I was in food service Klamath AFS 75-76 Saratoga AFS 76-77 Roanoke Rapids 77-78

AP -- Worried that too many members of the military are falling to victim to ruinous interest rates and getting into deep financial trouble, the Pentagon is backing an effort in Congress to slap a nationwide cap of 36 percent on payday loans to troops. An increasing number of states are taking steps, too. In a report released August, the Defense Department estimated 225,000 service members -- or 17 percent of the military -- use payday loans. The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit group seeking stricter industry controls, says that one in five service members took out such a loan in 2004, and that someone who borrows $325 pays an average of $800 in charges. In the six weeks after a sailor borrowed from a payday lender, he was short again, so he renewed it once, then took out another loan to pay off the first. Total cost: $150 for a $255 advance

Thanks to Tom & Gene for recognizing and listing Det 0003 as a unit once located at the Kindsbach Cave in Germany. If there are any former Det 0003 personnel `out there,` please stop by and add your name to the site roster. Click on radar sites, type Kindsbach in the location selection and select Germany for the country.

A couple letters reminded me of the payday dice games at the NCO club. From 56 to 60, I was at the 637th AC&W squadron, Othello, Washington. There was an Army Sgt. from Camp Hanford that was attached to our squadron. We called the guy Bilko. His name was well earned. Many troops, including me, learned from him that the guy that starts the game with the most money is the one that ends up with everyone elses money. I was lucky, in that It only took me one paycheck lost, to learn that lesson.

In cleaning up/editing the site personnel rosters I have run into several `unable to deliver` msgs when I`ve sent wires to request info. such as rank, tour dates, AFSC/job, and, while some are due to changed email addresses and a few are due to passed folks, some are due to spam-blockers or email-walls some people have been forced to employ... If you have changed or blocked your email address, pls con- sider changing your `email` block on the rosters to your postal address or telephone number...This will retire the obsolete or denied email address and still allow your friends to contact you...Thanks, Aaron Allen.

I noticed new imputs from people of the German AF Unit IFM REGT.31. I was assigned to the 604th AC&W Sqdrn. Freising Germany, I was also assigneded as an adviser to the German AF. I worked at both the Manual Radar Site until it was closed and then later at the 412L bunker site. I was a trainer for the newly assigned German Crews in Weapons Section. I also used to prepare operational activities messages that were sent to the 31st FLM RGT. the German AF Command HQTRS. I was assigned to the 604TH from 1962 to 1965. I went TDY to SOC 3 at Langerkof Germany and also to Camp Drackenbron France which was a Radar site build into part of the old Maginal Line. I was wondering if there are any German AF vetrans that might remember me. George Wickert

When I was stationed at Misawa AB, Japan, in 1984, my memory is that slot machines appeared in the officers/NCO club. It was in effect an `all ranks` club with separate lounges for each and a common banquet or dining area. This seemed to me a bad idea whose time had come ... again. Let us not forget to address another bad idea, those predatory lenders and `rent to own` joints that were outside the gates of Keesler and many installations. Maybe most despicable were the military retirees who had a hand in running them, knowing the lingo and the GI lifestyle. Now it`s combined with the `payday loan` scams that ensnare the gullible and stupid, something the young are heir to. Fie on them!

Cold Bay, AFS, Alaska, 1972, Our new site Commander who`s name I don`t remember, was turning the new NCO club into a casino. Felt covered Blackjack tables, Crap tables, Poker, House rules, chips and bank, the whole works! But as soon as Command got the word he was ordered to shut all that down and was then stripped of his command and had to leave Cold Bay. He was at Cold Bay maybe three months. I don`t know what happened to him after that.

Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany--1962-1966. Plenty of slot machines available in the club. Too many airmen lost too much of their paychecks in the quarter machines. Jackpot on the quarter machine was $37.50!!

I looking for any info on the 116th AC&W and it`s time in Nouasseur, French Morocco and Rabat Sale, French Morocco in 1952.

