Fellow Missileers:
Can you believe it’s Labor Day weekend. Our children are back in school, football season in in full swing and the northern states are getting their snow removal equipment tuned up and ready to go! I’m anxiously waiting the arrival of the Minuteman Art Book which I spent two years gathering pictures and data for—it’s at the printer now and should be available for delivery by the end of the month. We created a web site to give you more information on what the book looks like including sample pages, how to order it and more. This is a book produced by missileers for missileers. Please check our site at www.afmissileersbook.com . The book is only about Minuteman Art. I know—where is the book on Atlas or Titan? That can be a project for someone in the future—we concentrated on Minuteman before all the below ground art was destroyed. While I wait for the book, I’m tying up loose ends for the National Meeting in Buellton, CA which includes the inaugural Hall of Fame Banquet. There are a few days left to register at www.afmissileers.org
Arlington Ceremony: Col Jim Roggero, 351st SWM/CC (Whiteman AFB) and 310th Training and Test Wing/CC (Vandenberg AFB) will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, Sept 6th at 11 am. The family will also have a meet and greet on Thursday evening, Sept 5th at the Double Tree Hotel in Crystal City (time TBD). Col Roggero is a hero of the Cold War and will be greatly missed!
44th SMW Reunion: Former members of the 44SMW are meeting from Sept 4th through Sept 8th at Hart Ranch, Rapid City, South Dakota. The 44th SMW can trace it’s lineage to the 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy) that was activated on 15-January-1942 and equipped with B-24Cs. The Group was nicknamed as the Flying Eight Balls. In all the 44th flew 343 missions in 8009 sorties and dropped 18,980 tons of bombs. The Group lost 153 aircraft and 2000 airmen MIA. After WW II, the 44th continued with different aircraft and missions until the Missile Wing was activated on January 1st, 1962.
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BELLE FOURCHE, S.D.—1993, LA Times: The warheads were long gone. The doomsday keys had been removed to the safety of an Air Force vault. Racks of classified electronic communications panels that once spewed out coded messages from hidden war rooms had been carted off as salvage.
Source: Harvesting the Silos of South Dakota
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Peacekeeper History: Do you have a good understanding of peacekeeper development and deployment? If so, historian and author David Stumpf would love to talk with you. If you would like to help David with either of the two questions below, please email him at dkarlstumpf@gmail.com .
How thick was the forward section of the deployed Peacekeeper canister? My copy of the dash 1 gives 1 inch for the center and aft sections but no value for the forward section thickness.
The original canisters used in the Canister Assembly Launch Test Program were graphite epoxy composite. Part way through the Minuteman Upper Silo Simulation test program at the Nevada Test Site, the canisters were changed to steel. Why was the change to steel made? Cost?
SAC Titan Crews Were Required to Finish All Paperwork:
A SSgt at McConnell, wandered into the officers latrine and took all the toilet paper. He was just outside, when some LTC went in. He screamed where is the toilet paper”? The SSgt screamed back “sir I will go and get some”! He always wondered who that LTC was, and I bet the LtCol is still wondering who he was. Or...maybe he is still sitting there? Moral: Always check before you sit!
Have you checked out the AAFM YouTube site? We have a total of 761 videos available and always adding more when we find them. Recently added is a SAC 1981 Missile Combat Competition video—there is no sound but the pictures are great and feature notables such as Maj Gen Jack Watkins as the 1 STRAD commander, Maj Gen Ralph Spraker then Col Spraker as the 3901 SMES commander, Col Norm Miner as the 351 SMW/CC and of course the Whitman Stump! Spoiler alert, the 1981 Blanchard trophy went to the team at Whiteman AFB. Check out the video at https://youtu.be/cGF4BlURmzM and the rest of the Missile videos at www.youtube.com/@associationofairforcemissi4328
Wyoming's Q01 Museum
Col (ret) Mike Vaughn wrote recently to say he had the opportunity to visit Q-01 outside of F. E. Warren AFB. Mike says: "The Wyoming Parks team have done a good job restoring the site and the staff is well educated. A glaring problem is with the (L)MISP. It is missing the bank of lights for Q-10 and Q11." Mike is positive one of you might have a spare bank of lights that you are willing to donate to the museum. If you have the asset and are willing to donate, please contact me at Director@AFMissileer.org.
Sincerely,
Jim
James F. Warner
Executive Director
