Aircraft that never lived up to their promise

"Ed Majden" wrote in message news:Rwxyb.533404$pl3.92056@pd7tw3no...
"Chad Irby" You should remember that with small fission warheads at high
altitudes,
there is very little fallout, and practically zero compared to even a
single megaton-level ground strike.

What makes you think that these would have been high level blasts???
Tactics with the B52 was a ground hugger to avoid SAMS and radar detection.
Incinerating a Bear full of nuclear warheads would have created a severe
nuclear fall out problem!

Not to mention that they planned on using the same size of warhead over
most of the continental US for air defense..

U.S. Bomarc sites were near the Canada/U.S. border

Really? I'd take a gander at a map of US Bomarc sites if I were you,
unless you consider places like Newport News, VA "near the Canadian
border".

Brooks

snip

"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
om...

Really? I'd take a gander at a map of US Bomarc sites if I were you,
unless you consider places like Newport News, VA "near the Canadian
border".


Langley AFB, to be a bit more accurate. Other sites planned "near the
Canadian border" but never completed were Charleston AFB, SC, and Vandenberg
and Travis AFBs in CA.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message nk.net...
"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
om...

Really? I'd take a gander at a map of US Bomarc sites if I were you,
unless you consider places like Newport News, VA "near the Canadian
border".


Langley AFB, to be a bit more accurate. Other sites planned "near the
Canadian border" but never completed were Charleston AFB, SC, and Vandenberg
and Travis AFBs in CA.


No, that would actually be more *inaccurate* in terms of location. The
Bomarc unit in question was technically assigned to Langley, IIRC, but
it most definitely was not located at that location (my Dad spent
about thirty years working at Langley on the NASA side of the house).
It was located between Jefferson Avenue (Rt 143) and I-64, just north
of Rt 17-- part of it was later taken over by the city as the home for
its school bus maintenance and operations (ISTR seeing the old alert
status board still standing by the entrance when the busses moved in).
I spent many an hour tromping through the woods behind the bunkers
hunting squirrels and sitting on a deer stand, and it was one of the
few places where us suburbanites could go and do some target shooting
(interesting exchange with the local Politzei occured once during that
activity). Those bunkers are now part of the Oyster Point business
park, IIRC; before the park developers decided that they could be an
amenity (made nice storage buildings), my old employer and I did a
survey of them to determine the feasibility of performing demolition
with explosives to remove them. FYI, just up the road another mile or
two was another Cold War relic--the Nike Hercules complex which was
located at (what was then) Patrick Henry Airport (it later picked up
an "I" in the designation after a couple of charter flights to Mexico
flew out of it--sort of a joke at the time), now known as Newport
News-Williamsburg Regional Airport IIRC. Pat Henry had another
interesting historical sidenote affiliated with it--I can recall
walking through old barracks buildings which were still standing in
the early seventies that had housed German POW's during WWII.

Brooks

"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
om...

No, that would actually be more *inaccurate* in terms of location. The
Bomarc unit in question was technically assigned to Langley, IIRC, but
it most definitely was not located at that location (my Dad spent
about thirty years working at Langley on the NASA side of the house).
It was located between Jefferson Avenue (Rt 143) and I-64, just north
of Rt 17-- part of it was later taken over by the city as the home for
its school bus maintenance and operations (ISTR seeing the old alert
status board still standing by the entrance when the busses moved in).
I spent many an hour tromping through the woods behind the bunkers
hunting squirrels and sitting on a deer stand, and it was one of the
few places where us suburbanites could go and do some target shooting
(interesting exchange with the local Politzei occured once during that
activity). Those bunkers are now part of the Oyster Point business
park, IIRC; before the park developers decided that they could be an
amenity (made nice storage buildings), my old employer and I did a
survey of them to determine the feasibility of performing demolition
with explosives to remove them.


You were there and I was not so I'll take your word for it. Robert
Mueller's "Air Force Bases" shows the 22nd Air Defense Missile Squadron as a
unit assigned to Langley but no mention of any Missile Site as a detached
installation, as one would expect if the launch facility was not on base.
The entry for McGuire AFB, as an example, shows the 46th Air Defense Missile
Squadron as a unit assigned to McGuire, but the McGuire AF Missile Site
(later Air Defense Missile Site) is listed under Major Off-Base and Detached
Installations along with it's location, 5 miles southeast of New Egypt, NJ.