Ref NCO Club gambling: I was at Miyako Jima (Det 1 623 ACW) Aug71/72. We had slot machines when I arrived. Sometime,I believe early 72, they were removed and destroyed. I think this was directed Air Force wide at the time. Prior, I was at Kume Jima (Det 2) 67/68. I don`t recall if we had slots there. I do remember a couple of pinball machines that you could collect off.

Just found your site and I think it`s great! I however, couldn`t find anything on the Air Force Radar Site at Camp Pendleton Marine base in Calif., about 1972-1976. I was one of the last radar maintenance troops there.

I was at Yaak AFS from Apr to Jul 1956 after returning from Japan. Got my discharge at Gieger Field. Spent a lot of time in the Dirty Shame Saloon. Also made the mail run a number of times to Bonner Ferry & it was quite a trip when the river flooded the road & we had to go thru the pass to Libby then to Bonner Ferry. Wasn`t there long but long enough for this Hoosier.

BMEWS-Thule, Scanner rat, 1961-62

Regarding Jeff and Bob`s posting the SAGE film. I just tried the URL and as of now, it does wotk http://www.archive.org/details/OnGuard1956

Good old SAGE...23 years after it was officially retired...it keeps on ticking!!

Another radar operational at Mt Hebo, OR after 9/11? Anyone familiar with the temporary deployment of the Oregon Air National Guard, 116th Air Control Squadron, to Mt Hebo, OR in May-Jun 02? Guard newsletter indicates they set-up and maintained a temporary radar surveillance capability and provided interim radar connectivity to the Western Air Defense Sector while permanent FAA radar at this location underwent modernization upgrades. At this time, the 116th ACS was based at Camp Rilea on the north Oregon coast. Are they still there? The equipment used for this deployment to Mt Hebo was not identified. Do not believe the FAA radar was at Mt Hebo, but the location was not listed. The 116th ACS also deployed to Neah Bay, WA in the same time period for the same purpose. Without permanent facilities, a deployment to Mt Hebo must have created many problems for the 116th ACS to overcome. Perhaps they were able to get support from commercial Telco ops at Mt Hebo. In any case, it was hard eneough when the 689th Radar Squadron was at Mt Hebo from 1956 to 1979. At least the 116th was on Mt Hebo when they did not have to contend with high winds, icing, and snow. Expect the US Forest Service, and the steep and winding access road up Mt Hebo were also issues, along with logistics support. Maybe they had helo support since there once was a landing pad. Thanks to all in the 116th ACS on their effort and support to the Nation at a very unforgiving location. Steve (689th RS Jun 65 - Jul 67)

The FAA site in Oregon was located at Salem and the guard was used as coverage while the ARSR-4 wasinstalled. The same is true for them filling in at Neah Bay. The guard mobile are usually fully eqwuipped to operate in bare base locations around the world whichmeans they also have their own comm.

After the USAF pulled out of MT Hebo, the FAA took over the site for while. The logistics were too difficult to maintain the site, so a new FAA radar site was built outside of Dallas, OR (just west of Salem). The 116th spend May and June 2002 at Neah Bay, Wa. and Mt. Hebo. So weather wouldn`t of been much of a problem. Also the 116th has the necessary communications equipment to carry on their mission any place necessary.

Jeff States...your posting of 8/07/06 lists a URL which does not work for me. I`d like to see the video you spoke of. Here`s the URL you supplied: www.archive.org/details/OnGuard1956 Are you sure it`s correct? Thanks! - Bob Caggiano

Bob---Link doesn`t work for me either at the moment---perhaps the server is down? Search Google using `SAGE Film` and you will find this as the first entry that comes up.

As an unoffical historian of the the 116th from it`s creation in 1946, to it`s present operational status, I can say yes, the 116th did do a short deployment to Mt Hebo. The unit has a TPS-75 radar. Further info can be seen at the `Yahoo Group` http://groups.yahoo.com/group/116_TCS/ FYI I was the Radar Maintenance Supervisor, QC and finally the Maintenance Support Superintendent of the 116th TCS from 1972-1988.

