Original subtitles

(car engines humming)

(helicopter rumbling)

- Good morning, I'm Colonel Jim Ryan.

I'm the commander of the 4315th

Combat Group Training Squadron

and I want to welcome you to Vandenberg Air Force Base

and to initial qualification and training

for the Minuteman Improved Launch Control System

at Whiteman Air Force Base

and Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

I want to welcome you to one of the most challenging careers

in the United States Air Force, the land-based ICBM.

You know, our theory of nuclear deterrence

which we're gonna talk about a lot tomorrow,

by the way, when we have our PRAPS,

which is our Professional Responsibility Seminar.

I'm gonna talk a lot about your responsibilities,

the awesome responsibility that you're gonna have

as crew members when you go down deep

into the bowels of the earth.

And are responsible for ten missiles,

each with one nuclear warhead on them,

and you could be responsible for your whole squadron's

missiles of 50 nuclear weapons,

50 missiles with nuclear weapons on each one.

Anyway, I want to welcome you to this.

And you're part of the strategic triad

which consists of land-based ICBMs,

sub-launched ballistic missiles and then bombers.

But the bulk of the deterrent force

is carried by the land-based ICBM

because we maintain 98% alert rates.

They don't maintain near that in the sub-launched

ballistic missile force or the bomber force.

Mainly because it's prohibitively expensive.

So, the day-to-day nuclear deterrence of this country

is carried on by a land-based ICBM force.

And you're gonna be a part of that.

Before you are, though, you're gonna

go through a tough program here.

This is considered to be one of the toughest schools

in the United States Air Force.

We've had folks here who have come in from pilot training,

they didn't make it in pilot training

because they got airsick or whatever,

and they come through missile training

and they'll tell me that this is 10 times

tougher than pilot training, the course.

Mainly because we compress into 14 weeks,

you know, a very, very complex weapons system.

And you're going to learn that weapons system

from stem to stern, if I can say that, use that Navy term.

You're gonna know all the systems,

you're gonna know all the command and control.

You're gonna know all the safety systems,

and all the security requirements and so forth.

And we do that in fourteen weeks.

So, it's a big plateful.

What we're gonna do today is talk about

the awesome responsibilities that you're gonna have

as crew members.

And we're gonna have a little seminar

and hopefully we'll get good dialogue going here

on, you know, the moral responsibilities,

and then at the end of this day,

we're gonna ask you to sign a piece of paper

that says that you have thought

of all the moral implications about inserting launch keys

and that you have no reservations that if

the President of the United States deems

that our way of life is threatened

and that it's about to be over,

that you have no hesitation once that you

have authenticated the message,

you know that it's the President talking,

that you'll insert your launch keys

and launch those missiles.

And you know full well the consequences

of launching those missiles

which are equipped with nuclear warheads

and the great devastation that that'll bring.

And we want you to think about that.

We don't want you to capriciously

go through this program and be robots

in inserting launch keys.

We want you to fully comprehend the awesomeness

of this responsibility.

Now, to kind of begin this seminar,

I'd like to just throw out a question.

And I want to talk about the legality or illegality

of orders.

Is there such a thing as an illegal order?

Anybody?

- An order from authority that's not duly constituted.

Perhaps the wing commander might tell you

to fly your airplane somewhere that you know is not,

he's not empowered to be able to direct that.

- [Col. Ryan] Very good.

You have, a yes, ma'am? Back there.

- Isn't it just something that would be in conflict

with a regulation or a directive?

- Okay, certainly, yeah.

We have regulations, obviously,

that would prohibit me from ordering someone

to go solicit prostitutes or something like that.

Yeah, that's clearly illegal because it violates regulation.

Okay, uh, let me make this a little bit tougher.

Okay, how many remember the My Lai incident

that occurred during the Vietnam War?

Yeah?

Can you just sort of summarize?

And remember, we don't want to cast moral judgment

on Lieutenant Calley or any of the people

involved but there's a purpose for kind of reviewing this.

Would you kind of tell me a little about that incident?

I don't know that much about it but I, from what I remember

Lieutenant Calley felt that he had been ordered

by his superiors to enter a village

and basically take the village out.

And that included killing women and children.

And, of course, in my opinion, it was an illegal order,

but, that's basically all I know about it.

- [Col. Ryan] Okay, anybody want to try and say

a little bit more to put this thing in perspective?

Okay, let me just say some things about that-that whole

Yeah, did you have a point that you want to make?

Okay, first of all, that war.

Warfare is becoming much more complex.

Sometime back in history, you know,

the combatants were clearly identified,

they had lines of battle, and I don't mean to imply

that warfare was ever pleasant or nice,

because, you know, after the combatants

were out there fighting then there was a rape and pillage

that went on after that.

But, at least, you know, you could tell who the enemy was.

And, of course, in Vietnam it was very, very difficult

because there were clearly the North Vietnamese regulars

who wore a uniform such as we wore

but there were also an enemy with the Viet Cong

that were in South Vietnam who were involved in sabotage

and that sort of thing and they wore

the same garb as peasants.

And they weren't always men either.

They were women and in some cases

very young men who might be classified as children.

So it made it very, very complex as to who the enemy was.

But basically what happened at My Lai,

as best that we can recount,

was that Lieutenant Calley, he says,

received some orders to waste some civilians.

And there were some older men and women,

supposedly, and some children and others.

Okay.

So, here he was, person on the spot,

he received an order to waste

and, is that an illegal or a legal order that he received?

Anybody got any thoughts on that?

And why?

Okay, yes, sir?

- Well, sir, maybe he was being asked to violate the laws

and those were not lawful combatants that he was.

They weren't armed perhaps.

They weren't uniformed members of an opposing force.

They posed no threat perhaps to his platoon.

- Okay.

That's a very good point.

Okay.

Basically, he's saying a measured response.

Okay.

Let's go back just a little bit into a court of law.

For example, when a person goes on trial

in this country, murder is clearly illegal

and immoral as well.

Okay, but does that mean that killing is always illegal?

Is killing someone always illegal?

Now, when is it not illegal?

- Well, there's situations where it's justified.

In self-defense or in prevention of a serious felony.

- [Col. Ryan. Okay, Absolutely, yes, ma'am?

- [Trainee] Execution by the state.

- Okay.

Execution by the state.

Okay.

And that's under.

There're may people who have different views on that but,

clearly, and even though there are those

of certain religious persuasions that say

that you really ought not kill even in self-defense,

generally, our Judeo-Christian ethic would say that,

you know, if you are seriously threatened,

your life is threatened, that you have the right,

both the legal and moral right, to defend yourself.

Okay, but I want to talk about that measured response.

Does that mean necessarily that if you're threatened

that you can go for the jugular?

- [Trainee] No, sir, minimum force would be the object.

- Yeah, minimum force required to repel the attacker.

Okay, I hope all these things are starting to,

you know, make a point here.

Because we're talking about a measured response.

Okay, so, tough, these are not easy questions.

You know, there're not easy answers to these questions.

Okay, let me talk about the Holocaust a little bit.

How many people remember the Holocaust?

Or reading about the Holocaust?

Because you don't remember it, I do.

Yes, ma'am?

Can you kind of summarize that one for us?

- Nazi Germany under Hitler,

the decision was made at the higher levels

that people of Jewish descent,

people of Gypsy descent,

a lot of Catholics, et cetera, were not necessarily

as human as the Aryan race

and they were put in concentration camps.

And in death camps also.

And, a total of about seven million people,

I believe, were killed during World War II,

before and during World War II, during the Holocaust.

Mostly Jewish, but also most of the Gypsies

that were left in Europe.

- [Officer] Okay, what happened after World War II?

Did any of those people come to trial

that were responsible for this?

- [Trainee] That'd be the Nuremberg trials.

- [Col. Ryan] Yeah, the Nuremberg trials.

Okay, who tried whom at the Nuremberg trials?

- It was a contingent of the Allied countries,

I think, over there that tried them at Nuremberg.

- [Col. Ryan] Okay, and what was the defense

of most of those defendants?

- [Margo] Following orders.

- [Col. Ryan] Following orders.

And what basically was the view of those

that were the ones that were conducting the trials, yeah?

- There's a point that a person

has to take responsibility for his own actions.

He can't simply rotely follow orders.

He's gotta think out a moral judgment.

He's got to make a moral judgment

and say, I can only go so far.

I can't take these orders any farther

because they violate certain moral principles.

- Okay, now what makes this world we're in

very very complex is that as you go down

into the bowels of the earth every night,

you may not get an opportunity

as such to evaluate the situation.

Although you're going to be getting intelligence reports.

You're not going to be working completely in a vacuum.

You're not gonna get that klaxon at night that says,

okay, our way of life is threatened, probably.

Insert your keys and launch your weapons.

You're going to be getting the intelligence build-up

and so forth that goes along with that.

But the problem with our business is that,

you know, we have to make certain assessments

long before that klaxon rings.

And this is why we start right here.

And all we're gonna do, we're not gonna do very much

in a half hour, forty-five minutes,

we're not gonna resolve these problems for you,

but what we're trying to do is to plant the seed

so that you can talk about this.

Because you have to, as you go through our program,

decide in your own mind that,

that our way of life is such and that our command

and control system and our weapon system is such

that the President of the United States

is not gonna ask you to insert those launch keys

until, you know, there's just no other option,

it's the final solution.

And, you know, you have to,

it's important that you understand how all that works

in order to understand that and believe that.

It also is important that you understand,

and I guarantee you, you will when you finish our school,

that you understand all of the multi-layered systems

that we have to insure that you're not going to get

a spurious order or that some kook

isn't gonna be sending the order down

and you're gonna be launching in anger

that is not authorized by the one person,

the one person, don't ever forget this,

who can authorize a launch and that's

the President of the United States.

Any other thoughts or reflections on this?

Yes, ma'am?

- Just something that I've always thought.

