Memories of Crew Life - IV

My EWO instructor was Capt Marty Bessant (iirc).  One day during December he wrote a time and a date on the blackboard, and then erased it.  He said it was classified Secret, and it was self-evident he was referring to a missile launch from Vandenberg.  He didn't say why or what.  He just told us the time and date so we could watch for it.  The time was 1700 hours.  The date is gone from my memory.

Vandenberg AFB is dark by 1700 in December, and typically foggy.  The fog was thick that night.  Instead of watching the missile launch, I went to the EWO building to study.  I figured the fog would obscure any view.  I was studying at a table around the appointed time when I suddenly heard the loud report of a rocket engine being ignited.  It continued for some 20 seconds and then there was a loud 'Boom!' followed by silence.  The missile had exploded soon after lift-off.  The noise of that launch and the even the vibration in the building was beyond my expectation.

Years later I discovered that the failed launch was an Atlas F carrying Navstar 7 - one of the early GPS satellites.  The date of the failure is listed as 19 December 1981.  Which is strange because I remember it being a weekday, and 19 December is a Saturday.  Was I really studying EWO at 1700 on a Saturday night?  Memory is a tricky thing.

carl

Memories of Crew Life - I

I pulled my last alert at India LCC on 5/6 September 1985.   Minot got its last pound of flesh by sending me to the ACP.  By tradition, crewmembers going on their last alert get to address the alert force at Pre-Departure, and it just so happened that both my Olympic Arena deputies were going on alert that day as well.  I got to say good bye and thank them for their efforts.  Of all the people I knew at Minot, it is those two guys that I still wonder about.

I don't remember much about that last alert except leaving the LCC after changeover.  I remember standing on the hinged walkway and taking a last look at a place I would never see again - a place that had become such a formative part of my life.  I remember standing outside and watching the blast door swing shut for the last time.  Through August, I couldn't wait to be done with crew duty.  The petty irritations - like receiving 53 retransmissions of the same message over SACCS in one hour - were wearing on me.  But now it was September, and I already missed it even before the blast door was closed.

It's funny.  I still miss it.