Ref tokens, chits, punch cards: Think of them as `debit cards`: They helped keep the total amount of bills and coins down in AF locations where `green` funds were modest [few GIs, limited or no-use on local economy, after era where milfolk were paid in cash]... With several reunions coming up, pls check YOUR sites to see if your data is complete and ur email address is still valid...Pls don`t enter everything in Caps [upper case] as this will consume too much linespace. If you go to a reunion [or correspond with old friends] pls ask them to email me with any missing items in their roster listings--thanks. Finally, an idea for Montauk: Build a new `mansard-roof` which fits over the building and place 3-4 replica phased-array anten- nas--as if the site was upgraded to one of the newer rigs? A small, actual NEXTRAD dome cud be placed ontop of the `Pave` roof and operated by NOAA/FAA/local TV? The old, large search antenna cud be repaired, sandblasted and painted with a super paint, then placed under a sheltering roof [open-sided building like those which protect famous boats, bldgs, etc. The building wud look like a `modern` station and the old antenna cud be put on display without weather and maintenance issues? Aaron Allen/US26/551, 931, AACS.

Gary Jacobs: We just got a $0.25 token from Wilmar AFS, MN into our artifact collection. So, these were used for some stateside sites as well as overseas. We didn`t have them on the sites I was at, so I`m only speculating, but for the stateside sites, they may have been given as a form of a loan between paydays, that could only be used at the club.

I remember `Chit Books` from the NCO clubs. You would sign for a Chit Book, which had tickets for 25/50 cents, which could only be used in the club. You paid for the book at the end of the month(payday). This was 1955/6/7 at the 792nd, N. Charleston, S.C.

What about gambling in NCO Clubs? I recall that in Iceland, we had slot machines in the NCO Club. I don`t recall any at Saratoga Springs. In Iceland, payday was a big gambling day. Blackjack and crap tables were set up in the club and many people blew their pay that night. As I recall, we had to report to the paymaster for our pay. I think it was in cash as checks would have been difficult to cash there. Easy come...easy go... Speaking of other activities at the NCO club, once in Saratoga Springs, I was approached by the First Sargeant of all people to show what was then called `stag movies` in the gymnasium next door to the club. I was requested to do so because I was a card carrying movie projectionist (certified as such by the Air Force). I believe the First Sargeant charged to see the movie. He was a sort of Sgt. Bilko type as I remember. You guys remember Sgt. Bilko don`t you? At least you older guys should remember him.

`Tokens` for U.S. currency value at the local NCO club or Officer Clubs were before my time in the 70s. What were they? Why were they? How did you get them? When were they phased in or out? I remember hearing about them. Now and then I`ll see them up for auction. I think these were used at remote sites but possibly at Stateside bases as well.

Lately I have returned to editing and `cleaning-up` our air def. site rosters and have a request for all Radomes visitors and members: Please update your email address on `your` sites where you served and pls help identify anyone you recognize on the ros- ters by sending me an email, citing the individual`s name, grade, time on-site, job, and email address if you know it...We now have three groups of visitors/members: 1. The people, themselves. If you see yourself and can supply missing or erroneous data, pls do... 2. Friends and coworkers whom you still correspond with or know the status of. Several of you have been very helpful in pro- viding info. about a sitemate or a corrected email address... 3. Our friends who have passed-away: If you know of this, pls send me the date, and, if a family member still wishes to receive email concerning the decedent [spouse, son, dau, etc.].. All of you who are familiar with the 681 ACWS/RS [Bonita, Cut Bank, Browning, and Sweetgrass MT], pls go to these sites and see if you can help `fill in the blanks` on the roster for the main site. Joe Sargent compiled a large list of people and I hope we can complete the missing `line-items` for these troops...Pls send me an email at aaron.nancy@verizon.net and I will post/correct it ASAP...There are a few other places where we can do this also, but Cut Bank really needs your help...As you check your sites, pls advise me of any corrections that need to be made, especially if you have problems trying to change your email address... Thank you very much for your help... Aaron Allen [551 AEWC, 931 ACWS, AACS/AFCS, 57-65].