Again, I was stationed at Whiteman.

If you look at military history,

and I think there are several history buffs here,

they can attest to the fact that normally a war

is never started against a nation that's prepared for it.

Whenever there has been a war in history,

it's a surprise attack against a nation

that is not armed as well as it could be.

And as long as people are ready and people do continue

to be ready, equipment-wise,

the odds of our ever having to use the equipment

are so low that they're almost non-existent.

Because we are prepared.

- [Col. Ryan] Anybody else have anything

they'd like to say, yes?

- I spent six years as a police officer and I know I often,

on a smaller scale, ran across the same questions.

Why do you carry a gun?

You know, there are certain police departments

across the world that don't allow their officers,

by and large, to carry weapons

because they feel that it's an inhibiting factor.

And I felt that I carried a weapon mainly to keep the peace

and to protect myself because there are elements out there

that do not have the same value structure that I have

and do not consider life all that worthwhile

and would be very very willing to kill me

or someone else to achieve the aims

that they really want to.

And that's something that I remember

as a young officer struggling with.

And I came to grips with it, simply,

in a situation where I did have to,

almost, defend myself and I'm very happy that I had a weapon

there because, I didn't have to use it,

but it was an inhibiting factor in,

you know, that I think it helped deter any more violence.

- Chaplain Whitley, the first mission I ever flew

as a combat-ready crew member

was over Southeast Asia, dropping live bombs.

There's some more stories that go along with that

but the point of that story is to say

that the first day that you're on,

you pull crew duty, the first day that you go down

in a hole, the first day you sit in front of that console

may be the day that you're gonna be asked

to respond with the greatest integrity that you have.

Now's the time to start preparing for that.

You can't wait and say, hey, I'll study

all about these kinds of issues

during some of my crew time or during my crew tours.

I'll answer those questions later.

You may not have an opportunity to answer those questions.

You may be asked the question before you're ready

to respond if you try to wait.

- In my judgment, as long as you people,

and I mean you people,

because this is what you're gonna be doing,

as long as you're down there and you're highly-trained

and you're capable and you have the will,

you know, to respond to the President of this nation,

that should our way of life be threatened,

it's gonna be snuffed out, that you'll launch your weapons.

So, deterrence really is two steps back from that.

Deterrence is two steps back from that.

That knowing that, the Soviet Union, or anybody else

who has the capability to bomb us back to the Dark Ages,

won't do it because the risks are unacceptable.

That's what deterrence is all about.

And it's tough.

It's tough because you're down there

and you have at your fingertips,

not really at your fingertips because you've got

a lot of command and control to go through,

but you have at your fingertips, you know,

the power to launch the world into nuclear darkness.

I want you to sort of remember this.

What makes our nation great, and what makes our Air Force

and our military forces so great,

is that we respond to the American people.

I remember, again General Doherty,

and you'll hear me talk about him a lot,

There's an article that I've asked you all to read

that General Doherty wrote and it's called,

"Ours is an Honorable Profession".

I really want you to read that.

I keep my copy, it's dog-eared,

but it is an honorable profession.

And someone asked him one time when he was at CINCSAC,

he said, General, how secure are our bases?

In other words, you know, the security policeman

back there would understand this,

and General Dougherty answered this way.

He said, our bases are as secure

as the American people want them to be.

Generally speaking, we don't want our bases

to be armed camps.

Our bases belong to the American people.

We are servants of the American people

and we do everything we can to let people come on our bases.

Now, obviously, there are certain things

that we've got to protect against

that outer fringe out there that you have in any society,

the nuts, but, you know, who'd seek to come in

and kill people and destroy property

and that sort of thing, but.

We are the servants of the American people.

They ask a great deal of us.

They ask, you know, a commitment,

a professionalism over and above

what they ask of anybody else who might be working

in some other walk of life.

It's a tremendous charge to all of us.

And you, who are going to be going down

with this awesome responsibility have an even greater

responsibility beyond that,

beyond the normal Air Force officer.

And, every once in a while, when you're down there

on alert and, you know, when you've run your checks

and done all those things and get a chance

to reflect, please reflect on that.

That the American people, they really trust us.

They trust us to protect them.

They trust us to make good judgments.

They trust us, you know, not to do something

that would ever make them ashamed of us.

This is a Professional Responsibility Seminar.

And this is the first day before you get into some

very intense training on a very complex weapons system.

And when you finish here, you will understand

the weapon system but you always need to reflect

on your professional responsibilities.

- Never point a weapon at anything

unless you intend to shoot it.

A lot of people out on the firing line,

something goes wrong with their weapon,

they forget they have a pistol in their hand, malfunction,

somethings wrong, they start looking for an instructor

and they start moving left and right,

moving their body.

Where's the barrel pointing?

Well, usually, it's pointed at the shooter next to them

or the instructor, something like that.

Well, I really didn't think

they were gonna shoot that person, so.

Make sure that you always keep your weapon pointed

straight and level or at your target

but always treat every weapon as if it was loaded.

Too many times a lot of people think it's not loaded up

with any ammunition, they'll pick the weapons up

and, might be a mental lapse or whatever,

and they'll just start pulling the trigger.

I've even seen it as far as instructors

sometimes or shooters who have used guns

for many a length of time.

They'll just start firing this weapon

or dry firing it, not realizing that sometimes

there is a round in the chambers and therefore, boom,

it goes off, okay?

Many, many times it has happened.

A good friend of mine, he went home, he,

shotgun, thought it was cleared after last time

he went out hunting, and he pointed it.

He was pointing it at his wife.

He was pointing it at his kids.

Really dumb.

And then he pointed it at his TV and he pulled the trigger

and blew his TV all apart, you know?

So, he just got through pointing it at his wife,

just got through pointing it at his kids,

he didn't know it.

And then he went into the shake factor

for a little bit because of what he could have done.

So, do make sure, especially today,

the instructors'll be checking the weapons,

but when you're firing them, when you get done shooting,

make sure that the weapon is clear.

Okay, and then before you pick it up,

always treat it as if it was loaded.

Okay?

First off, as you can look at it,

it's an M-15 Smith and Wesson Combat Masterpiece.

That's the name that the Air Force places on this weapon,

Combat Masterpiece, okay?

Supposedly, sometimes, you will,

supposedly gonna use it in combat.

Okay, M-15 Smith and Wesson Combat Masterpiece, okay?

And it fires six shots, okay?

It's a six cylinder weapon.

It fires in two modes, and you will be using

both modes of fire.

Now if you can see my good mock-up,

the one that I take over to A-Fees anytime I want free food.

And they do give me free food whenever I wheel this in there

and say cheeseburgers or whatever.

(class laughing)

Two modes of fire.

Single action and double action.

Okay, most of the time, you should be using single action.

And single action is nothing more but reaching up,

you're not gonna have to use two hands,

but reaching up and cocking the hammer, just like that.

For a person to shoot expert, you must use this mode of fire

most of the time during the course.

You will have to use the other type later on.

But most of the time you should use single action,

if you want to shoot good today.

That's nothing more but reaching up and cocking the hammer.

When you're ready to fire.

(clicking)

Pull the trigger and it's gonna fire.

Okay, That's single action.

Double action, the other mode of firing

is nothing more but pulling the.

Pulling the trigger until it fires.

Just like so.

And that's the other mode of firing that you will be using.

So, there's two modes of firing you will use

called single action and double action.

Okay?

The maximum effective range is 50 yards.

Now, 50 yards, think about it.

Maximum effective.

That's what me and you as an average shooter

can consistently hit a man-sized target.

50 yards.

Meaning, you should pick up a weapon,

eight rounds out of ten, you should place it

pretty good on a target.

Okay, a man-sized target.

- [Trainee] I think I'd better wear my shoes.

- Shooters, headsets on,

move forward and lay down.

Once you lay down, reach over and grab five rounds.

Once you have five rounds in your hand, load and lock.

Remember whatever the instructors have been telling you.

Some of you might have to listen up.

Quit doing the things that you did

on the previous ten rounds.

Listen to your instructors.

Some of you are gonna have to listen up a little bit harder.

All these rounds from here on out

are for qualification scores.

Two forty-five or better to qualify.

It's gonna be six rounds, prone position.

Get in a good position.

We will not start the time limit

until the very first round goes off.

So the time limit does not start when I say,

commence fire, but it starts when I hear

that first round go off.

Plenty of time.

Forty-five seconds for six rounds.

Instructors!

Is the line ready?

The line is ready!

Shooters, commence fire!

(gun firing)

(many guns firing)

(buzzer) Cease fire!

(gun firing)

Cease fire.

- [Instructor] Counter-clockwise, to the left.

- [Trainee] To the left?

- [Instructor] Yeah.

- [Trainee] To the left?

- [Instructor] I'd bring it up two clicks.

To the left, two clicks.

- [Trainee] Left two clicks?

- [Instructor] Yeah, because that's a fair bet.

You might even want to come right two clicks, too.

- I'll go left.

- Because you've got a good group.

- I'll go left.

- Well, no, go left on your top screw, bring it up.

- Okay.

- And then go right on your side screw

to bring it to the right.

- How many on the right?

- Because the one on the side is for windage.

I'd go two clicks both ways.

- Okay.

- Two clicks up, two clicks right.

Because you've got a real good group here.

But this is good here.

All right, these count for ten.

Right here.

If you nick that line, once you nick that line

that's gonna give you ten points.

You're looking good, looking real good.

- [Trainee] Thank you.

- [Instructor] Looking real good.

You're all over the target.

He's dead.

- Definitely.

You definitely got him.

Did he give you site correction?

- [Trainee] No.

He said it was okay.

- Yeah, because you're all over the place

and there's no real correction you can make on it.

Don't jerk the trigger.

Huh, it's dead.

The gun should surprise you when it goes off.

- [Trainee] Oh, it does.

- That means then you are, you are squeezing the trigger.

