The Cold War didn’t just end … it was won.”  For forty years SAC’s motto proclaimed, “Peace is Our Profession.”  It had fulfilled that mission   Our planet survived the most trying moments of it’s nuclear age and without question it was the single greatest threat that mankind has ever experienced.

OUTSIDE THE SAC HQ IN OFFUTT NEBRASKA "PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION" MISSING IS BUT WAR IS OUR TRADE"

SAC OMAHA NEBRASKA OFFUTT AFB THE NUCLEAR WARRIORS VALLHALLA

REFUELING THE STRATEGIC AIR ARM OF SAC THE B-52 LONG RANGE BOMBER STILL IN SERVICE ALMOST 60 YRS LATER WITH NO END IN SIGHT, IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT!

OUT ON THE WINDSWEPT PLAINS STAND THE USAF NUCLEAR INTERCONTINENTAL MISSILE SILOS AND LAUNCH CONTROL

THIS AIRCREW SCRAMBLES INTO THEIR B-47 STRATOJET BOMBER NOT KNOWING IF THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A LONG TRIP INTO THE SOVIET UNION

THE RED PHONE HOTLINE IN THE SAC WAR ROOM THE PHONE IS PART MYTH AND PART TRUTH AND NOBODYS TELLING,

THE MOVIE THAT SURPRISED THE HELL OUT OF THE PENTAGON FOR ITS ALMOST REAL LIFE DEPICTION OF HOW SAC BOMBERS AND PROTOCOLS WORKED "DR STRANGELOVE" (here slim pickens go over the war orders for the plane war plan R "

THE WAR OR SITUATION ROOM WHERE UP TO THE MINUTE CONDITIONS ARE MONITORED WORLDWIDE

OVERSEAS BASE IN MOROCCO WHERE A WING OF USAF B-47s SIT ON ALERT WITH REFUELING AIRCRAFT

NEACP PRONOUNCED "KNEECAP" WAS THE ALWAYS AIRBORNE BEFORE ONE COULD LAND ANOTHER WOULD NEED TO BE AIRBORNE THIS WAS TO ENSURE THAT IF A SURPRISE NUCLEAR STRIKE HIT ALL COMMAND CENTERS ONE WOULD ALWAYS BE ABLE TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE NUCLEAR FORCE THE "NATIONAL EMERGENCY AIRBORNE COMMAND POST" FLEW THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE COLD WAR    EVERY DAY NIGHT ,HOLIDAY, NEACP WOULD BE MONITORING WORLD SITUATIONS WITH ITS BATTLE STAFF OF GENERAL AND OTHER HIGH ECHELON USAF MEMBERS THE OTHER BRANCHES OF THE ARMED SERVICES WITH NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES ALSO MAINTAINED AIRBORNE CPs THE US NAVY HAD "TACAMO" "TAKE CHARGE AND MOVE OUT" TO KEEP A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL OPEN WITH THEIR MISSILE SUBMARINES, EVEN TODAY AIRBORNE CP'S STILL FLY. 
(HERES A LITTLE MORE ON LOOKING GLASS)
THIS LINK HAS A LOT MORE ON SAC SO PLEASE VISIT IT BY CLICKING THE VIDEO BELOW AND RETURN WHEN FINISHED EVERYTHING THAT 
nebrasakastudies.org 
HAS ON THEIR SITE WE ALSO HAVE AND SHARE THE SAME INTEREST IN COLD WAR HISTORY

Flying with the A-Bomb on Board: "Looking Glass"

During the Cold War, military planners assumed that the Soviet Union might start a nuclear war at any time. Initially, the attack would have come from bombers flying over the North Pole, which is the shortest route between Russia and the U.S. SAC built a string of radar stations across Alaska, Canada and Scotland to provide about one hour of warning. Then ICBMs — Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles that could fly from continent to continent in minutes — were developed, and they dropped the warning time to 15 minutes.  One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft. NET went along on one of their last missions. See that video segment here.  Planners had to prepare for the possibility that a nuclear bomb could destroy the underground SAC command center at Offutt with a direct hit. If that happened, the President could not command the thousands of bombers and missiles in SAC's arsenal. So, SAC developed a way to mirror all of the command and communication functions of the underground center in an airplane. Throughout the Cold War, one of the command planes was in the air at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. SAC began this mission in 1961, and it was nicknamed "Looking Glass" because the plane mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications systems. From 1961 through 1990, a Looking Glass aircraft, with a full crew of 24, was in the air at all times. Then, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and tough economic times in the U.S., the Looking Glass system was changed. Instead of having several planes fully manned and one plane in the air at all times, now there are fewer planes and the planes are on alert, ready to fly but not necessarily in the air all the time. The actual plane itself and its equipment has been updated. The old plane was a EC-135 and models served for over 29 years. The new plane is a Navy E-6B. Based on the Boeing 707, the new plane can communicate with the President, underground missile silos, bomber crews, landing fields and even submarines under water. It has a crew of at least 15 and is ready to fly at a moment's notice.

