I know that, although that may have been SAC's *last* official flight [I read it as last official flight over VietNam, just like it says] I know for a fact that the AFB outside of Tucson was still a Stratigic Air Command command in the late 70s ... and they were still flying the U2 (or equivalent) at that time. I know, because we went to visit my husband's brother -- who specialized in high altitude breathing mixtures for the pilots of those craft. Even though we had "base stickers" on the truck from where my husband was stationed, we couldn't have gotten through the gate if we hadn't had a "sponsor" assigned to that base. They checked vehicle type, license plates, and military/dependents ID before we got through -- which they found on their "list" when we were first able to give them the correct name & service number for his brother. We also drove only as far as the "easy to see from the gate" base theater, where we then phoned his brother who came down to 'escort' us to his unit in base housing; he didn't want us taking any chance of getting lost and being shot first and asked for ID second.
The base is still there, but the U2s are gone or mothballed; satellite technology made them unnecessary. And the base is no longer a SAC command, although security is probably -- post 9-11 -- quite tight again. ==== On Mon, 15 Oct 2001 16:28:09 -0400 (EDT), Steve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "When SAC flew its last mission over Southeast Asia in August 15, 1973, > its total retaliatory strength consisted of 1,054 ICBM's, approximately > 400 B-52's (a reduction from 600 B-52's in 1964) and 70 FB-111s." > - Steve (who flew the FB-111A simulator on several occasions :-) -- Arachne V1.70;rev.3, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