- [Trainee] And I'm not breathing,

so tell me something else.

- [Instructor] You're not turning blue yet.

(laughing)

- [Trainee] I don't breathe.

- We don't have to pick you up off the range, though.

- [Trainee] And when I do this with this site,

I don't breathe till after it's gone.

- You got four on the ten right here.

Because, remember all's it has to do is nick the line.

Once it tears that line there, that's ten.

That's ten.

You're shooting good.

Just keep away from this six ring.

- As far as background information,

of course, I came from Whiteman.

I was at Whiteman for four years.

During my four years there, I was two years on line,

two years in the shop.

I was a (mumbles) board evaluator.

Then I came out here to instruct.

I've been out here two years this month.

As far as where I went to school,

I went to the Air Force Academy.

So, I don't have an extensive military background.

But to help me out as far as getting to know you guys,

I need to go around the room and find out

a little bit about each one of you.

We'll start over here.

- I graduated from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

I majored in pre-law.

I requested to go to Whiteman because I wanted to get

my masters in history there

at the University of Central Missouri.

I got accepted there for the Fall of 86.

And I'm looking forward to being in the missile program.

I wanted to get this slot.

Everything's worked out so well for me to this point.

- I graduated from the University of Kansas,

May 1985, and I'm Bachelor of Science, computer science.

Also requested Whiteman for the possibility

of getting an MS in computer science or an MBA.

- I also went to the University of Kansas.

I majored in Communications.

And I put in Whiteman as base of choice.

I've waited as long as possible to get back

around the area I'm familiar with.

Looking forward to going back there.

- [Instructor] Good.

- I've been in the Air Force

for a little over six years now.

I've been stationed at Whiteman for the last year and a half

in DO22 as the intelligence officer.

And I'm assigned to the five-eighth,

going back to it, and my husband is also

in the five-eighth out at Whiteman.

- His name Bruce?

- No, Michael.

- Michael?

- He got there after you left.

- [Instructor] Chuck?

- I graduated from the State University of New York

with a Bachelor's degree in business and public management

with a minor in electrical technology.

- I volunteered for missiles and since Whiteman

was the only place there was any females,

I volunteered for Whiteman.

- [Instructor] Where were you at before?

- Wright-Patterson Air Force base.

I worked for FTD.

- [Instructor] I'll talk to you later.

- Graduated from the University of Missouri,

Columbia, Missouri, 1980.

I've been stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland.

And Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona as 702.

- I graduated from Bentley College in,

it's in Massachusetts.

I went to OTS and then I went right to Tinker

as a contracting officer and I've been there

three and a half years.

And I wanted to get into missiles because

I really want to do something operational

before I get, you know, too, too old.

So.

- [Instructor] Okay.

- Well, couple years ago I graduated

from the University of Louisville

with a history major and then I went to Glickham

and I just came back from (mumbles) Belgium over there.

- [Instructor] I hear it's nice over there.

- Well, it has its advantages.

- [Instructor] You couldn't extend?

- Well, actually, they said they wanted me

to come back to SAC and get experience in both systems.

- [Instructor] Mmm, too bad.

What is the mission of the Minuteman weapon system?

- The mission, on page one-dash-three, states,

"The mission of the Minuteman hardened

"and dispersed weapon system is to deliver

"thermonuclear warheads against strategic targets

"from hardened underground launchers

"in the continental United States."

- When the time comes to launch the missiles

against targets as designated by higher authorities.

Did anybody find that NTL as far as the mission?

Page one-dash-three.

Gary, you got a question?

- [Gary] No, sir.

- Okay.

Uh, the thing about the Minuteman weapon system.

It's supposed to be a highly reliable system,

requiring minimum maintenance time,

maximum operational time.

As far as reaction time, once we get the word to launch,

it should not take that long to launch missiles.

As opposed to Titans.

Titan is, in a word, a volatile system.

You drop a wrench, you could launch a missile,

something like that.

No, I'm just kidding.

But it's very dangerous working with liquid fuels.

Okay, whereas we've got a solid-propellant missile.

It's not a very dangerous system with respect

to working on it.

Very safe system.

As far as the system's concerned,

command and control system that you have to monitor

the missiles, that will let you know

if something goes wrong with one of your missiles,

you get full status indications inside

the Launch Control Center, saying, okay,

something is wrong with this missile

and needs to be worked on, and then when they actually

go out and work on it, it doesn't take them

that long to get a missile ready.

Actually working on it itself.

Not very much maintenance.

Not very long to launch it.

And it is highly reliable.

The nice aspects of the system itself.

As far as survival of the system is concerned,

the missile system is dispersed.

Like the one overview I showed you already as far as.

We're not right next to a missile.

Our missile is at least three nautical miles away from us.

No closer than that.

So you need a lot of area as far as the missile wing

is concerned.

Whiteman is a three squadron wing.

Malmstrom is a four squadron wing.

As far as configuration of a flight,

you have one Launch Control Center

and ten missiles per flight.

As far as the squadron, you've got five

Launch Control Centers and 50 missiles.

So for Whiteman you have 150 missiles total.

Questions about that?

(trainees chattering)

- [Trainee] Bonita, Bonita, Bonita.

When's our next trainer gonna arrive?

- Emergency LCC evacuation is required

any time personal safety is in jeopardy.

Means if you have any fear for your life,

you get out of there.

So what?

That's only equipment downstairs.

We can only put so many crew bearers through this course

at a given time, you know.

Crew bearers are valuable.

Ask yourself.

- [Trainee] Ask SAC.

- Ask SAC, yes.

They love crew bearers, they're not gonna let you go.

They're gonna hold on to you.

- The launch control panel.

Located at the launch control console, commander's position.

Launch control panel has three switches on the front.

You have your key switch, your launch key switch.

You have another switch in the center which is not used,

says War Plan A and B on it, it's not even connected inside.

Then you have your inhibit switch.

These two switches on each end are connected

to your Mechanical Code Units, once again,

located in the back of the launch control panel.

The two here, MCUs A and B, are for your launch code.

Your complete launch code.

Located in these two MCUs.

The third MCU is your inhibit code.

These MCUs, once they're coded, are code components.

When they're dissipated and the code

is no longer in them, they are a critical component.

They are always a critical component.

So, we have our launch MCUs, our inhibit MCUs.

The panel then becomes a code component with the MCUs in it.

Without the MCUs in it, it's a hunk of iron.

The launch control panel.

Now, by activating this key switch

down to the launch position, we activate those two MCUs.

Those two MCUs being activated will then

generate a launch vote.

But it can't go out until the continuity loop

through the deputy's key switch

on the launch verification panel is turned also.

The two switches have to be turned simultaneously

and held for approximately two seconds.

At the same time.

So you gotta have both of them down

in the activated position to generate your launch vote.

Now, one launch vote per one capsule.

No matter how many times you initiate a launch vote

from your capsule, the missiles recognize that

as being a launch vote from your capsule only.

It takes two launch votes to launch a missile.

So, that'll involve at least two separate capsules.

Doesn't matter if they're primary, secondary,

auxiliary or anything like that.

It will always involve two separate capsules.

Now, we have the capability to stop that launch

when there's one launch vote in.

Once there's two launch votes, we can wave bye

to that missile, go upstairs and watch it launch.

So it takes two launch votes.

It's gonna take two launch control panels.

If we had only one capsule up and running

we could put a launch vote in with this

launch control panel, pull that launch control panel out,

put another one in, it's got another set of MCUs in it,

and do another launch vote.

And that would be recognized as two separate launch votes.

So we can do that with only one capsule up and operating.

We can launch.

But it'll always take two separate launch votes.

(trainees chattering)

- Well, it's surprising the way some of these people

will say, I'm waiting for some feedback.

This individual that I went through solo,

he launched a missile when he wasn't authorized to.

We're talking big error there, right?

The three bagger, a critical error.

He gave a very valid reason why he launched it.

I was riding the front seat.

He said he looked in the mirror and he saw it in my eyes

that I wanted him to turn keys.

(class laughs)

- [Trainee] Are you serious?

- Yeah, I'm serious.

- [Trainee] What kind of look did you give him?

- Blank look.

- [Trainee] No kidding.

- I've been practicing that for years.

I'm getting pretty good at it.

- [Trainee] They must send all instructors

to school for that.

(class laughs)

- It comes naturally.

Comes naturally.

He was looking for feedback.

He was looking for his strong crew partner to help him out.

I just sat there in the front seat,

looking in the mirror, I saw him and he was looking at me.

He said, well, why don't we turn keys on it?

Said, okay, I agree.

And as soon as he turned keys on it,

he says, I shouldn't have done that,

but I could tell you wanted me to.

Fine, whatever, make up the excuses that you want.

- [Trainee] Did he make it through the program?

- Barely.

He got his stuff together about ten days before graduation.

And he started doing well from then on.

Because he got scared.

- [Trainee] That's frightening.

- It is frightening.

To get almost through the end of the course

and then you're threatened with elimination

because you're not doing as well as you should.

The guy finally buckled down and he said,

these people are not playing games with me.

(bland music)

- As an IQT student, you're gonna spend

a hundred and ten hours in MPT believe it or not.

And applying the information that you learned

in the classroom, both academics and you, okay?

And MPT is where you're gonna integrate,

you know, what you learned in the classroom.

Hopefully, it'll come a lot easier when you're MPT.

We'll talk about it in the classroom, you know,

it's great to talk about it and, you know,

say this or that, but it's,

when you apply it that's when it finally,

you know, comes together and meshes.

So hopefully that'll happen.

Okay, you're gonna be working with your crew partner

as a team in what is now an alien environment

to you guys, okay?

And my philosophy, as far as the trainer,

you guys are a team, okay?

And just like any, like a football team

or a basketball team, it takes teamwork to win the game

and the game is get through your evaluations

so if you guys just work as a team,

you know, so, like I say, if one guy makes an error,

I usually end up giving the error to both guys

because I think that, you know, you're a team

and you're both down there you should be able to see

what the other guy's doing, you know, and catch him.