 Flying with the A-Bomb on Board:
"Looking Glass"

During the Cold War, military planners assumed that the Soviet Union might start a nuclear war at any time. Initially, the attack would have come from bombers flying over the North Pole, which is the shortest route between Russia and the U.S. SAC built a string of radar stations across Alaska, Canada and Scotland to provide about one hour of warning. Then ICBMs — Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles that could fly from continent to continent in minutes — were developed, and they dropped the warning time to 15 minutes.  One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft. NET went along on one of their last missions. See that video segment here.  Planners had to prepare for the possibility that a nuclear bomb could destroy the underground SAC command center at Offutt with a direct hit. If that happened, the President could not command the thousands of bombers and missiles in SAC's arsenal. So, SAC developed a way to mirror all of the command and communication functions of the underground center in an airplane. Throughout the Cold War, one of the command planes was in the air at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year. SAC began this mission in 1961, and it was nicknamed "Looking Glass" because the plane mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications systems. From 1961 through 1990, a Looking Glass aircraft, with a full crew of 24, was in the air at all times. Then, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and tough economic times in the U.S., the Looking Glass system was changed. Instead of having several planes fully manned and one plane in the air at all times, now there are fewer planes and the planes are on alert, ready to fly but not necessarily in the air all the time. The actual plane itself and its equipment has been updated. The old plane was a EC-135 and models served for over 29 years. The new plane is a Navy E-6B. Based on the Boeing 707, the new plane can communicate with the President, underground missile silos, bomber crews, landing fields and even submarines under water. It has a crew of at least 15 and is ready to fly at a moment's notice.

During the Cold War, military planners assumed that the Soviet Union might start a nuclear war at any time. Initially, the attack would have come from bombers flying over the North Pole, which is the shortest route between Russia and the U.S. SAC built a string of radar stations across Alaska, Canada and Scotland to provide about one hour of warning. Then ICBMs — Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles that could fly from continent to continent in minutes — were developed, and they dropped the warning time to 15 minutes. 

One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft. NET went along on one of their last missions. See that video segment here.

Planners had to prepare for the possibility that a nuclear bomb could destroy the underground SAC command center at Offutt with a direct hit. If that happened, the President could not command the thousands of bombers and missiles in SAC's arsenal. So, SAC developed a way to mirror all of the command and communication functions of the underground center in an airplane. Throughout the Cold War, one of the command planes was in the air at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year.

SAC began this mission in 1961, and it was nicknamed "Looking Glass" because the plane mirrored ground-based command, control, and communications systems. From 1961 through 1990, a Looking Glass aircraft, with a full crew of 24, was in the air at all times. Then, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and tough economic times in the U.S., the Looking Glass system was changed.

Instead of having several planes fully manned and one plane in the air at all times, now there are fewer planes and the planes are on alert, ready to fly but not necessarily in the air all the time. The actual plane itself and its equipment has been updated. The old plane was a EC-135 and models served for over 29 years. The new plane is a Navy E-6B. Based on the Boeing 707, the new plane can communicate with the President, underground missile silos, bomber crews, landing fields and even submarines under water. It has a crew of at least 15 and is ready to fly at a moment's notice.

One of the last crews of the Looking Glass plane. In 1990, SAC was deciding whether or not
to end 24-hour-a-day flights for Looking Glass aircraft.
NET went along on one of their last missions.
See that video segment here. 

GENERAL CURTIS LEMAY USAF FATHER OF THE JET AGE AND NUCLEAR AIR FORCE  AND A WORLD WAR 2 BOMBER PILOT FAMOUS FOR HIS  FIRESTORM TACTIC USED ON TOKYO

General LeMay & Bomber Deterrence

When Gen. Curtis E. LeMay became commander of the Strategic Air Command in 1948 he was appalled at the lack of professionalism in his bomber crews. LeMay rebuilt SAC and, in the process, presided over a huge change in the life of Omaha and Bellevue.