Johnny Snow, I remember a Charles Fiizgerald at the 777th AC&W Squadron on the Klamath River at Requa, CA in 1964 as a Staff Sergeant( I believe, he may have made Tech by then). I also believe he worked in the Administration. Pica was the First Sergeant when I got there; but he retired and was replaced, I believe, by Master Sergeant Dula. Please correct me if my memory is slipping.

Time is running short…. USAFRadarSitesVeterans is holding a reunion (Sept 10-14, 2006) for all persons having served at radar sites, at the National Museum of the United States Air Force adjacent to Wright-Patterson AFB. Further information is available by clicking on the “Unit Reunions” page link to the left of this message.

Hey, everyone I finsished 27330 school at Keesler in 5/57, headed north to Northeast Cape AFS and the 712th ACWRON. Whe I came back to the land of the big BX in 6/58 it was to Keesler again, this time as an instructor. An A/3C training old sergeants being retrained! In 1/59 I got my orders to Goose. At Melville AFS (which has a great website) I was in the 641st ACWRON. After that I was retrained and left ACW. I always missed it. In my present job I recently talked to a pilot who`s supporting the environmental cleanup at NE Cape. Apparently it`s quite a job. Tony Edwards

Last Call - Reunion - All you Southern Japan Radar Vets (from Miho down to Itazuke, Nagasaki and Kagoshima) time is running out. We meet in Tennessee the 25th of Sep. See Unit Reunions in the left margin.

I notice you don`t show 662nd AFS. Brookfield,Ohio.It was 3 miles west of Sharon, Pa. I was there from Oct. 1952 to Apr. 1954 then went to Japan. After reenlisting in 1956 I went back to Brookfield from Sept. 1956 to Apr. 1957 then to Wheeler AFB on Oahu for three years. The call sign at Brookfield was (Hacksaw)

From the NY Times editorial on 8/13/06 on the 9/11 incident: ... The Federal Aviation Administration, which was monitoring civilian air traffic, dropped the ball repeatedly. Its critical mistake was assuming that the transponders on hijacked planes would stay on, displaying each plane’s identity and altitude. The agency also failed miserably in its duty to alert the military. It provided nine minutes’ warning before the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, two minutes’ warning that an unidentified aircraft was heading toward Washington and no advance notice of the other two hijacked flights. However, the FAA did tell the military, erroneously, that a plane that had already hit the World Trade Center was still headed south toward Washington. As a result, the military scrambled two planes to chase a ghost that no longer existed. The military had its own problems. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, had its radars pointing outward to detect external threats. Only four planes were armed and ready to intercept terrorists in the eastern region of the country. And when the military dispatched two of those fighters to protect Washington, they raced out to sea instead of taking a position to defend the city ...

Gary---Unfortunately, your post `backs up` the post and comments I made on 8/3. None of us were ever in that exact situation, but my instincts tell me we were, at the very least, prepared.

Wasn`t there a radar sight on Baffin Island, Canada? As I recall one of my classmates was assigned there out of tech school.

Re: Gary Jacobs posting (NT Times Editorial). Boy, I sure hope them NORAD guys went out and turned those darn radars around so they point the right way. You got to love Monday-AM-QB`s, and those that just can`t help writing editorials, even though they don`t have a clue what they`re talking about.