Make sure he initiates right and make sure,

maybe he's doing something, you know,

and if you don't talk to each other,

don't let each other know what's going on then you both

are gonna get the error, okay?

That's my philosophy, okay?

A lot of people use their philosophies, you know,

as far as, well, he did it and he was there by himself,

he knew what he was doing, but no.

I want you guys to work as a team, okay?

So that's the way we're gonna grade.

(bland music)

- [Trainee] Hey, how do you release these particular straps?

- [Trainee] Probably just twist it.

- Just twist, just twist it.

Twist it, they all come loose.

Okay, any questions on the chair

and how you operate the chair?

- No, sir.

- Okay, the next thing you want to look at, just briefly,

is, one thing that's very important to crew members

and that's how to read the Launch Control Center clock.

- All right.

- Basically, the Launch Control Center clock.

We read the clock, it's Zulu time.

On this particular clock, what time is it now?

- [Trainee] It is.

- [Trainee] Four hundred, Oh-four-hundred.

- Oh-four-hundred, okay.

What time is it now?

- [Trainee] It's oh-four-thirty-six, and 40 seconds.

- [Instructor] Okay, so it's very important

that you understand how to read a clock,

not only by hours, minutes, also by seconds.

All right, let's go ahead and run it out.

Okay, hold the clock.

Stop it.

Tell me what time it is.

Time is it now?

- [Trainee] Okay, it's eleven-thirty.

- [Instructor] Seconds is what?

- [Trainee] Basically, thirteen seconds.

Oh, I'm sorry sixteen seconds.

- [Instructor] Sixteen seconds, okay.

Okay, time is it now?

- [Trainee] Eleven.

- [Trainee] Eleven-forty and sixteen seconds.

- [Trainee] Eleven-forty.

- [Instructor] Eleven-forty and sixteen seconds.

So, again, it's very important to know how to read it.

(bland music)

- And then you'll find some other items down here,

just going through, to insure that they meet

the Weapon System Safety Standards

set up by the Department of Defense.

And these are, you see them down under C.

One, positive measures to prevent nuclear weapons

from producing a nuclear yield when they're not directed

to do so.

That's the first one.

Two, it's a positive measure to prevent,

and here's these little key word phrases,

deliberate or inadvertent, pre-arming, arming,

launching, firing or releasing of nuclear weapons.

When you get to the wing, you're gonna have to do

a certification in front of the wing commander.

And this is one of the things you're gonna talk about

are Weapon System Safety Rules

and you're gonna need to be able to roll that

right off your tongue and be able to explain what it means.

To prevent the deliberate or inadvertent,

pre-arming, arming, launching, firing or releasing

of a nuclear weapon.

You see how those code components we talked about

that one day fit into that?

That's their job, that's their job.

Unless those actions are directed by a competent authority

or upon execution of the Emergency War Order.

That's the only time that a deliberate release

is authorized.

When we have received emergency war orders

that are authorizing the releasing of nuclear weapons

from a competent authority,

then that's when we'll be able to do it.

- [Man] You wouldn't by chance

work with Colonel Z, would ya?

- [Man] No.

- [Man In Red Shirt] I was gonna say.

All right, what can I do for you?

Got your bread?

- [Man] Bun.

- [Man In Red Shirt] All right.

Hey, L.T. what can we do for you?

- Potato burger.

- [Man In Red Shirt] Oh, yeah.

I beg your pardon.

Potato burger? Coming at ya.

- [Man] Throw the Frisbee.

- All right.

Free beer, where?

I sure wouldn't mind having some.

Just call me Chef Gucci.

(picnic chatter)

- [Man] Chef Gucci!

- Now, the two man concept is another area

that falls under this Weapon System Safety Rules.

The two man concept, Air Force Reg

one-22-dash-four, in the Personnel Reliability Program.

PRP, now, PRP.

We can design all of our weapon systems

and everything so that all the mechanics

of the weapon system keep us from violating

Weapon System Safety Rules the codes,

the seals, everything like that.

Okay, but what's PRP for?

- [Trainee] The people.

- The people, that's right.

To ensure that anybody involved with nuclear weapons

is reliable and you can trust them

and you can work with them.

PRP is what keeps us from doing things

like going down to the store and buying

Contac cold medicine.

If you're drowsy on alert, you see,

then you're violating Weapon System Safety Rules

because you have to be constantly in control.

So, PRP, the same type of thing applies to pilots.

We have what's called Duty Not Involving Alert, DNIA.

You get sick, they gotta give you medication

that may make you drowsy, you go DNIA

and you can't go on alert because that would violate PRP.

Pilots, DNIF, Duty Not Involving Flying, same exact concept.

They can't trust ya because of medication,

then you're not gonna be out there working

with this weapon system.

So two-man concept applies all the time in Minuteman.

PRP applies and then the PES seals,

Positive Enable System Seals,

we use to detect tampering with the equipment.

To detect tampering.

(fire engine siren)

- [Shawn] You need the scenario

to actually play one.

- [Trainee In Blue Sweatshirt] There's only gonna be

five questions on it.

- [Trainee In White Sweatshirt] We only have

a 10 question test tomorrow?

- [Trainee] Yeah, that's how they're getting all the,

- I mean, five on anti-jam and five on blast valves.

- Oh, my goodness.

- I know, that means, two and you're gone.

Huh, Chuck?

- [Chuck] Yup.

(laughing)

- We know all about that.

- I thought he said a twenty question test tomorrow.

- [Trainee] You guys are gonna start studying

for the test big time, right?

- There is a twenty question test.

- Tomorrow.

- Five of it's on inhibit anti-jam,

five of it's on blast valves, and ten of it's on WSSRs.

- Did you ask him that?

- Yeah.

I've got in my notes.

- I say, I say, to simplify the time,

we should go to LCC blast valves

just to get comfortable with it a little bit more.

- Okay.

- [Trainee] We can do that.

- Thank you, thank you, I knew you would comply

to my standards.

- What are the three ways that you can, uh,

that you can close the blast valves?

- One way is with the DC power on

and the hydraulic pressure unit working,

something like that.

- Hydraulic control unit.

- You got pressure there.

Yeah, hydraulic control unit.

- [Man In Blue Sweatshirt] Where's the

hydraulic control unit?

- It's outside the, uh, the blast door.

Yeah, LCC blast door.

- [Trainee] No, it's not.

- [Trainee] No.

- No, there's the HCU and.

- And the hydraulic pumping unit is in the LCC.

- HPU.

- [Trainee] Which one you talking about?

- That's right, well, that's what I was trying

to get him to say.

- The hydraulic control unit is outside the door of the LCC.

- [Trainee] No, it isn't, it's in the acoustical enclosure.

- It's outside the other door, right?

- [Trainee] No, no, the door is here

and then the enclosure is out, and so it's right outside.

- [Trainee In White Shirt] It's outside the door.

- It's outside a little door.

That's not the blast door.

- Right.

- The blast door's the big one that.

- Outside in the acoustical enclosure.

- [Trainee In White Shirt] Outside

in the acoustical enclosure.

- Okay.

- [Trainee In White Shirt] All right.

Outside in the eggshell, in other words, right?

(phone ringing)

- Bravo capsule, this is Kathleen.

May I help you?

- [Man On Phone] Yeah, is this Bravo capsule?

- Yes.

- [Man On Phone] I've just put a bomb on one of your LFs.

- Okay, which LF did you put it on?

- [Man On Phone] I put it on that one, B-zero-nine.

- On nine, why'd you want put one on nine?

- [Man On Phone] Just call me a modern day freedom fighter.

- Freedom fighter, huh, okay, well, what kind of bomb is it?

- [Man On Phone] I don't know.

I wrapped about 25 sticks of dynamite together.

- 25 sticks, huh?

- [Man On Phone] Mm hmm.

- Okay, when'd you set this to go off?

- [Man On Phone] It should be going off in about 40 seconds.

- Okay, is it, uh, is it, uh, you know, is it in a box?

- [Man On Phone] It's just 40 sticks of dynamite

strapped together with, uh, a belt.

- With a belt, uh, okay, is it, uh, you said

about forty-five seconds?

- [Man On Phone] I meant forty-five minutes.

I'm nervous, you know.

It's the first bomb I've ever put on a LF.

- Well, you know, you say you're a freedom fighter.

- [Man On Phone] Well, I had dream last night.

They said put a bomb on one of these missile sites.

You know, I figured I'd give the news.

- Uh huh.

- [Man On Phone] I gotta go because I know

what you're trying to do.

You're trying to trace me.

- Well, why don't you tell me your name, sir.

Okay, lost him.

I'm not hanging up.

- [Training Partner] Okay, I already.

(bland music)

(truck rumbling)

- Remote weather.

The weather biasing concept.

The big thing about weather is that,

I say, Kentucky windage.

And that's really what we're talking about.

We're just improving the accuracy of the missile

by accounting for the atmospheric conditions

that exist at the target.

At the target.

Now, our missile has a Mark Eleven-C Reentry Vehicle

and it has a specific shape to that vehicle for its angle

of reentry into the atmosphere.

There is a possible skipping effect

with any reentry vehicle that comes into the atmosphere,

depending upon the angle.

Remember when you looked at your trajectory,

back on day one, of a typical mission profile?

Well, that angle that the reentry vehicle

is coming into the atmosphere,

the steeper the angle can be, the more accurate you can be.

The less the angle, the less the heating

on the reentry vehicle, such as, you know,

when the Shuttle comes in, it comes in real shallow,

but it still has to come in.

So, reentry vehicle's coming in,

the steeper it comes in, the more accurate

but the more heat.

And thus possible damage to the reentry vehicle.

But the steeper the angle, the less it will be affected

by the different layers and densities of the atmosphere.