No, that would actually be more *inaccurate* in terms of location. The
Bomarc unit in question was technically assigned to Langley, IIRC, but
it most definitely was not located at that location (my Dad spent
about thirty years working at Langley on the NASA side of the house).
It was located between Jefferson Avenue (Rt 143) and I-64, just north
of Rt 17-- part of it was later taken over by the city as the home for
its school bus maintenance and operations (ISTR seeing the old alert
status board still standing by the entrance when the busses moved in).
I spent many an hour tromping through the woods behind the bunkers
hunting squirrels and sitting on a deer stand, and it was one of the
few places where us suburbanites could go and do some target shooting
(interesting exchange with the local Politzei occured once during that
activity). Those bunkers are now part of the Oyster Point business
park, IIRC; before the park developers decided that they could be an
amenity (made nice storage buildings), my old employer and I did a
survey of them to determine the feasibility of performing demolition
with explosives to remove them. FYI, just up the road another mile or
two was another Cold War relic--the Nike Hercules complex which was
located at (what was then) Patrick Henry Airport (it later picked up
an "I" in the designation after a couple of charter flights to Mexico
flew out of it--sort of a joke at the time), now known as Newport
News-Williamsburg Regional Airport IIRC. Pat Henry had another
interesting historical sidenote affiliated with it--I can recall
walking through old barracks buildings which were still standing in
the early seventies that had housed German POW's during WWII.

Brooks


It's interesting how times have changed. Unless you happen to live by
a base you wouldn't even know the US *has* a military. Most of their
exercises and training seems to be in the middle of BFE. I think I've
seen tanks on trains twice in my life and military vehicles driving on
the freeway maybe three or four times. I live in northern Utah and
the place has it's share of bases but even still I moved fifteen miles
from the airbase here and nadda. As far as old buildings go there's a
failry large business park in what use to be a NAVAL base in WWII.
All the buildings are made of wood because of the need for steel for
the war effort.

"Scott Ferrin" wrote in message
...

It's interesting how times have changed. Unless you happen to live by
a base you wouldn't even know the US *has* a military. Most of their
exercises and training seems to be in the middle of BFE. I think I've
seen tanks on trains twice in my life and military vehicles driving on
the freeway maybe three or four times. I live in northern Utah and
the place has it's share of bases but even still I moved fifteen miles
from the airbase here and nadda.

As you say, a function of where you live.
I live 30 some miles from Fort Knox and will occasionally see the
odd tank (as in "what is under that tarp") on a flat-bed on the interstate.
It's not very unusual to see one to a half dozen military vehicles on
the interstate on a weekend drive out of town: I assume Guard &
Reserves for the most part. Though I know when the Strikers were
working up at Knox they went on at least one road march making a
big loop on some of the major highways in Kentucky.
Back around Desert Shield I saw train loads of armor on the sidings
but other than that, just the rare ones & twos on trains.

If you fish the forest lakes on weekends, you'll see a low level fighter
one a month or so. Helicopters about the same frequency following
the Ohio River.

If you fish the forest lakes on weekends, you'll see a low level fighter
one a month or so. Helicopters about the same frequency following
the Ohio River.



I just remember during the first Desert Storm thinking "where the hell
do they keep it all" ? Like I said, if you live within four or five
miles of Hill AFB you see planes all the time, but move six or seven
more and nothin'. I saw a few Apaches fly by down here several years
ago and then there was the incident where a B-1 boomed the hell out of
the Wastach Front.

If you fly much in New Hampshire, especially at 2900 feet, you will
meet ONE A-10 Warthog sooner or later.

And you will remember the meeting, because Hogs always travel in
pairs, and you really gave your neck a workout, looking for the other
one.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

"Kevin Brooks" wrote

Those bunkers are now part of the Oyster Point business
park, IIRC; before the park developers decided that they could be an
amenity (made nice storage buildings), my old employer and I did a
survey of them to determine the feasibility of performing demolition
with explosives to remove them.

A few of those now house small businesses. One is a lawyers office, and
another I believe is a software consulting firm.

3 or 4 have been flattened in the last couple of years to accomodate new
business construction.

Pete