USAF ALERT FORCE "OPERATION HEADSTART or CHROME DOME "SAC AIRBORNE ALERT 1959 LORING AFB

Operation Chrome Dome The Alert Years a USAF Production

OPERATION CHROME DOME MAP SHEPPARD AFB

1966 overview of Operation Chrome Dome related or derivative flights

OPERATION HEADSTART WAS A EARLY NAME GIVEN TO THIS OPERATION

Operation Chrome Dome was a United States Air Force Cold-War era mission from 1960 to 1968 in which B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft armed with thermonuclear weapons remained on continuous airborne alert, flying routes to points on the Soviet Union border.^[1]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Background
• 2Primary mission
• 3Military units
• 4Accidents
• 5Notes
• 6References
• 7External links

Background[edit]

During the Cold War, General Thomas S. Power, a/k/a "Big Dink," initiated a program whereby B-52s performed airborne alert duty under code names such as Head Start, Chrome Dome, Hard Head, Round Robin,^[2] and Operation Giant Lance. Bombers loitered near points outside the Soviet Union to provide rapid first strike or retaliation capability in case of nuclear war.^[3][4]

Primary mission[edit]

The missions in 1964 involved a B-52D that left Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas and flew across the United States to New England and headed out to the Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft refueled over the Atlantic heading north to and around Newfoundland. The bomber changed course and flew northwesterly over Baffin Bay towards Thule Air Base, Greenland. At this point it flew west across Queen Elizabeth Islands of Canada. Continuing to Alaska, it refueled over the Pacific Ocean again heading south-east and returned to Sheppard AFB.^[5]

By 1966, three separate missions were being flown - one East over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, another north to Baffin Bay, and a third over Alaska.

Military units[edit]

The following military units were involved:

• Strategic Air Command Divisions:
  • 306th Bombardment Wing
  • 494th Bombardment Wing, Sheppard Air Force Base
  • 821st Strategic Aerospace Division
  • 822d Air Division
• Homestead Air Force Base
• Strategic Air Command in the United Kingdom
• 2nd Bomb Wing, 62nd Bomb Squadron Barksdale AFB, Shreveport, LA
• Strategic Air Command 42 Bomb Wing Loring AFB, Limestone, Maine

Accidents[edit]

B-52 Airborne Nuclear Alert route from Homestead AFB, FL to Italy.

The program was involved in the following nuclear-weapons accidents:

• 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash^[6]
• 1961 Yuba City B-52 crash
• 1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash^{[Notes 1]}
• 1966 Palomares B-52 crash
• 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash. The Thule accident signaled the end of the program on January 22, 1968.

Notes[edit]

1. Jump up^ Accident happened while the aircraft was returning to its home base, having already completed its alert mission.

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Croddy, Eric; Wirtz, James J. (2005). Weapons of Mass Destruction. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-490-3. The U.S. alert operation, code-named Chrome Dome, was a realistic training mission
2. Jump up^ USAF: Lakenheath AFB Libery Wing
3. Jump up^ "SAC AIRBORNE ALERT". National Museum of the United States Air Force. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-01-14. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
4. Jump up^ US Nuclear Weapons Deployments Disclosed, Nautilus Institute
   History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons: July 1945 to September 1977
5. Jump up^ Nautilus.org: Chrome Dome Route Map
6. Jump up^ The Goldsboro Broken Arrow, 2011, ISBN 978-1-257-86952-7

Categories: 

• 1960 establishments in the United States
• 1960 in international relations
• 1960 in military history
• 1960s in the United States
• 1960s in the Soviet Union
• Nuclear history of the United States
• Nuclear warfare
• Secret military programs
• Soviet Union–United States relations
• Military operations of the Cold War
• United States nuclear command and control
• 1960 in politics

DECLASSIFIED  USAF  FILM ON OPERATION CHROME DOME 

** the film quality is poor and these two reels of once classified information that only Curtis LeMay and the Joint Chiefs and the POTUS only had access to these reels, they were saved and a effort was made to make them viewable. This history was almost lost before it was DECLASSIFIED for PUBLIC Viewing.**

PART ONE

THIS DECLASSIFIED FILM OF THE OPERATION HEADSTART PROJECT THAT KEPT B-52s COMBAT READY AIRBORNE ON 20hr FLIGHTS WITH A NEW FLIGHT AIRBORNE EVERY SIX HOURS  CARRYING FULL CREW AND BOMB PACKAGE AS WELL AS TARGET CONFIRMATION ORDERS LOCKED UP IN A SAFE ON BOARD THE BOMBER A HOLLYWOOD VIEW OF THIS WAS IN DR STRANGELOVE WITH SLIM PICKENS AS THE PILOT READY FOR "TOE TO TOE NUCLEAR COMBAT WITH THE RUSSKIES" THESE AIRCRAFT DEPARTED LORING AFB IN MAINE AND FLEW PRE ARRANGED PATTERNS FOR 20 HRS EATING SPECIALLY SUPPLIED MEALS AND WORKED AND RESTED IN SHIFTS. THE FOOTAGE SHOWN WAS FOR BRIEFING THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF AND EVEN THE PRESIDENT ON THE OPERATION. THE NARRATOR IS COMPLETELY CONVINCED THAT A RUSSIAN STRIKE VIA ICBMS AND BOMBERS IS GOING TO HAPPEN AND THE UNITED STATES CAN ONLY BE READY FOR THIS. FOOTAGE LIKE THIS IS PRICELESS AND IT MAY SHOW A LITTLE WEAR BUT IT IS COMPELLING TO WATCH AND SEE THE TANKERS REFUELING B-52s WITH ONE EYE COVERED IN CASE A NUCLEAR DEVICE WERE TO GO OFF AND BLIND THE KC-135 REFUELING OPERATOR HE COULD REMOVE THE EYE PATCH AND USE THE ONE COVERED AND IT HAS THE B-52 CREWS FLYING WITH THEIR PROTECTION FROM FLASH AND RADIATION WINDOW SHIELDS FLYING BY INSTRUMENTS, THE THING THAT MAKES THIS SO SPECIAL IS THESE CREWS WERE FLYING REAL MISSIONS WHILE BEING FILMED. GREAT COLD WAR HISTORY, AND THIS IS PART ONE>

     PART TWO OF OP HEADSTART   

PART TWO "OPERATION HEADSTART"

1959 STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND LORING AFB

B-52 FLIGHTS COMBAT READY WITH THERMONUCLEAR

WEAPONS ON BOARD AND LIVE AMMUNITION THIS TYPE

OF FLIGHT HAS GONE BY OPERTION CHROME DOME AND THAT OP FLEW COMBAT READY AIRBORNE ALERT TWENTY FOUR HOURS A DAY 365 DAYS A YEAR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS COLD WAR TACTIC AND OPERATION CAN BE FOUND BELOW IF YOU WERE A PART OF THIS PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PART IN THIS, YOUR MEMORIES ARE IMPORTANT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE JUST E-MAIL ME @ FALLOUTSHELTERNYC@GMAIL.COM

BELOW IS SOME PAPERS ON THE GOLDSBORO BROKEN ARROW AFTER AN ALERT AIRCRAFT WENT DOWN AND CRASHED IN GOLDSBORO N.C.

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