If we had a real dense layer of the atmosphere

and a reentry vehicle's coming in,

it's liable to change its trajectory going through there.

It's like, you know, anybody ever try and shoot into water

with an arrow or something, like at a fish,

or anything like that?

It's never where you shoot, is it?

Because there's a difference in the densities

and the refraction and everything.

Same type of thing here.

It's going in.

It's going to be refracted through there.

So we have to account for that.

If we want to hit this spot,

we can't aim right at it.

Because we can't get there through this layer.

We've got to account for the atmospheric conditions

and that's what the Remote Weather Command is all about.

It accounts for the winds and the atmospheric conditions

so that we come in here, we move over like this,

and nail our target, okay?

(bland music)

- [Trainee Commander] Charlie nine is in strategic alert.

- Time.

Check crew log, job control, or on-site maintenance team

as necessary to determine that 30 minutes has elapsed

since previous missile test has commanded.

We do not have any maintenance online.

And, we have checked the crew log, job control.

We don't have any on-site maintenance teams.

- [Trainee Deputy] Not at this time.

- Okay, I'll get hold of job control to ensure

that no one else has performed a missile test

on Charlie nine.

(beeping)

- [Voice On Phone] Jobs, Sergeant Wilson.

- Yes, Sergeant Wilson, this is Captain Woolridge

in Charlie capsule.

I want to check in with you and see

if anybody has performed a missile test on Charlie nine

in the squadron.

- [Voice On Phone] Uh, not that we know of, sir.

- Okay, thank you very much, we'll be doing it.

- [Voice On Phone] Okay, thank you.

- All right, bye.

Okay, I have checked.

No one has in the last the last 30 minutes.

No one has.

- When you look at a Stand-By, No Go you need to say,

Is that sortie launch-capable?

Why, because, you know, when you get into the EWO part

of the job, that's the job.

Launching missiles is your job.

And what we're building towards is,

if you get in a situation, you need to be able to look

visually and determine, is that sortie going to launch

if I need to launch it?

Yes or no?

No, it won't, if it's one of these.

Yes, it will, if it's an alarm fault,

Why, because there's nothing wrong with the missile.

It's a minor ground fault problem.

This is a big problem.

This is a big problem.

And the Stand-By, No Go, because it's not launch-capable,

is a big problem.

Okay, and asking yourself is it launch-capable

is the question that you need to know.

That's one of the things you want to ask yourself.

(bland music)

I wish everyone in here could get

some solo rides now and then.

Solo rides are great.

They isolate you.

You can't sit there.

One of my students went through with a very strong partner.

But he was very weak.

Just rides on the coat tails.

Until the instructor starts saying,

I'm gonna isolate this guy.

We get into EWO and we'd get a message

and the strong guy, he'd write invalid

on the message and he was about to turn around

and tell his crew partner.

I say shut up.

Just be quiet.

I know you're a crew and you should work together.

But I want to see if this other guy

can figure it out by himself.

See, you're not gonna let the one strong guy

pull the weak person through.

Because it doesn't do the weak person any good.

They get out on alert and their crew partner's asleep

and they really don't know what they're doing,

you don't want that person out there.

You have to force that person to know their job.

They don't know their job,

they have no business being out there.

So, those of you who are going through the solo rides,

you may feel you get picked on or you get

scrutinized a little bit better.

But it's gonna make you know your job better.

- We may have to do a little resolution with AFSCO.

AFSCO calls on one of our students and says,

okay, there's a problem with security clearance,

may go into adjudication.

That's fine.

That's what they're supposed to do.

And the point that I'm gonna try to make with AFSCO

is that, you know, you tell me what the problem is

and why it's in adjudication and I'll make the decision

whether or not he gets pulled from training.

There seems to be this feeling that when AFSCO calls

that automatically we pull them from training

and that's not true.

In this particular case, it's a young man who,

before he went off to college, you know,

was sometimes employed and sometimes not employed

and he ran up some debts.

And he is, in my judgment making restitution on those debts

and doing it fine.

But there was background investigation,

some creditor says, hey, so-and-so owes me some money.

But anyway.

The point is I would like to be the one to make the decision

because if you take a guy, let's say, out of training

for four or five days while we try to get this thing

resolved and then resolve it, and then you try

to put him back in, he's lost four or five days.

And in our system that's just too tough.

So, I made the decision based on what I know

in this case to leave him in training.

And then we'll resolve the other issues.

And he's helping us there.

He's going to do some things like write to his creditors

and say, hey, I'm gonna be able to pay ya so much per month.

Because if you're a person who's never been in debt,

you will be someday, especially when it comes time

to send your kids to college, I can tell you that.

- Fraternization, I guess everybody knows the,

what fraternization is or have a vague idea.

But just be assured that, you know, it's something that

the Air Force doesn't like and won't tolerate

and we'll be professional as we've always been.

And we've not accused anyone of fraternization.

And you can be, with the women on board,

everybody's being extra cautious

about this thing with fraternization.

And just be assured, I mean, be careful that you don't

do anything that presents the image of fraternization

or fraternizing.

And, we're not saying don't be friends with your students

and don't, you know, meet the guys at the O Club

or whatever we've always done for the last twenty years.

But just don't get it to the point where people

start thinking that something's going on.

Now, of course, a lot of times, people overreact

in a situation where there are females and males.

and don't get paranoid to the fact, I mean,

to the point you're not really being effective

whether someone's gonna say you're fraternizing.

So we're not going to get paranoid to that point

because it's not worth it but we do want to make sure

that we always be professional.

- We have one student placed on QP

as a result of academic performance.

He's failed five ACOs with an academic average of 875

which for ILCS is low.

- [Officer] Okay.

- He's the same student who came in about three days

into the class and stated he wasn't sure

he was gonna make it through the program himself

and didn't feel comfortable with being at missiles.

We sent him to the flight surgeon.

Flight surgeon report came back that he was normal

with self-doubt, no emotional problems,

mental or abnormal stress,

and they did not refer him to Mental Health

and told him to stick with the program.

We've got him scheduled the 11th of February

for a test taking technique program at training science.

Personally, my observation of him,

and I've talked with him on several occasions,

is, he's trying hard.

He's got a 2.95 GPA at the University of Florida

in Mechanized Agriculture.

And, he wants to do it.

He really does.

I think he wants to do it.

I think he's just feeling a little bit of apprehension

here for some reason.

- [Officer] Okay.

- Be sure Program Select switch is in off position

and re-initiate key turn.

Switch is off.

It's in position.

Reinitiate key turn.

During DSAP lock-up, monitor message transfer

indicator on launch verification panel.

If indicator fail to illume, release switch and repeat.

- Okay, I'm gonna give you a time.

At which time I want you to turn keys.

Okay, what you want to do is, you will watch the clock.

As the clock sweeps through the time

that you're gonna key turn on,

for example, if we were key turning

at the zero-zero mark right now, I want you to say,

hands on keys, key turn on my mark, three, two, one, mark.

You watch the clock for ten seconds waiting for him to say,

light on, light off, verifying that the command

has been sent out.

Okay, I want you to key turn on the next minute

which will be the next zero-zero mark.

At ten seconds prior to, you'll say, hands on keys,

and your response will be, hands on keys.

- [Trainee Deputy] Hands on keys.

- Then you will say, I will watch the clock,

you watch the lights.

You're looking for that light and,

out of the corner of your eye, this light to illuminate.

When they do, you say, light on, light off.

Keep both keys down until you hear, Light on, light off,

when you hear that, you say release keys.

Okay, starting at the ten second mark.

Go ahead and take it from there.

- Hands on keys.

- [Trainee Deputy] Hands on keys.

- Initiate on my mark.

Five.

Initiate, be ready to initiate, five, two, one, now.

I'll watch the clock.

- [Trainee Deputy] I got lights.

Light on, light off.

- [Trainee Commander] Release.

- [Trainee Deputy] Key released.

16 accomplished, sir?

- [Trainee Commander] Okay, launch switch code used.

- [Trainee Deputy] Okay.

(bell rings)

- Okay, you are receiving, now, launch indications.

That was a little rough but it wasn't bad

for the first time.

Now, I want you to come on up here for a minute.

What we're gonna look at is what happens

when you key turn or you issue one launch vote.

- [Trainee Deputy] Okay.

- One crew key turns, which you guys just did,

nothing will launch because you need a follow-on

vote from another LCC.

So what we're looking at here, right now

is the proper indications from one Launch Control Center

to the squadron sorties.

The sorties will enter the launch-commanded mode.

What do we need to launch this sortie?

We need another vote from another LCC, right?

Now, to kind of get back to what we were

talking about before, this sortie's not gonna launch,

this sortie's not gonna launch.

That's the importance of knowing what's gonna launch

and what won't launch.

This sortie, when we put in the other vote,

will launch when it turns to Strategic Alert.

It's in Stand-By now.

When it comes out of Stand-By, it'll go

to Strategic Alert and when that happens

the sortie will launch.

Okay, I just want you to watch what happens

when the sortie launches.

Put in the vote number two, please.

That sortie's not executed.

(bell ringing)

Okay, we have got launch indications.

You have a launch in process here on this sortie.

That means that someone else has key-turned

on this sortie, okay, along with you.

It's not launch-commanded, this one's Launch in Process.

This one should go Launch in Process

all the way across the board.

The next indication you'll get is Missile Away.

The thing you want to do is get your key turn in

when you're supposed to.

And to do that, it needs to be very rudimentized,

very structured, you don't want to let anything bother ya,

just get the task done, and leave it at that.

Get a successful launch.

And take care of any other problems that happen afterwards.

- The only time you're gonna be sending PLCAs

is when you go to war.

- [Trainee] I was gonna say, in reality, it's not really

gonna be done that much.

- No, just put in the day-to-day PLCA and we leave them.

Sortie goes down for maintenance,

comes back up and we have to reconfigure it,

we run a PLCB to it.