Wanted: APS-4 information, charts, schematics, tech orders, etc. I am a volunteer at IWM Duxford and one of the backroom boys who fix up radios/radar for exhibition to the Public. We have two sad AN APS 4 (ASH) radars, both incomplete. We need documentation for these old airborne units. Thanks in advance. Clive. The museum is online at duxford.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00d009001

Happened on your site. Thanks

Alfred Morris: If you read this, please contact me. Your listed e-mail address (amorris2@ec.rr.com) no longer works. I have several questions about one of the radar stations at which you were assigned. Thank you very much in advance. -- Tom Page

Thomas Owens: If you read this, please contact me. Your listed e-mail address (tbowens@earthlink.net) no longer works. I have several questions about one of the radar stations at which you were assigned. Thank you very much in advance. -- Tom Page

Robert Fisher: If you read this, please contact me. Your listed e-mail address (bobchar@charter.net) no longer works. I have several questions about one of the radar stations at which you were assigned. Thank you very much in advance. -- Tom Page

William Whitworth: If you read this, please contact me. Your listed e-mail address (radar8888@aol.com) no longer works. I have several questions about one of the radar stations at which you were assigned. Thank you very much in advance. -- Tom Page

Tom Hildreth...your explaination of `Looking Glass` and ARRS reminded me of similar `exercises` we ran while I was with the 26th Air Division, Combat Operation Center at Hancock Field in `63/`64. During simulated attacks on our Div., I remember working in the Weapons Section during one such exercise. While normally I was an AST, I guess I was cross-training at that time and was in the Weapons Section. Anyway, I remember we ran dispersal drills at a number of the Fighter Sqdns/Wings to scatter the Fighters to locations other than their home bases. The thinking was not to loose an entire Sqdn or Wing by way of one well place `nuke` from one of `Ivan`s` Bear bombers or missles that might get through. We had to check communications at the various temporary airstrips that would be hosting any number of the Fighter aircraft for a short period of time. After serving a year as a radar operator at a small remote site, going to the 26th AD CC sort of helped put things in perspective. I saw, and plotted the `incoming` potential hazards (Bear bombers flying down along our East coast going to Cuba). And it was always exciting when we tracked one of our SAC EWO (Emergency War Orders) flights (Outgoing) passing through our Div.`s airspace. We were all little coggs in a much bigger wheel. And we knew who the enemy was and we were prepared for him.

BURNS AFS SQUADRON PATCH for sale Just saw a listing tonight on ebay for a BURNS AFS squadron patch. It`s incorrectly listed as `USAF 634th Radar Squadron` patch, but it`s really the 764rh, showing the coiled snake. The patch looks to be in excellent condition and the starting price is $14.99. Also shown on ebay is a 1951 Ground Observer Corps `Aircraft Recognition Manual FOR $9.99.

Patches for the following AF Radar Squadrons are available on e-bay.... 634th (Burns,Or); 653rd (England, La); 655th (Watertown,NY);664th (Richmond, Fl); 682nd (Almaden, Ca)

A correction regarding my entry last night calling out the ebay listing for the Burns AFS squadron patch: John Bandur`s right, of course, it`s the 634th.

My first call home from Incirlik in 1966 was a night shift experiment if ever there was one. I was a Tech Controller at the time and managed to get a teletype patch through to 8th AF command post at the Notch near Amherst, MA. My mother lived about 2 miles away and the troop at the Notch was nice enough to call her on the phone. I would ask a question on the TTY, then he would ask her the same question on the phone. Her responses went the reverse route. Pretty crude, but it worked in a way. Guess it`s one thing to try to talk to your mother in that manner, but another thing to try to sweet talk the girlfriend. (I mean, what`s the guy in between REALLY gonna be saying to her? Hah-he`s already got her phone number!) A few month later we were running a contingency sideband trunk with the States and we ran hundreds of nighttime phone patches for many people on base. So sue me, AT&T......I`d do it again today....`Cederville this is Alpha Juliet Oscar....Ready for another patch on landline?`

