Denny

Picky, Picky, Picky G

NORAD ran the ground radar systems and used the Fighters and Missiles
(BOMARC) to defend Canada and the US from any Russian bomber attack.
They passed the detection of a bomber attack to SAC (and National
Authority) and launched Fighters to kill the bombers.

Our Bombers were run by SAC out of Omaha and when authorized by
President (say Football) would have executed the SIOP. NORAD had
nothing to due with our Bombers.

On a day to day basis in those years, SAC kept a modest number of
armed bombers in the air 7/24 to assure we could kill the #1 targets
in Russia under any circumstances.

During those on station missions SAC (starting with Le May) generated
a bunch of 'Mickey Mouse" activities to keep the crews busy and not
let them die of boredom from 'flying in a circle'. There were of
course other areas where they held or flew in than orbiting in the
arctic.

I'm surprised about the Nav getting on Ham freqs. In SAC there were
random contacts from Omaha that required crews to monitor with all
their radios. Was also a AF (as I recall) reg that said no ham radio.
I used to, when the HF was not being used, get on ham freqs
occasionally and talk ) Also did some on 220. Used my Ham call and
not any A/C ID.

Long time ago in a War far away.

Big John

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004 08:58:34 -0500, "Dennis O'Connor"
wrote:

Long, long, ago, in a galaxy far, far away, for one entire winter I used to
chat with Paul every tuesday night, the navigator on board a NORAD bomber,
loitering somewhere to the north of Michigan near the arctic pole... He, of
course, could not tell me where he was I knew enough not to ask, but by
switching antennas I knew the direction... He was one bored puppy stuck on
an 18 hour ride, several times a week...
denny

"Jay Honeck" wrote Apples and oranges. As
fascinating as ham radio can be, it ain't flying.