Dr. Strangelove B-52

Zalmon

When I was in the Army air Defense artillery we had Nike Hercules. It could be nuclear tipped we even had capability to change targeting mid flight. I suspect a good laugh from it could take out a couple bombers. Remember the army his mission was point defense wow the Air Force had the mission of area defense.

I was in high school and Jacksonville Florida during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. US 90 was shut down on occasion if they transferred nuclear weapons from NAS Jax to the carrier basin at Mayport Florida near  Jacksonville. Classes came to a halt when trainload thanks heading south past by the high school. If you didn't live in Jacksonville you never understood how close we really came.   However from army officer stationed in North Dakota during the crisis that they didn't raise their alert level at all 

 

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As for me, "How close we came" was never the question.

The made-for TV movie/docu-drama, "The Missles of October" shows a young, reckless, "loose cannon" JFK provoking the Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev into a (nuclear) shooting war at that time.

Actually, you do not want me to post all of what we "West-Coaster's" went through as well. 

We had days when we stayed indoors because of the atomic bomb tests in Nevada.

Those who did not, got lukemia, which was common in So. Cal. back then.

Go figure.

Tom T

When I was in the Army air Defense artillery we had Nike Hercules. It could be nuclear tipped we even had capability to change targeting mid flight. I suspect a good laugh from it could take out a couple bombers. Remember the army his mission was point defense wow the Air Force had the mission of area defense.

I was in high school and Jacksonville Florida during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. US 90 was shut down on occasion if they transferred nuclear weapons from NAS Jax to the carrier basin at Mayport Florida near  Jacksonville. Classes came to a halt when trainload thanks heading south past by the high school. If you didn't live in Jacksonville you never understood how close we really came.   However from army officer stationed in North Dakota during the crisis that they didn't raise their alert level at all 

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March AFB out in Riverside was the SAC base... lots of BUFFs there... any Russki coming from the n/w would enter the PV Nike base range. I know there is another abandoned site in the SAN Fernando Valley hills to cover the north... and fighters out of George to cover the n/e...

very nice that the owner of the Red Onion took care of you like that. I think the chain has folded now. The one by my house closed years ago...

I didn't know that The Rolling Hills Estates was once a SAC base!

I find that hard to believe!

What did they do, plow it under and plant trees to be whacked down by greedy real estate developers?

As for Bart Earle's, I knew them personally-they started the chain, then sold it off to keep the main store there in the family tradition, where I could order and get dinners not on the menue, and unlike most customers, they also took my personal check with no I.D., since they knew me.

Can you top that with your smiley face?

Tom T

The Red Onion... that brings back some memories... although I wonder if that was where the chain started. 

Nah, I think the air defense assets were legit for all the high value targets in this area... multiple refineries, the port and naval shipyard, all the aerospace factories, a SAC base... a true target rich environment.

Hey Stick, or is it Baton,

do you think were those to protect the invaders (probably Commie Mexican impersonators from Cuba) from eating at Bart Earle's Red Onion Mexican Resturant for free?

I know from my personal dining experience there, more then once, I would love to!

I am tired of everything "battered and deep fried" as they do here.

Check it out!

http://www.originalredonion.com

Tom T

Yes there are several abandoned Nike sites around LA here.  One is on top of Palos Verdes not too far from my work overlooking the old coastal defense battery at Ft MacArthur. 

Where I live was Nike Missile territory.

Bases all over the place.

They weren't initially nuclear, but became that way, at a range of 25 miles from major population centers.

ikar01

And to quote another movie: "And what have you learned Dorothy?"

 

Kentucky Fried Movie? 

And to quote another movie: "And what have you learned Dorothy?"

Try again,

Oh well

Tom T

That is true. A few theocratic regimes are sponsoring certain groups. Others still swear allegiance to ideologies that are no longer in vogue except in a few isolated nations...

What makes us believe they are not now, only under a theocratic idealogism that is not restricted to conventional established borders that the simple paid map-makers cannot define?

It looks to me at this time that we strongly resemble the early 20th Centuary Czarist Russian Empire's dillema-radical change vs. complacent status-quo.

Oh well....................

Tom T

Yes. Even the terrorists were state sponsored... it was an interesting time...

Those were the days when the "Bad Guys" actually claimed a recognized UN participant country. Now we have immature fools "without borders", or not claiming to belong to anything but anachary, with no tangible national or recognized politically recognized or socially recognized goal, except martyrdom/suicide.

Only self-destruction as they are indoctrinated as Pre-K kids. I guess they're  a form of "Self-Inflicted-Population-Control" to keep their idealogs from owning up to their unwanted children. 

The other day, I talked to one of the guys with a minortive, but major scale modelling company. Well, I do not think these guys would want me to post here what he told me as a 50+years old re-enacted Army Reserve "Advisor".

You see, a while back I literally posted what a WW2 P-47 driver actually said after a typical combat mission run to the Company Shrink in a color documentary movie that I have on file.

It was deleted, but the fact is, things were actually not better then, then now for the "man-in-the-middle".

Maybe I should try to put his quote in my signiture stuff?

Tom T 

The more things change, the more they stay the same... 

Great cinema about the Cold War: The Bedford Incident and Fail Safe.

stik-  map looks the same today......

Mentioned before was Bedford Incident....great movie and the ending from the old Uboat commander was perfect.

While not a nuc movie, another great one and another of my favorites is "The Enemy Below" with Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jurgens.

As crazy as the Cold War was in theory, in practice it produced a certain equilibrium and stability in geo politics. Yes there was the possibility of total annihilation and mutual assured destruction, but because of that, there was (for the most part) a more measured approach to military action. Not 15+ years of active combat operations in one place. You have folks today who enlisted after 9/11 who have done repeated combat operations and deployments since then. Nearly a full 20 year career with no end in sight. That is every bit as crazy as MAD.