Would a PLCA do the same thing?

The day-to-day PLCA would do the same thing.

- [Trainee] Because that's where you want it.

- Yeah, but we run a PLCB cause it's only one sortie.

So we only run a PLCB for one sortie only.

All right?

- [Trainee] So, when we go to war, we're gonna be actually

sending a lot of these.

- Yeah, you'll be sending a PLCA out and,

like this, PLCA 76.

It tells Alpha 6 to launch against target one

with a three minute delay time.

But it tells Alpha 5, go to target one, or two, or whatever,

with an infinite delay time,

so Alpha 5 will sit on the ground.

Now, we can launch it later, maybe using PLCA 82.

And that tells Alpha 5, all right, go to target one

with a zero-zero delay, all in accordance

with Single Integrated Operational Plans, SIOP.

- [Trainee] Got it, I think I understand.

- Okay, do you care what these numbers are?

- [Trainee] No, not really.

- No, do you care what's in here?

- [Trainee] No.

- No, the planners care.

That came up with PLCA 76 means this for Alpha 6,

this for Alpha 5, this for Alpha 4, on down.

They care.

But all we do is, they tell us to send this, we send it.

What happens?

They'll either launch when we key turn on them

or they won't launch.

One or the other.

We have no determination on what kind of war we'll fight.

It's all based upon what they tell us

and how we respond to it.

All right, okay.

Good enough.

Be doing that homework.

If you got something, just give me a call, okay?

- [Trainee] I gotta go get grilled by DIS

about my sordid past.

(laughing)

- Did you guys see this?

- Not today.

Rifle and bayonet, obviously, three helmets.

Gas mask case, and, mess kit that they had over there.

- You dug this stuff up?

- Uh huh.

These all came from Bastogne.

This is a restored one.

Actually, it's that one right there,

after taking the rust off of it and cleaning it up.

- You brought these home or you put them

in a museum over there?

- Some are in a museum.

Some of these I brought home.

- What are those little bombs?

- That one's on a colonel's desk somewhere.

- What are those little things?

- That's a mortar, that's a sixty millimeter mortar.

- It's not, good, is it?

- We de-armed this.

(laughing)

- Oh, that's good, that's a good thing.

- Potato masher.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, just like in the movies.

- Another gas mask case.

Some American hand grenades.

I found that guy's helmet, that's why I'm there.

His name was in it.

- [Matt] You went and looked for his grave?

- [Eddie] Yeah.

- [Matt] Is that the one that had

four bullet holes in it?

- [Shawn] As a matter of fact, yes.

- [Eddie] Oh, wow, how coincidental.

Let me see this.

- [Shawn] I've got another helmet with another picture.

I found another guy's grave,

they were both buried in Bastogne.

- [Matt] Where'd you find their helmets?

- Out in the woods.

As a matter of fact, I've got detailed maps,

like archaeologist's notes about where all this stuff is.

- [Eddie] Which guy is it?

This guy, Wallingford?

- [Shawn] Yeah, uh, no, it's Emil Blome.

- [Matt] Why is there three names on this stone?

- [Shawn] There's six people to a grave.

Three on one side, three on the other.

- [Matt] They're stacked up?

- Mm hm.

- [Matt] I didn't know that.

Let me see that.

- [Shawn] Sure.

- [Matt] How long did it take to find the guy's gravestone?

- [Shawn] Not too long, because they have

a guest registration book, you know,

in the front there with all the names of the people.

So that's where I went and looked.

Since I found it in the woods and they had 9,000 people

buried about two miles away from there,

I figured the chances were.

- [Matt] This graveyard's two miles

from where you found the helmet?

- [Shawn] Yeah.

- [Matt] Well, that makes sense.

- [Shawn] All the Americans, though.

If you find anything with Americans,

they've all been moved either to Luxembourg

which is about a sixty mile trip.

- [Matt] Oh, there you go.

- Yeah, there you go.

So, we're out in the foxholes there.

The baby went out.

- Oh, my, doesn't look like she had a lot to say about that.

- [Shawn] That thing on my head

is a helmet I found out there.

Still had the camouflage cover on it,

a German paratrooper helmet.

Here's something else too.

Now, if you can get the size.

That's an anthill.

Lots of anthills around in there.

- [Matt] I wouldn't be digging around in that.

- No, we didn't.

Well, I mean, I think, the battlefields should be,

some of them should be considered memorials but they don't.

You'll find that a lot of people come down and they dig up

and they don't even put the dirt back in the holes

after they've dug something up.

- So, you weren't the first ones doing this

in a lot of those areas?

- Oh, no.

I mean, mine detectors, right?

Bought a surplus mine detector,

somebody'd been doing that for forty years.

The key is, everything close to the road

has kind of been dug up.

You're gonna have to go real deep into the woods.

And I'm talking real deep.

In '49, they cleared out 112,000 mines alone

and 5,000 tons of ammunition

but 29 of the American engineers were killed doing it.

So, it's dangerous.

Just before I left, an individual Belgian found a 105

millimeter shell, took it to his garage

where he had his Mercedes stored, began to cut on it

with an acetylene torch.

Blew up the garage, the Mercedes,

his house, and, of course, him.

- [Trainee] Did it kill him?

- Oh, yeah, yeah, just blew him away.

- [Matt] What year was this that they were pulling out

all these mines?

- They pulled out 112,000 mines in 1949.

Because, like I say, little kids go over there,

and pick up these things, and still get hurt with them.

Like German hand grenades when they rust leave little things

that look like Easter eggs and so kids,

you know, pick these things up,

and they're really volatile, and just boom.

And that's it.

- [Eddie] And that still happens?

- Oh, yeah.

(talking over each other)

They still find an average of five people a year

from the wars over there who've been killed.

Because you know, people get killed

and they crawl up into overhangs or rugged terrain.

- [Matt] So what, do they turn in their dogtags and?

- If they find them.

While I was there, a guy found a German soldier

but he didn't have any identification.

- [Eddie] Is that the guy that his foot was missing?

- No, that's an American.

That's something I did.

Like I say, the whole area is just a munitions dump and, uh.

I think it'd be well worth it, you know,

for the Americans to form an organization,

some universities, to go over there and start dealing

with it and, you know, because by going out there

and digging you can tell what they ate,

when they ate, where they stored it,

learn from fighting positions and stuff.

We would go out there and look at their

fighting positions to see how they were made

to give us an idea of.

- [Eddie] Military history.

- Sure, sure.

- Shoot, you could do a masters on that

and be in charge of all it, Shawn.

- [Shawn] That's what I want to do.

- Is that what you want to do your masters on?

- I'd really like to.

- I think he's gonna start.

- Yeah, I'd really like to do that, as a matter of fact,

those patches I have in there.

- The inhibit switch generates the Inhibit Launch Command.

ILC, the Inhibit Launch Command.

If somehow, some way, somebody were able to enable

our missiles, not authorized, we need some way to stop it.

That's what the Inhibit Launch Command is for.

An inhibit code is stored in that third MCU,

third MCU right back here in your launch control panel.

If you were to turn your launch control panel over

and it'd match up exactly where the inhibit switch

is on the front.

So, the third MCU has the inhibit code.

Coded up, again, back at the Codes Vault.

All the code components will be coded

at the Codes Vault, DO9.

So the inhibit code is the third MCU,

it is transmitted All Call just by flipping the switch,

just like the launch code.

Turn the switch, it goes out to all LFs in the squadron.

The inhibit code is transmitted any time

the crew detects an unauthorized enable or launch attempt.

Any time.

- Basically, from what you've told me,

I can tailor this lesson plan now

to what I think you might need or be useful to you.

And, the first thing I want to tell you

is how we write our tests.

We try real hard to follow the instructional systems

approach at education here and what that means to you

basically is unlike in college where you might have

a professor come in and say,

well, read chapters five and six

and tomorrow be prepared for a quiz,

where there might be anywhere from 100 to 200 concepts

in those two chapters and you'd have to know them all

in order to chance guess which 20

he was gonna give you on the test, we don't do that.

We tell you right up front,

we want you to know this material, we spell it out

in the objectives, and then when we write our tests,

we write them so they mirror those objectives exactly.

So, with that bit of information, you should know,

you have in your possession, in your training guide,

exactly what we're gonna test you on each day.

In your objectives, okay?

There's one other area I want to get into.

And that is, this is a last ditch effort,

when everything else fails,

I'm gonna show you some techniques

that you can look for in testing.

I'm gonna hand you out a multiple choice question.

These are not on any missile topic,

they're just general topic questions.

And I want you to read those aloud for me.

And what I'm gonna show you here

are just some simple testmanship techniques.

I just came back from Alabama and there was a fellow there

who's an expert in writing tests and how tests are written.

He claims that he can any test, any topic,

and do at least 70% just because he knows what to look for

in how tests are constructed and so what I'm gonna do

is give you some tips here.

I want to emphasize, this is after everything else

has failed, these are tips that'll just improve your odds

of guessing, okay?

Can't overemphasize the importance

of good preparation and testmanship.

If everything else fails, try these techniques.

Okay? Read the first one there.

- A comedy is, A a sad play, B a long book,

C a work, especially a play, in which the characters

undergo amusing distress and the action turns out well

for the chief characters, D an epic.

- [Trainer] Okay, do you know the answer

right off the top of your head?

- C.

- [Trainer] Okay, did you know that

before you took this test?

- Yes, sir.

- Okay, C is the right answer and the concept

that I'm trying to get at here is that it's

the longest answer.

For some reason, psychologically,

test writers make an error sometimes

and they'll save the best answer for the longest answer.

So, if you've got four choices and you just don't know,

generally, the longer answer is the correct answer.

Okay, now, number two.

- The mature human being has how many teeth?

A 15, B 32, C 54, D 7.

- [Trainer] Now, do you know the answer?

- 32.

- [Trainer] Did you know that?

- Yes, sir.

