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Today is Tuesday, November 18, 2025
The History of Today
1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer became the first American to sight the continent of Antarctica.

1865 - Samuel L. Clemens published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" under the pen name "Mark Twain" in the New York "Saturday Press."

1903 - The U.S. and Panama signed a treaty that granted the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal.

1928 - The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered in New York. It was Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," starring Mickey Mouse.

1956 - Fats Domino appeared on the Ed Sullivan show and performed his hit "Blueberry Hill."

1959 - William Wyler's "Ben-Hur" premiered at Loew's Theater in New York City's Times Square.

1990 - Paul McCartney's birth certificate sold for $18,000 in an auction.







 
Nov 18, 1966 - Sandy Koufax, the star pitcher for the Dodgers, retires at the age of 30.
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After a World Series loss, Dodgers ace Sanford (Sandy) Koufax announces his retirement due to a bad elbow. Koufax posted impressive stats in his 12 seasons, including three Cy Young Awards. But some best remember him for refusing to pitch in a Series game that fell on Yom Kippur.
 
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Today is Thursday, November 20, 2025

The History of Today

1789

1873 - Budapest was formed when the rival cities of Buda and Pest were united to form the capital of Hungary.

1969 - The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase out of the substance.

1983 - An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABC-TV movie "The Day After." The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.

1987 - "Sign 'O' The Times," Prince's third movie, opened.
 
TLOC said:
1983 - An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial ABC-TV movie "The Day After." The movie depicted the outbreak of nuclear war.
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That was very popular at Whiteman AFB when it aired. Whiteman was supposed to be the base from which you see the Minuteman II being launched. Other than the launch sequence shown in the LCC, the actions depicted by the Air Force were not realistic. We never ever used the Det-6 helicopters for a maintenance dispatch, and seldom even used them for a parts run. I think I remember one in six years.

The LCC scenes were shot in one of the T-12 trainers, and Oscar-01 Launch Control Facility was on Whiteman AFB not remotely located. It was the only LCC ever build on an Air Force Base.

Just some memories from the past.
 
RhB Michael said:
That was very popular at Whiteman AFB when it aired. Whiteman was supposed to be the base from which you see the Minuteman II being launched. Other than the launch sequence shown in the LCC, the actions depicted by the Air Force were not realistic. We never ever used the Det-6 helicopters for a maintenance dispatch, and seldom even used them for a parts run. I think I remember one in six years.

The LCC scenes were shot in one of the T-12 trainers, and Oscar-01 Launch Control Facility was on Whiteman AFB not remotely located. It was the only LCC ever build on an Air Force Base.

Just some memories from the past.
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I sort of remember the movie.
 

Today is Saturday, November 22, 2025

The History of Today

1906 - The International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin adopted the SOS distress signal.

1917 - The National Hockey League (NHL) was officially formed in Montreal, Canada.

1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss the measures for defeating Japan.

1955 - RCA Records bought the rights to the music of Elvis Presley for $25,000.

1975 - "Dr. Zhivago" appeared on TV for the first time. NBC paid $4 million for the broadcast rights.

1977 - Regular passenger service on the Concorde began between New York and Europe.

1986 - Mike Tyson became the youngest to wear the world heavyweight-boxing crown. He was only 20 years and 4 months old.






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Bruette said:
Launch Control Center
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Terminology for the Minuteman system has changed somewhat. In the late '60's, an LF (Launch Facility) referred to the silo containing the Minuteman ICBM. The place where the underground reinforced concrete "capsule" where two officers stood by to turn the keys to launch at least the 10 missiles in their squadron, was called the LCF or Launch Control Facility. Today the LCF is termed the Missile Alert Facility or MAF. BTW, a single MAF, with two officers CANNOT launch missiles without the concurrent votes from another MAF. Should a single capsule send launch commands, a single officer in another MAF can send an "inhibit" command. There is also a capability, under the most horrible situation, for an airborne launch command post to launch missiles, but with similar safety assurances. To test the latter capability, the most recent launch of an unarmed Minuteman III was commanded by the airborne post. Not sure if they also had to have concurrence of a MAF at Vandenberg SFB, or not.

Years ago, in an interview of Gen. Curtin LeMay on CBS, when asked about someone setting off WWIII without orders, he replied that what kept him up at nights was IF the president ever issued the launch order, no one would believe it! Based on NOTHING that I know, I would suspect that there would have to be more than one nuclear explosion on America before an order to retaliate would be issued! This garbage about Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is just that! The word is Strategic Deterrence. That keeps almost everybody's hands off the keys! (Never sure about some nutcase.)
 
We had the highly classified ERCS package aboard many of our missiles instead of the BT in the 510th Squadron. No one ever talked about maintenance at one of those sites. You had to go to Job Control for your briefing. It was all very hush-hush. You weren't allowed to tell anyone which site you were going to or the maintenance (if any actual maintenance was to be performed) you were scheduled to perform.
 
I got out of the top secret business early on. Didn't want to make the mistake of forgetting what I wasn't supposed to talk about and talk about it.
 
RhB Michael said:
We had the highly classified ERCS package aboard many of our missiles instead of the BT in the 510th Squadron. No one ever talked about maintenance at one of those sites. You had to go to Job Control for your briefing. It was all very hush-hush. You weren't allowed to tell anyone which site you were going to or the maintenance (if any actual maintenance was to be performed) you were scheduled to perform.
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Are you allowed to spell out what ERCS stands for, or would you have to kill us all? With all the current technology, not sure if they use them anymore. Wonder if the "other side" still uses the bottom part of the Swiss-made theodolites to align their guidance systems. Doing a 180-day or other RMAV in station 1a, you had to use two theodolites, and after that our eyeballs were getting tangled in our boot laces! (RMAV = Reference Mirror Azimuth Verification). Don't do that anymore either.
 
I don't know if it is use any more and I don't know if it would mount up to the RV buss on MMIII. Communications have advanced so much since the late 60s it probably isn't in use.

Emergency Rocket Communication System is what is was. The Air Force (we) used to go out and swap these packages around regularly to keep the Soviets guessing as to where they were. They watched us, we watched them.

Some days we were dispatched to a site with no work orders. It could have been an ERCS site or a site with a regular BT. We would open the PAH and lower tools and a couple of drawer cases and our TO box full of binders.

After the penetration checklist was ran, we would check seals, check for indicator lamps that were out, do a little light housekeeping, and then settle in for a few hours of spades, or hearts, have lunch, or just shoot the Scheiße. After a few hours, we'd call JC and start the backout and go to the next site and do it again. Other ERCS and non-ERCS sites we really did have maintenance to perform, but was not usually ERCS related. We just didn't want the Soviets to know where these comm packs were located.

They would also send MMT (Missile Maintenance Team) out with an RV van and park it over the door and roll the door back, and pretty much have the same kind of day we had. Their tasks to get that door open was a lot more involved than what we had to do to get in. They would only do one site a day, while we might do three.

During annual code change, that was the dispatch you wanted to be on. All we did was load missile targeting data all day. Usually, but not always, the site was already open by an MMT team, so all we had to do was authenticate onto the site and go to work. If we were there more than an hour something was wrong. We could do about six or eight sites in a day depending upon where the sites were and how easy it was to drive between sites. No site was closer than three miles from the next, but they were usually a lot farther than that. Those were the only dispatches where the entire team was armed. and we took an extra guard with an M-60 or M-249.

If we had to penetrate the sites ourselves, we might only do four sites on a dispatch, or even only three.
 


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