Each side had their areas and spheres of influence to deal with in the Cold War. And the opposite side usually did little more than diplomatic lip service or minor covert actions in the other sides areas.

Ah, the good old days... 

And even stranger was the theory that a Genie could disrupt an attacking Soviet bomber formation, ostensibly using initially the F-84 Thunderstreak, and like you said, lob the bomb into the enemy formation(and why would they be flying a "formation" in the first place????) and then make a quick gettaway from the blast.

The problematic results defy the human mind:

1. Does this actually take down a rugged aircraft like the Bear Bomber?
2. Assuming it messes up the electronics, why should that stop any bomber not taken down, with a pilot as determoned as Major Kong who, not being "Instrument-Dependent" could fly without, using "dead-reconing", basic map navagation, and landmarks from harming any U.S. targets?
3. What was to keep the radioactive material cloud from an atmospherical Genie blast from not coming back and falling on and polluting the U.S. soil, water, etc.?

Arn't we glad those days are gone?

Tom T

When I was in the 5th F.I.S. our aircraft had the Genie and every so often they had to have a practice upload with the real things.  One of our ships, 002 (Balls2), the second in command, had actually been one of the few 106s that fired a live rocket.

They guys said that if they actually had to use one, the secone it got ahead of the aircraft they would go into a 180 degree turn and hit max power to get as far away as possible before the proximity fuse set it off. When we picked up the F-15A/B most were pretty happy to be rid of their nuc commitment.

Nucs aren't fun, I have been wqithin a few feet of live weapons several times as part of my job as well as being close to fully armed aircraft.  I remember seeing some on display at the A.F. Museum back in  1970.  They may have been mock ups or not but either way, they just had a feeling about them.

I emember when the bomb shelter salesman came to the house in the early 60s.  My Father turned him down, asking him what would be left.  We lived only a few miles from Picatimmy Arsenel, a primary target.

rangerj

  The Viet Nam missions were flown out of Gaum IIRC. Feel free to add to this or make corrections.

 

B-52 missions during Vietnam were flown mostly out of Andersen AFB on Guam, and also out of U-Taphao in Thailand.

What about when Col. Mandrake(Sellers) says "Shoot the machine!", and Wynn says "OK, but your going to answer to the Coca Cola company about this"?

By the way, I believe Wynn actually said "preverts". not "perverts" LOL! 

Tom T 

The most humorous part to me was when Kennan Wynn (who played an officer in the contingent that stormed that af base) told the Brit Col (played by Peter sellers) that he thought he (the Brit Col) was a pervert.  When the Col. wanted to call to relay the recall codes to the war room, he ased permission of Wynn to make the call from a phone booth. Wynn said  something like "Ok, but don't you committ any perversions."

I wonder if they could ever re-make a movie this well?

Tom T

The AIR-2 was on a few aircraft: F-89, F-101, and F-106. It must have been near suicidal to fire one of those rockets. The wiki says the AIR-2 had the W25 1.5 kiloton atomic bomb. That's one massive warhead for an air to air weapon. Canadian Forces used the AIR-2 also. 

Some more trivia

Slim Pikkens was one of my favorite actors and he was a REAL cowboy!!!

My cousin when he was in his medical residency at USC in California one of the first patients in his neurology residency was Slim Pickens himself!! Unfortunately the brain tumor Slim had couldn't be totally controlled and he relapsed and succombed to the disease.

The cowboy hat he wore in Dr Strangelove was the hat he wore in many of his films whee he played a cowboy. He wore it in Blazing Saddles!!

A couple of notes: My uncle transitioned from the F-86 to the F-89 at Oxnard CA (now a civilian airport) and was sent up to the Arctic Circle. The standing orders were to bring down the Soviet Union aircraft at all cost. If your weapons did not bring an aircraft down then you were to ram it. He was reassigned to SAC and flew B-52s and the "FailSafe" mission.  B-52s would circle the Arctic for 72 hours and wait for the orders. His last combat missions would be in a B-52 over North Vietnam.

Because these "Fail Safe" aircraft were armed with "the bomb" they would be met by APES (air police) as soon as they parked the aircraft. NO ONE was allowed to reenter the aircraft once the crew exited the aircraft. The APES had orders to shoot to kill if any lone crew member tried to reenter the aircraft. This was serious stuff. If I recall correctly these flights were flown out of Minot ND, Omaha NB, and NY (do not recall the base). The Viet Nam missions were flown out of Gaum IIRC. Feel free to add to this or make corrections.

When he returned from NAM a routine medical exam discovered a heart murmur and he spent his last 4 years, of 35 years, flying a desk. He flew B-17s in the Pacific, C-54 in the Berlin airlift, F-86s in Korea, the F-89 and B-52 in the "Cold War" , and finally the B-52 over North Viet Nam. He had an assignment training Vietnamese pilots at Chanute Field in IL. in 1959. I visited him there in 1959 and had no idea what or where Viet Nam was. That would change. They did their "jet" training in T-33s.

The last thing I read is that the B-52s are scheduled to soldier on until 2044. Amazing airplane and amazing crews!

I saw one of these Genies at the Bong Museum in Superior, WI.  It was pretty frightening to imagine a pilot being asked to use one.  

BTW speaking of Strangelove bombs does anyone know the closest approximation to the Hbomb Kong rides down?  Am working on model of Leper Colony and wanted to include the two bombs. Would any existing model bomb be a decent starting point for a scratchbuild for them?  Thanks!