- [Trainer] Okay, in this one we're talking

about extremes of values.

When you have values and you have value extremes,

the extremes are usually wrong.

Okay, so in this case, you can eliminate what?

- 54 and 7.

- [Trainer] C and D, and that cuts your odds in guessing

down to one in two instead of one in four.

Okay, number three.

- The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was ratified

by Moscow because.

- [Trainer] You can just read that alternate silently.

- Sir?

- [Trainer] You can just read the choices silently.

- Okay.

- I have the student information package

being processed over to branch.

What happened was that we had the ASRP when we came back

from SAC on that Thursday, the next day, we asked PRP

what they wanted, was some additional training rides,

some one-on-one training for academics.

The deficiency was inside the MPT.

I gave him Ride 16, he got a three on the ride,

one significant error, however, that is the average

for that ride, with the level of difficulty it is the max

you usually get is two significant errors,

so there was some optimism that we could

get a direct (mumbles).

However what happened was, he had an additional MPT session

on Saturday, he followed the next week with Rides 17,

18, and 19, straight ones.

For an example, on Ride 18, the average is like

three significant errors and he was receiving nine.

And then on Ride 19, our practice eval,

he received another one.

And so the criterion was to receive a satisfactory on

three out of five graded MPT sessions during that period

of time and, as of Friday, he had already

exceeded that average.

He, as of Ride 19, he had only passed 42%

of graded MPT sessions up and including Ride 19, 42%.

So if you'd like to talk more about.

- Okay, now, you say you did have

a Student Progress Review Panel on him?

- [Officer] Yes, sir, yes, sir.

That was on the Thursday of the week I got back from SAC.

- Okay, so you basically are recommending him

for elimination.

- Yes, sir, I am, and I talked with Major Crook

and Major Delp on Friday on this and we reviewed

his performance record just to get a feel as to,

you know, he's a very enjoyable person to be around

but he's, he is satisfied he is trying his best

and I'm satisfied with what the instructors

have done for him.

We've put in 107 hours of individualized training,

of which about 51 have been individualized one-on-one.

- [Officer] Wow.

- And so he has failed 10 out of 17 graded MPT sessions.

- Yeah, yell, that's one of those things.

He's a fine troop, but in this business,

you know, we gotta have, folks who can do this

very tough job and it's not fair to the crew force

to put somebody out there that can't hack it, that's all.

(crowd cheering)

(crowd chattering)

(crowd cheering)

- There it is again.

(crowd chattering)

- Come on, Bev.

- [Man Holding Baby] You tired?

(crowd cheering)

(crowd chattering)

(bland music)

(beeping)

- [Voice On Phone] Command post, Captain Morgan speaking.

- Yes, Captain Morgan, this is Lieutenant Manuel

at Echo Capsule.

Could you patch me through

to Information Systems Job Control?

- [Voice On Phone] Stand by, please.

(beeping)

- [Voice On Phone] Information Systems Job Control,

Sergeant Corwin.

- Sergeant Corwin, this is Lieutenant Manuel

at Echo Capsule.

I have Command Post on the line.

I'd like to report to you that we had a fire

in our FSAG Com group.

We electrically isolated the fire.

There's light smoke damage to the equipment.

We have lost our SATCOM capability.

Are there any write-ups?

- [Voice On Phone] Ah, let's see.

We'll get back to you with write-ups

when we've researched it.

- Okay, any other information?

- [Voice On Phone] No, sir, thank you.

- Okay, did you copy that, Command Post?

- [Voice On Phone] Command Post copies, thank you.

- Initial.

- [Voice On Phone] It's Alpha Charlie here at

Information Systems and Tango Y Command Post.

- Thank you.

(beeping)

- Weapon System Safety Rules, or you'll hear me

refer to them as WSSRs, W-S-S-R,

are of the utmost importance to us because,

as you've heard me say before, violation

of Weapon System Safety Rules is a biggie.

This is one of those ones when the old career dissipation

light comes on, okay?

So, this is one of those times when you're

really gonna be worried about what's going on.

Now, if you've done everything right,

in accordance with your technical order and something

happens that violates Weapon System Safety Rules

and you've done everything right

and you make all the proper reports, you're not in trouble.

You're not in trouble.

Violating Weapon System Safety Rules

intentionally or negligently will get you into trouble.

A lot of trouble.

Because we are dealing with these nuclear weapons.

Now, the overall goals and standards

that are associated with Weapon System Safety Rules.

First of all, the whole big thing about

Weapon System Safety Rules is to prevent a nuclear weapon

that's involved in an accident or an incident or a

deficiency or anything like that

from generating a nuclear yield.

The design of the weapon, the way we handle the weapons,

the whole thing, remember when we had that trajectory

we showed back on day one?

When did the warhead arm?

Do you remember?

- [Trainee] Right before the end.

- Just before it gets there.

All of that is designed so that we don't have

a nuclear weapon detonate in an accident.

We can have a fire on a plane carrying nuclear weapons

and it's not gonna detonate the weapon.

This is all concerned with Weapon System Safety Rules.

They apply to all phases of operation

for the Minuteman weapon system

throughout the stockpile to target sequence.

That's a key phrase, stockpile to target.

The whole time we've got them, they apply.

There is no point in a nuclear weapon's

life when they do not apply.

- Now, I've got a bit of bad news.

I got this letter from Sergeant Manzanarez

over in RY Maintenance and, basically,

our instructors are not taking care of the MPTs

and they, Maintenance asked me to just put out an edict

that there be no more eating, drinking, or smoking

in the cabs of the MPTs and, you know,

this, to me, just seems unnecessary.

Let me give you some specifics.

RY015 CDB, moldering cigarette left on equipment counters,

Marlboros and Kents, he even knows what brand they are.

Okay, RY014 CDB and ILCS, footprints

on equipment racks, doors and walls.

And some pop cans around.

All right, okay, okay, RY011 MOD, half-eaten Twinkie

left between the racks.

Okay, RY010 MOD, grease pencil smeared on floors.

RY005 CDB and ILCS, there are some coffee spills.

Okay, several MPTs felt-tip pens are allowed to be used

on Plexiglass, almost impossible to wipe clean.

Okay, now, what I want to do on this.

I'm going to ask the maintenance people,

and apparently they've come to me because efforts,

you know, working it at their level haven't helped so,

this kinda is the last.

And, you know, I don't like this kind of unpleasantness.

We've got professionals there that are just getting

a little bit careless, so I expect your attention

to this and give it one more try.

And I'm gonna ask maintenance branch

to let me know how well this goes come next week.

I certainly don't wanna take away the privilege

of taking snacks into the cabs because that's tough.

That means they gotta come out of there every time

they want to have a snack and, you know,

with a six hour trainer ride, that's tough.

Okay, any questions?

(alarm buzzing)

- [Electronic Voice] Lima, Alpha,

Uniform, November, Charlie, stand by, message follows.

Lima, Alpha, Uniform, November, Charlie.

Stand by, message follows.

Lima, Oscar, Uniform, November, Charlie, Hotel, Tango,

X-ray, Sierra, Papa, Sierra, Victor, two, four, three.

Sierra, Foxtrot, Echo, one, Tango.

Acknowledge, out.

- Okay, copy.

Okay, I see a valid message.

- [Trainee Deputy] I agree.

- Okay, go on to step one of the checklist.

Launch keys inserted, launch keys inserted.

(banging)

- [Trainee Commander] Okay, step one, launch keys inserted.

- [Trainee Deputy] Yeah, hang on, it doesn't want to go in.

Okay.

Hang on.

- [Trainee Commander] Ready?

- [Trainee Deputy] Not yet.

Ready.

- Okay.

Ready.

Standby one.

Okay, ready step one, launch keys inserted.

Next step, function Select Switch to off.

- It is.

- MRT-CEP to MRT.

- MRT.

- Flick 855 selected.

- Flick 855.

- Initiate actuated clockwise.

- [Trainee Deputy] Actuated clockwise, 1001.

(alarm buzzing)

- [Trainee Commander] Change out the alarm.

- [Trainee Deputy] 19 Program Select switch to off.

(alarm buzzing)

- [Trainee Commander] Set.

- [Trainee Deputy] Flight Select switch to off.

- [Trainee Commander] Set.

- Launcher Select switch to off.

- [Trainee Commander] Set.

Unlock code, required inserted, first element, Papa.

- Papa.

- Second element, seven.

- Seven.

- Third element, seven.

- [Trainee Deputy] Seven.

- [Trainee Commander] Fourth element, Papa.

- [Trainee Deputy] Papa.

- Fifth element, seven.

- [Trainee Deputy] Seven.

- Sixth element, Papa.

- [Trainee Deputy] Papa.

- Okay, read them back.

- [Trainee Deputy] Papa, seven, Papa, seven,

Papa, seven, Papa, seven, Papa, seven, Papa, seven,

Do you agree?

- Okay, I agree.

Okay, Enable switch set to enable.

- [Trainee Deputy] Enable switch, down and locked.

Initiate switch actuated counterclockwise.

- [Trainee Commander] Actuated counterclockwise, 1001.

Release.

Key turn at commit time, on my mark, at the 15.

(bell ringing)

Hands on keys, three, two, one, mark.

- [Trainee Deputy] Got my print.

(bell ringing)

- Got the alarms, okay.

(alarm buzzing)

Okay, I've got Launch in Process on two sorties.

Enabled Launch in Process.

(alarm buzzing repeatedly)

Okay, I've got fault lighting, fault outer security,

inner security, missile away, eleven's gone.

Okay, Launch in Process on six.

(bell ringing)

Okay, missile away on eight, nine, 10, four, five and three.

They're all gone.

(bell ringing)

Okay, they're all gone, deputy.

That's it, that's all she wrote.

(alarm buzzing)

(bland music)

- [Man] Do you have you got all your classified put away?

- Okay, commander and deputy.

