Some of you may remember that in an early scene in the movie "Dr. Strangelove," coupla B-52 crewmen are opening a safe on the airplane to access the emergency war order (EWO) materials - targeting materials, maps, etc. Well, first there was no safe; we carried the materials aboard in a strong box about the size of a medium-to-large suitcase. When transporting the box from the operations "vault" to the aircraft, at least three of us crewmen were armed with a sidearm (not much, though - Smith & Wesson .38 revolver). We locked the box and secured it to the upper deck of the airplane with a steel cable and three HEFTY combination padlocks, each lock belonged (individually) to and its combination was known only to an officer crewman. One of the locks was mine.
In 1964, after having flown a 24-hour alert mission (with nuke weapons, of course, ready to strike targets in USSR) from Robins AFB, GA, across the Atlantic, across Spain, around the Mediterranean, back across Spain and the Atlantic and landed back at Robins. When I tried to open my lock after landing, it would NOT open. I tried several times, and my fellow crewmen began accusing me of forgetting the combination, 'cause these locks NEVER fail. I gave 'em the combination - my birth date - how could I forget it? They had no success opening the lock, either; Wing Commander came aboard; I gave 'im the combination; he couldn't open it, either - that lock was NOT GOING TO OPEN. 'Finally had it cut off with a torch while two of us aircrewmen watched. That afternoon, my name and lock were "big news" on the "big briefing board" at SAC HQ (Omaha). I was suddenly known all over SAC as the guy who couldn't get his EWO lock open. Not a good way to become "famous" in SAC. Wilton _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
