I joined up (volunteered USAF) in '83. Soon enough after Vietnam that there were still a bunch of 'nam vets in the service. Also soon enough after 'nam that service members and vets were still commonly treated like garbage by civilians back home. I would still get spit on at airports and bus depots, as well as called all sorts of interesting things. You learned to never sit/sleep alone when traveling stateside in uniform, and as soon as possible the uniform would come off and civilian clothes would go on.
My tech school was over a year long at Lowry AFB in Co (outside of Denver, it's long gone now I hear, but the "golf ball" may still be there). Satellite communications and missile warning and missile warning radar were my career training.
My first duty station was Kadena AFB on Okinawa, on a weather satellite system, which was truly sweet duty. Lived in the barracks, had my own room, drove to the shop site for regular shift duty. Only additional duties to worry about was during "typhoon season", 2 of us would be assigned on a rotation to "typhoon duty" and if one was headed towards the island, you would both head in to work and not come out until after the typhoon passed and "all clear" was sounded for the base (sometimes that would be a few days). Deployed to Korea and Philippines a couple of times and enjoyed each of those "sweet" trips. Overall the duty assignment was really the "Chair Force" assignment that other service members love to tease us Air Force guys about.
My next (and last) duty station was entirely different... I was sent to a mobile missile warning unit that was forward deployed to Holloman AFB in NM. Spent the rest of my 8 yrs active duty there. Our satellite surveillance equipment was hard mounted into the trailers of 18 wheeler tractor trailer rigs, so I also got to learn how to be a truck driver. Our "mission vehicle" was a 35 million dollar (in 1980's dollars) semi truck. It, along with a separate communications semi, a "support" rig, a parts supply rig, a fuel tanker rig, a "quarters" rig (had bunk racks in it), Water truck were all part of the same "convoy" that we would take on field deployments both in the Conus, and overseas. We were considered a "Priority A Resource", which is the same security threat level that nuclear missiles get. So we were armed with M-16's and sidearms (yes, both) and carried live ammunition in our weapons at all times. We also deployed with our own Security Police detachment that provided site security (think double "no man lands" and deadly force authorizations) along side us at our deployment sites.
I was a deployment dog for 4.5 years straight (remainder of my enlistment). We flew and/or drove to our "destinations", depending on where in the world they were. Mobile Combat Comms, missile warning. So we'd unload 4 to 6 C-5 Galaxies, depending on how long our stay was, and how far from resupply, as to how many 18 wheelers we took. You could fit 2 18 wheelers and 4 dually crew cab pickups on one C-5. Had to load the 18 wheelers from the front end, which meant backing them up the cargo ramp. That was always a good time, especially if you had a new "Cargo Master" that kept worrying about their "million dollar" airplane. The rear ramp wouldn't clear the height of the trailers. Each C-5 was supposedly $500K flight costs round trip. Anytime we flew out of CONUS airspace, we had to have fighter escorts. No idea how much that cost.
We would then convoy over ground to our "fun final destination". Drinking water 3 months old out of the back of a water truck, instant eggs, instant potatoes, sleeping in the generator compartment because it's warm in winter, or sleeping underneath the trucks because it's cool in summer (the insulation value in the "quarters" rig sucked for both temp and sound-generator was loud).
More "food memories"... at first, we had C-rations, yes in the cans. They were all expired. We ate them anyway because that's all there was. We were told if the can was swelled up, not to eat it, but if it wasn't swelled, it "should be" ok. Then we got the first batches of MRE's when they came out. The ones that supposedly had bacteria growing in them due to the bags composition (IIRC?). But we kept eating the "bad" MRE's because they were still better than the expired C-rations, which was the only alternative. The C-rations actually weren't bad, only knew one guy that got really sick. But those MRE's, man after a few weeks on those, they'd block you up something fierce.
Our job was to be deployed. All the time. In 4.5 years in that unit, I was home for 6 months, and that wasn't at a time, that was 6 months total time all added together. Once our unit went "operational", we always had 2 separate deployment systems up and operational somewhere in the world. Always. There were 6 identical "system sets" that would rotate in and out of our unit garrison, with separate crews. If one system "went down", that meant that somewhere, another of our systems had to start up to take it's place. Sometimes with very little warning.
The phone would ring in the middle of the night, "Bring bag #5 and report to duty". Bags were numbered with climate to be deployed in. Separate from your normal bags, for chem warfare eq, normal duty BDU's, and your sleeping bag and deployment gear, web belt, canteens, entrenching tool, ammo pouches, etc. So you "knew" by bag number if it was desert, arctic, etc... And off you'd go, maybe 2 months, maybe 6. Wife sees you leave, no idea when you'd be back or where you were going. No contacts to home allowed. None of this "video calls to home" B.S. (Algore hadn't invented the internet yet). Then you'd rotate back to garrison, walk back in the door, "Where'd you go?", can't tell you. "How long will you be home this time?" Can't tell you.
Good times.
Objective was to be as far away from any "targets" (a.k.a. "civilization") as possible to "survive" the first waves of nuclear attack. But after about the 3rd wave, we really wouldn't be needed anymore. Nobody left to talk to, and nothing left to shoot or get shot. We had direct sat link to NORAD, and the 3 airborne command posts. Also had LOS radio, if airborne command post was able to fly over. We were to call in the launches, track the warheads, and transmit where the warheads were targeting. Fun fact. It takes 15 min for an ICBM, fired from former USSR to impact a target in CONUS. Even better, it takes 6 minutes for an under sea sub launched missile to hit targets in CONUS from off the US seaboard.
Only sweet duty was when the fixed ground station at Kapaun AS, Germany went down for total refit. We got to deploy inside their installation for 6 months. Got to stay in base billeting, real beds, real food, and actual "shift work", so when you were off duty, you could actually do things and sight see. It was great.
Trivia time, I "saw" the space shuttle Challenger blow up. We were "watching" the launch. We knew what happened the instant the system started counting "warheads". Basically the computer started trying to calculate trajectories and impact points for all the pieces of the shuttle once it exploded. It was too much for that IBM mainframe and it crashed at around 4000 pieces. As soon as it went "boom" the red phone was ringing (yes, just like in the movies, there really was a Red Phone).
veterans as we celebrate Veteran's Day weekend in the United States.