I Was in radar 27350 from Oct. 1952 left Keesler to 662nd AC&W, Brookfield, Ohio until Apr. 1954 then to Japan for two years. Spent the first 4 months the control center at Itazuki AFB at Fukuoki on Kyushu Island. Then transfered to Det. 25 Radar Station at Nomosaki Japan for 15 Mo.s It was an radio relay station & gap filler Radar 26 Miles from Nagasaki. The last four Mo.s was back to Fukuoki to Det. 3 till coming home to the staes. Then I went to Yaak AFS Montana 58 miles N.E. of Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Got discharged at Geiger AFB, Spokane Wash.in July 1956. Reenlisted after three Mo.s in Chicago, Ill. & went back to the 662nd AFS, Brookfield, Ohio, for about five Mo.s when I volunteered to go to Hawaii where I spent 3 years at Wheeler AFB, Control Center for the Hawaiian National Guard. From there I went to the 665th AFS, Calumet Michigan for about three Months, then to Ophiem AFS, Montana until my Discharge in June 1961 and went to work for the FAA at Indianapolis ARTC Ind.

618th AC&WS Japan l948 to l951 Stationed at Osaka, Miho, Kokora and Itazuka.

Thule AF, Greenland, 12th Missile Warning Sq, Operations Training NCO from Jun 67 to Jun 68.

Want to take a quick 12 minute return to the past? Here is a link---www.archive.org/details/OnGuard1956---for a video from 1956 produced by the military division of IBM featuring SAGE and computers. The link will take you to the home page of the `Prelinger Collection.` A downloading tip---they offer both stream and download. The choice that worked best for me was stream `OnGuard1956 64kb.rm` It is worth the 12 minutes to actually hear and see the ideas that were being promoted 50 years ago!!

The message about the teletype art remonided me about the Special Plates that would miraciously appear on the older Video Mappers at manual sites. We had Christmas maps of Santa and also the Easter Bunny. On halloween we even had a pumpkin. Of course what would life be without a playboy pinup. If the ops crew had really pissed us of we had a special plate of the infamous flying finger of fate. Being a local manual site allowed us some leeway, especially at night. The altimate revenge was to clean the scopes at night with the nosiest vacuum cleaner we could find and of course we couldn`t do that without lights. CMSgt Armstrong

At Thule from September 1960 for the full 510 :) RCA Motor pool driver. Used to JUST LOVE phase patrol in the big CAT.

Thule AB from Sept 1960 through Feb 1962 (hi, John!). RCA-BMEWS motor pool on J-Site, fork-lift operator and driver of the tunnel-tugs moving personnel and material along the mile+long RF-and-phase-proof surface tunnel. Spent my 18th and 19th birthdays there and still have my Thule Blue-Nose certificate, I believe, as well as a rock from J-site with colorful algae colonies still flourishing on it!...

OK! Now that I started the memories flowing with my comment about AUTOVON, how about the Christmas teletype message traffic that was sent out and most of us saw? Some of it would be considered `ART` today. I saw, and had a copy at one time, of a picture of the `Madona and Child` done with the teletype keystrokes. The picture was in great detail and when you squinted at it your eyes would do an integration so that you didn`t see the individual characters used. GIs created these by cutting paper tapes that they fed into the optical reader on Christmas Eve and sent around the world via military teletypes. We looked forward to receiving them each year. Has anyone ever kept a collection of these?

I would call Ft. Gordon, near Augusta Ga, from Murphy Dome Ak. and the operator would patch me through to my family and girl friend, now wife of 36 years. My future mother and father-in-law were understanding with the 6 hour time difference. The operator always told me she may have to disconnect the call if the secure line was needed.

My `morale calls` were a little different than most (hope I don`t get billed at this late date!). Having been stationed in the Mountain at Colorado Springs, then to King Salmon,AK....I would call my friends in the Mountain to patch through calls to my wife. They had direct access to call anywhere...that came in handy as my wife lived in Germany at the time!!

