Word: offutt
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Tethered & Armed. Through the whole period in the air, the crews are tethered by SAC's worldwide communications system to an airborne commander, who flies out of SAC headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha on twelve-hour shifts. Point of the flying command post is to provide battle direction in case all or one of SAC's surface communications centers are bombed. The airborne commanders are SAC's generals, and the flagship is a converted KC-135 jet tanker loaded with communications equipment and capable of flying, if necessary, for 15 hours without refueling...
...come under criticism for placing so much stress on test shots at Cape Canaveral that it has not put enough effort into preparing missile bases. Construction contractors selected by the Corps of Engineers often farmed the work to subcontractors who underestimated the task, sometimes buckled under the pressure. At Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, where Atlas launching sites are three months behind schedule, New York's Malan-Grove Construction Co. gave 90% of the work to 46 subcontractors. Two of them ran into financial difficulties and are now being operated by bonding companies. At the Offutt launching sites...
...connections) and by whole chains of changes that are set off when something new is discovered during a missile firing. The changes are necessary if the U.S. is to keep its bases as sophisticated as its developing missiles, but they can play hob with schedules. At Offutt base, more than 50 site changes have been ordered, ranging from "a few dollars to more than a million dollars." The Warren base, originally scheduled to cost $65 million, is now expected to cost $100 million because of numerous modifications...