Gen. Curtis LeMay in an unfamiliar setting, the bridge of a Navy ship, watching one of the early atomic bomb tests that SAC carried out. You can see a history of SAC's deterrence role through the arms race and Cuban missile crisis here. LeMay had been born in Ohio and saw his first plane at the age of four or five. He later said he was excited and ran after it. After graduating from college in 1928 he enrolled in the Army Air Corps. (The separate Air Force was not formed until after WWII.) In the 1930s, he was a decorated navigator and pilot. He took part in the first mass flight of B-17 bombers to South Americans in 1938, and he developed formation techniques that were later adapted to the B-29 Flying Fortresses over the Pacific. At the end of the war, the General made a dramatic return to the United States, piloting a Super Fortress B-29 on a non-stop record flight from Japan to Chicago. When he arrived in the States, he was assigned to the Pentagon as the first Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research and Development. In October, 1947, General LeMay was selected to command the U.S. Air Force in Europe, where he organized air operations for the Berlin Airlift. As the Iron Curtain was descending between East and West Germany, Berlin was left in East Germany. The Soviets wanted to take over the entire city, including the sections of Berlin controlled by America and Britain. The Soviets imposed a blockade on West Berlin, cutting off all land and rail routes into the Western sectors. The Western Allies responded immediately by mounting a tremendous airlift. Under LeMay's direction, C-54 cargo planes that could each carry 10-tons began supplying the city on July 1. By the fall the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day. The airlift went on for 11 months — 213,000 flights the brought in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. The Soviets gave up and opened up the land corridors to the West. Within a year, LeMay was back in the United States to take over of the newly-formed Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base. He was responsible for all of the nation's nuclear bombers and saw that an effective deterrence to the Soviets required a strong, threatening nuclear force. One of his first acts was to order a mock "attack" on Dayton, Ohio. All of the SAC bombers missed their targets — most by a couple of miles or so. LeMay was appalled and began an intense program of training and building up air bases around the country and eventually the world. It worked. Many who served under LeMay remember him as a tough leader who still cared for them deeply. Historian Vladislav Zubok says that Russian leader Joseph Stalin was enormously alarmed at the buildup of SAC: "He [Stalin] had no — had nothing to — had no means to react to it, to deal with this situation. So he came up with desperate countermeasures almost. For instance one of, one of his reactions to that buildup of the SAC forces was to concentrate an enormous armored fist in Eastern Europe and Central Europe. And the idea behind it was — that was when these immense tank armies of, appeared in Central Europe — the idea was, okay, if they want to intimidate us with their, from their air bases, their strike from the air bases, we can intimidate them by our armor groups in Central Europe. If they strike at us, we strike at Western Europe. Of course it was not the same thing, but Stalin could not reach the United States. He was not capable of reaching the United States. No delivery means. Missile designers were still in the very beginning." One of SAC's Boeing B-52 bombers with its full armament. At Offutt, LeMay oversaw the building of over 2,000 family housing units for the increasing numbers of service personnel. He worked closely with Omaha civic leaders to build more housing in the city. His daughter, Jane LeMay Lodge, remembers when they moved to Bellevue (the town closest to Offutt) that it was "a town of 1,500 people. Mission, the main street, was the only paved road in town." Bellevue is now the third largest city in the state, behind Omaha and Lincoln, with 50,000 residents. In nine years as the SAC leader, LeMay built an all-jet bomber force from the remnants of World War II. Under his leadership, plans were laid for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile capability. After SAC, LeMay was Chief of Staff of the Air Force and was involved in the Cuban missile crisis. He retired in 1965. He made a short foray into politics when he ran as a vice presidential candidate with George Wallace. General LeMay passed away on October 1, 1990.

A GREAT SHOT OF A B-47 TAKEOFF USING JATO JET ASSISTED TAKE OFF

HERE A SAC B-52 OUTFITTED "ACM NUCLEAR HOUND DOGS" GETS REFUELED DURING AN EXERCISE

MINUTEMAN MISSILE SILO NOTE THE ELECTRONIC ALARMS AND THE WHITE EMERGENCY ESCAPE HATCH

THE MEN IN THE SILO A QUIET LONELY JOB INTERUPPTED BY MINUTES OF SHEER TERROR AS EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGES COME BLARING IN ANNOUNCING AN ORDER TO LAUNCH UPON CONFIRMATION OF ORDER, SO FAR THEY HAVE ALL BEEN EXERCISES BUT THESE GUYS NEVER KNOW WHAT THE WORLD IS GOING THROUGH MINUTE TO MINUTE

HERE A USAF BASE IS SCRAMBLING THEIR BOMBERS AS CREWS ON ALERT RACE UP IN VEHICLES AND JUMP INTO THEIR IDLING B-52 BOMBER AND GET AIRBORNE IN MINUTES NOTE THE HOUND DOG ACM UNDER THE WINGS (1967) 

TO GUARD OUR NUCLEAR SITES FROM TERRORISTS AND OTHER SABOTAGE THE USAF RED TEAM IS ON HAND ANY TIME ANY NUCLEAR DEVICE IS MOVED OR OPENED FROM THE GUNSHIP IN THE BACKGROUND TO THE ARMOR VEHICLE IN THE FRONT SHOOT FIRST ASK QUESTIONS LATER APPLIES! BEHIND THE ARE OTHER SUPPORT VEHICLES A SPECIAL TRAILER THAT CAN PULL THE MISSILE FROM THE SILO OR PUT IT BACK OTHER VEHICLES ARE ELECTRONIC JAMMING AND SATELLITE LINKED AND ALSO MONITOR FREQUENCIES,HOLD WEAPONS,A COMMAND POST AND ARE EQUIPPED WITH HEAVY CALIBER WEAPONS THIS USAF SPEC OPS FORCE IS NOT SOMETHING THAT IS INTERVIEWED OR PUBLICIZED AND HAS NOT LOST A NUCLEAR WEAPON OR HAD ANY SUCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO ATTACK A MISSILE MOVEMENT