When I was stationed at North Truro AFS, MA (which, like the other radar sites, had only SAGE AUTOVON), I was always amused when I would call my parents in Charleston, SC, by going through our host base and then the Charleston Naval Base operator. I was a captain at the time -- an Air Force O-3 -- but as soon as the Navy operator heard me say, ``This is Captain Page calling, and I`d like a patch to an outside line ...,`` she would immediately reply, ``Yes, sir, yes sir, right away, sir!`` Of course, she was assuming I was a *Navy* captain, an O-6. And, I never said otherwise. I did not place calls there very often, but it was always amusing to get such a response.

The previous discussion of the SAGE/BUIC AUTOVON Communication System brought back a rush of memories. Are any of you honest enough to admit what we did on the night shifts at the RADAR Sites when the AUTOVON System was first installed. Many of us sat at the phones and dialed a string of numbers (built on strings previously attempted) to see if we could reach an operator at a base close to our homes who would be willing to place a collect call to our homes. I know that we at the 759th placed such calls for GIs from the local area. I got one of my calls placed only to have the patch severed when something happened at the base at the other end. As Bob Hope use to say `Thanks for the memories.`

Here`s one to make you wonder---I just watched a journalist (Gerald Posner) on a TV show (Keith Obermann) who has written a book called `Why America Slept.` He received 30 hours of tapes---through the freedom of information act---from NORAD covering the time frame during and after the 9/11 attacks. I was interested only in the portion of the information that dealt with the first conversations on the tapes about the high jacked aircraft. It was not good folks. The military controllers and others heard on the tapes are all totally confused. They were not sure what to do or whether to scramble aircraft. Then they were not sure if they could shoot down civilian aircraft. Info up and down the chain of command was also confused. It surely sounded to me like they could have used a lot of people from Radomes! Understanding that 9/11 was unique, it still sounded to me from the tapes that there was no real command and control.

Kenneth, Our switchboard in the `blockhouse` (pre-SAGE) didn`t have a jack to an outside local phone line. (Probably to prevent what we were about to do)....So when we got calls looking to call home we would dial the local phone number....then lay the two phones together, using black tape to hold them together. Crude, but it worked.

When I was stationed at the 932nd in Iceland, I used to call my mother in Watertown, NY from time to time. There was some kind of communication link between Iceland and Goose Bay in Canada. That was the first link in the call. Once there, I requested to be patched to the switchboard at Stewart AFB in New York State. From there, I requested a patch to the 655th in Watertown. Once that connection was made, I explained to the switchboard operator at Watertown AFS who I was and where I was calling from. He was always kind enough to dial my mother`s number (a local call) so I could speak to her. The quality of the connection was usually poor due to the number of connections, but it was good to speak with my mother, even if I had to shout into the phone. If that chain of connections didn`t work, we always tried alternate routes that were sometimes successful. A lot of guys called home that way...

Using AUTOVON lines to reach a home number was fairly simple, if, you knew the right trick.As a member of the the old 4754th Eval Sq, I and my fellow radar maint troops were on the road a lot. Our office phones were four-line units, with a `hold` button.We disassembled the phone bases and removed small steel pins that kept any two adjacent buttons from being depressed simultaneously. An incoming AUTOVON call would be put on hold,then one would dial the `home` number, depress that button and volia` the lines were cross linked. Ah the good old days, long before the `web` and when vacuum tubes were king.

I heard the tapes and read the transcipts in the larger Vanity Fair article. Yes, it wasn`t exactly a scripted response to a scripted input but I thought the actual NEADS guys did the best they could given the info they were getting and that they were totally blindsided like the rest of us. And that g/d (excuse me) habit of trying to juggle exercise inputs with real-world was always a recipe for trouble with a `TANGO` in my book. I think the worst the NEADS people did was blowing their cool.