First thing we'd like to do is inform you

that your evaluation resulted

in a Highly Qualified rating, 5-0, no errors.

(crew sighs)

And we'd like to.

- All right!

- [Officer\} Be the first to welcome you

to the Minuteman crew force.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- [Officer] Okay, congratulations.

- [Officer] Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- Do you wanna have a seat, we'll go over a few things

we'd like to discuss with you.

As mentioned, we have no, uh, no errors.

I'd like to point out, too, that we, felt that your

performance was a very outstanding one

and we awarded you an Outstanding Performance on the report.

Do you have any comments?

- Just to technique.

When you're reading printouts, multiple printouts

like the Inhibit test, one of the techniques to use

is you can use the versa switches

instead of writing it down.

Sometimes it's just easier just to pop those up

and then you can see which ones are there

and which ones aren't.

That's just technique-wise.

- [Trainee] You're talking about on the inhibit switch

when she told me what we needed to check?

- On the inhibits or any multiple printouts like that,

that you're checking for, that's technique.

The other overall comment I thought your crew coordination

throughout the evaluation was outstanding.

Checklist discipline especially.

And that was evident in your Emergency War Order

procedures once you got there.

You can tell that you trained very hard

to get to this state of readiness.

- [Both Women] Thank you.

- [Kathleen] We put in a few hours.

- To piggyback off of that is your checklist discipline,

I feel, was well beyond the IQT level

and I think that may be attributable

to your prior experience in Titan.

- We also had a good instructor.

- This is true.

- Continue, continue with that and, pass that on

to the people that you'll be dealing with.

Now, you are gonna be under what I consider,

maybe it isn't, but somewhat of a disadvantage

is that when you all go on alert,

you're not gonna have the advantage of being out there

with somebody who's been pulling alerts

in the Minuteman system, so it's gonna be real incumbent

upon you to ask a lot of questions,

utilize those instructors and evaluators,

especially when the instructor takes you out to the field

to learn all those ins and outs and ropes and things,

because what's coming up in the next six months

is gonna be that first recurring evaluation

which will entail the field portion of the check.

- I don't think I can reduplicate the stress factor

of this one, I just can't do it again.

- I'm sure you can.

But all I'm trying to get to here is the unit's

gonna be looking at you real hard for that first evaluation.

They look at everybody hard that way

and it's gonna be real important that you all utilize

your instructors and evaluators at the wing

in preparation for that first recurring check.

You know from your Titan experience probably that,

you've learned all the contingencies

and you've seen all the things that can go wrong,

but you're gonna go out there and find

it's a very reliable system and it doesn't break very often

and there's gonna be a tendency

to not have anything to do so you might tend to not study.

- [Kathleen] Forget the checklist is there, right?

- So, let's stay on the tech data

and utilize your instructors and evaluators.

- Yeah, I think we realize that we're really gonna have to

do that because we don't have a, you know,

we're not going on crew with somebody who's been

in the system for a year or two, so.

- I understand your CPO's are much shorter

than what we're used to, we'd have to keep in practice

to be able to meet them.

- Congratulations, welcome to the Minuteman crew force.

- Thanks.

- Oh, we appreciate it, very much.

- Good luck, to you, drive careful, too.

- Thank you, will do.

- Thank you

- Whooo!

- [Officer] Good job.

- [Kathleen] Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Good job.

- Oh, thanks.

- Let's go do something!

- Oh, boy! Whew, boy, that's a.

- Make my day.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- [Officer] You forgot to put the score on that.

Put those on there, the score on the.

(both trainees cheering)

- It was a week ago when our President

addressed us as a nation.

In that address, he quoted from a poem

that's familiar to many of us who wear the blue suit.

It was a poem by John Magee, written many, many years ago.

The last few lines of that poem read,

"And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

"The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

"Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

It seems like those words are able to transcend

the time and the place in which they were written

and speak to each of us in our moment of need.

The first recipient of those words was a father

who had sent his son off to go to war a long time ago,

World War I, his son was an aviator

who flew biplanes in open cockpits.

He received this poem shortly after

he had received the notification of his son's death.

And the first public reading of it

was at the funeral of his son.

It seems to me that these words are able

to transcend the time of open cockpits

and move right into the time when I need

to hear words of comfort,

of time when I need to hear of space, of flight,

in conjunction with the witness of my God.

They seem to transcend that limited timeliness

and speak to me forever.

They ignore the technology of one moment

and move beyond that.

Let us pray together.

Oh God, who gave us birth, you are ever more ready

to hear than we are to pray.

You know our needs before we ask.

You know where our souls and spirits have been wounded.

You know where the hopes and promises

of the future have been crushed within us.

You know the pain and the anger,

frustration and loss we felt on Tuesday

and continue to feel this day.

Help us, Oh God.

Give to us now your grace that as we shrink

before the mystery of death,

we may see the light of eternity.

Speak to us once more your solemn message of life

and of death.

Help us to live as those who have faced death

and who are prepared both to live and to die.

Eternal God, we give you thanks for the lives

of the astronauts who this day we mourn.

We praise you for their spirit that leads us

into the frontiers of space.

We thank you that they were willing to risk their lives

in order that we might gain a better life.

Oh God, we pray for one another in need.

Oh God, may the grief of us all be lessened

through your ever-present love.

For those who are weak, give strength.

For those with doubt, give light.

And for all who sorrow in every place

and at all times, bestow upon them your peace.

♪ Oh God, our help in ages past ♪

♪ Our hope for years to come ♪

♪ Remain our God thy light shall last ♪

♪ And our eternal home ♪

♪ Amen ♪

("Taps")

- I finish forty years of service to our country this year.

And not only am I a parachutist as a young soldier

in the United States Army, early in my career,

I'm a gliderist, I'm a missileer, in my fact,

I probably have helped now in the last five years

launch more missiles than many other generals

in the Air Force today.

I'm a space commander.

I've commanded space organizations

where we're responsible for on orbit satellites.

I also, this year, and I was modestly pleased

that my colleagues noted with me that I finished 10 years

of alert duty in the Strategic Air Command.

I've been flying the Airborne Command Post now for 10 years.

And I'm proud of that.

I'm proud of it to the extent that it says

being on alert in the Strategic Air Command

is so important to our country that we all perform

that duty knowing that it's the most important thing

that we do.

The generals in our command pull alert

just like the crew members do.

And I just finished performing 10 years of that

with the prospects of doing it for some time yet to come.

I have over 500 flights in the Airborne Command Post.

Some 38 hundred hours of flying time.

If you divide that by eight it ought to come out

to 500 and some.

But I've spent a lot of time in the air,

like some of you have already underground

and like some of you will begin to do.

And with that interesting look at my background,

as I try to tie that in to tell you how vital

the alert force is to us, let me humbly remind you now

that for some 40 years, over 40 years now

since the end of World War II,

we in the armed forces, following out the guidance

and instructions of our fellow citizens

as we are members of an armed force

and do what our elected leaders tell us to do

have helped to keep our country free.

Every day we keep our country free,

we give men and women in other professions

more time to solve the problems confronting the world.

Every time we perform alert, we give confidence

to our national leaders so that they can carry on

their responsibilities in leading this great nation of ours.

But I want to submit to you today,

and I make this point often,

that as we give confidence to our national leaders

that we can do what our country wants us to do

and provide them an effective deterrent force,

we also by being on alert remind the leadership

in the Soviet Union or, frankly, any nation

that would seek to threaten our country

with the use of terrorism,

let alone the use of military force,

that we're not a nation to be treated lightly

and I often remind myself that there's a Soviet general

somewhere who has 40 years service and he's a paratrooper

and he's a gliderist and a master missileer

and a space commander and all those things

that I am because that's also his profession and his job

every day as he leads and contributes somehow

to decision making in the Soviet Union

is to know that men and women like you and I

are on alert all the time with the wherewithal

to provide our country with a very, very strong

deterrent force and I need him every day to remember,

in the words of General Power who said his job

was to make sure that the Soviet leadership,

as they looked at the Strategic Air Command forces

every day, turned to the other senior leadership

and said to them, not today, comrades.

Frankly, not today, not tomorrow, not next month, not ever.

And you and I as people on alert have to remember

someplace over there, we have a counterpart

and our job is to make sure not only

are our fellow Americans confident

that we're providing a defense,

and it's vital and it's important,

but also our counterparts in the Soviet Union

absolutely never misunderstand that.

I'm proud of you.

I'm proud of what we do.

Don't ever forget, our country needs us

to do just what we're doing.

We need people on alert.

We need people on alert at the missiles and the airplanes.

And, frankly, if we don't need that kind

of a deterrent force, they don't need us.

And today, they need us, for the future,

as far as I can see until there's some

dramatic change made in arms control and disarmament,

our country is still going to need us.

And there'll be people who will question that

but you have to have the personal satisfaction

of knowing that what you're doing is right.

And I do.

After 40 years, I still will never, ever

misunderstand the need for me to perform alert

aboard the Airborne Command Post.

There's great gravity associated

with what you're gonna be doing.

But when I tell others about us,

I tell them that we're, by and large,

people who are representatives of the society

from which we come.

And we are.

If I'd asked you for a show of hands,

it would be like a microcosm of our great society.

We have people from all walks of life

here in our armed forces.

We are representatives of the society from which we come.

I think, by and large, we're men and women

who are interested in our communities

and not just the base community but a community

that we all serve, at or near the military installations

where we're assigned.

I'm always overwhelmed by the participation

just in this area here.

I have so many friends who are on United Way boards,

they serve with the Boy Scouts,

on and off base, but community involvement is a hallmark

of us and I think we encourage that among one another.

We're also people who I think are devoted fathers

and mothers, and, if you don't have children,

I'll tell you, that most of us will,

and we are concerned about our children

just like people are in any communities

and watch the schools they go to and concerned about PTAs.

I think, too, and I repeat this often,

we're people who are concerned about our God.

(car engines humming)