A little more on `Looking glass`: Offutt was not the only base to host these aircraft. SAC`s 8th Air Force at Westover AFB, Massachusetts had both an underground command post (The Notch) and EC-135C aircraft. In fact, Westover operated a `pre-Looking Glass` version of the KC-135A prior to the EC-135C. Related to this post-attack survival scenario were the seldom-discussed Air Force Reserve Recovery Squadrons (ARRS). Beginning in the late 1950s, the Air Force activated in the reserve component many of these units throughout the country. There was probably more than a hundred of them, many located at smaller towns and cities that had scant facilities to handle aircraft. Their purpose was to make it possible for the Air Force to continue combat missions in a post nuclear attack scenario. Decontamination and cargo handling were the primary areas of training for these units. I would assume aircraft fueling had to be part of their training also. Consider the scenario 12+ hours into a nuclear exchange for the surviving radar sites. Looking for additional inbound hostile targets, controlling the remaining interceptor and missile force, eyes on a second wave of outbound nuke haulers with tanker support, while at the same time looking for straggler USAF bombers and tankers that had completed their missions and were headed either to home base or to an alternative location where there might be an ARRS. Or at least some place to get a crippled aircraft back on the ground. A complex scenario. Serious work was underway in the late 50s-early 60s to make it all possible. And today we got.........? I don`t want to think about it. Tom Hildreth USAF 1965-1969 ANG Historian-ret-1998

Good info Tom. As to your question...what about today? It seems that we are experiencing a major shift in the type of threat that our military currently considers most likely. For all of us who spent our military careers knowing who the enemy was and what that enemy looked like, it is an unsettling time.

Times sure do change I can remember Scrambling Live Air Defence aircraft to intercept Unknown aircraft. In three different SAGE Regions. Great Falls, Mont., Duluth Minn. and Hancock Fld. NY. Plus three Manual Norad Control Centers. In Great Falls the Alert Hanger was right behind the SAGE building so you could hear the 5min. birds hit After Burner rolling down the run way. Those days are long gone so this tired old War Horse will be signing off.

Yes the Air Force did have quite a significant infrastructure (lots more than just airplanes)to counter the threats of the Cold War Era. I doubt that we have the same level of robust/servivable C4I now as then. Some C4I highlights of the past are still real to me. SAGE was part of an integrated national air defence with radar sites, interceptors, missiles, and C3. Tactical air defense systems (TACS) were 407L and 485L and used radars like the TPS-43. The Recovery Squadrons identified by Tom evolved into Bomber/Tanker Recovery Teams. There were PACCS KC-135 aircraft (Post Attack Command and Control) and the TACAMO C-130 low frequency communications aircraft. PACOM and EUCOM also had C-135 airborne command posts. Air Force commands included SAC, ADC, and AFCS. Underground (ANMCC)and Ground Mobile Command (SAC)Centers included diverse and hardened C4I. Communications systems such as AUTODIN, AUTOVON (SAGE/BUIC AUTOVON), and AUTOSEVOCOM were vital voice and data links for nuclear command and control with significant redundancy and multiple routing. For example, AUTODIN provided the communications links for the nuclear C3 system known as IEMATS (Interim Emergency Message Action Transmission System). There were other C3 comm systems like SACCS and SATIN IV. JANAP 128 and ACP 127 message formats were in vogue. When I see the empty radar sites at various places such as Mt Hebo OR and Watertown NY, I wonder what really took their place, if anything. The same is true of the SAGE blockhouses I knew at Syracuse (Hancock Fld) NY, Adair OR, and Gunter AL. I can still visualize the rows of discarded F-102 and F-106 interceptor a/c at DM in Tucon AZ. I can still hear the F-106 a/c as they took off from McCord AFB (right next to the Monsoon Inn). That was the Air Force I knew up close and personal. I expect the only Air Force systems I worked with that are still around include some ground based space sensors, and special purpose a/c such as the the E-4B (Boeing 747) National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP). I knew the NEACP in its` -135, E4A, and E4B configurations. To keep the E-4B flying past the end of the Cold War, it was renamed the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) and has new missions beyond those of the DOD.

Steve: Funny you should mention AUTODIN, I retired as a DAC from the Switching Center at Hancock FLD NY in 2000.