The films depict Strategic Air Command the way its leaders wanted it to be seen: as an elite, highly disciplined, military organization that was always ready for war and always preparing for it because, according to the narrator in the film on nuclear effects, “one never knows when.” For SAC, that was what made deterrence possible. ![]() and Spain are still negotiating the terms of the cleanup of dangerous plutonium left behind by the accident.Ī final film from 1966 gives viewers an inside look at the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) site in Thule, Greenland, and the men working inside its secret Tactical Operations Room (TOR), where an Air Force officer is shown evaluating information on unidentified objects that may or may not represent a missile launch against the United States. Published here for the first time, the films reveal how SAC prepared bomber pilots and crews for nuclear war, educated them on the effects of the devastating weapons, and acquainted them with the contents of their “Combat Mission Folders,” which included guidance needed to reach targets and return to base safely.Ī pair of SAC “film reports” from the mid-1960s feature the 1965-66 “Arc Light” bombings, a major SAC contribution to the rapidly escalating Vietnam War, and fascinating footage from the initial efforts to clean up the radioactive mess left behind by a January 1966 “Broken Arrow” accident in which a nuclear-armed B-52 crashed near Palomares, Spain. After all these years, the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s that were declassified in response to requests by the National Security Archive. Today’s posting includes the “Nuclear Effects” film and four other movies produced by SAC and the U.S. aircrews and had prepared a “workable plan for every sortie to and from the target area.” SAC crewmembers are advised that they can safely navigate the aircraft home “if you follow rigidly your flight plan.” The narrator assures trainees that SAC had taken into account the effects of the blasts on U.S. Titled “Nuclear Effects During SAC Delivery Missions,” the film’s purpose is to familiarize SAC pilots and crew members with the devastating effects of nuclear weapons detonations and the detailed plans that the command had developed to help the crews evade the dangers of navigating through a nuclear battlefield. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Strangelove, it’s actually the climactic sequence of a 1960 SAC training film recently declassified by the U.S. nuclear strike is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic, Dr. Undamaged by the thermal blast and shockwave, the aircrew heads back home, but not before flying through “the contaminated cloud of another bomb dropped 30 minutes ago” by a different SAC B-52. The dramatic soundtrack swells as the bomber nears its target, unleashes its nuclear payload, and then speeds away to create “separation distance” between itself and the effects of the resulting explosion. But instead of turning around as usual, they get an order to proceed to their assigned objective. Having received and authenticated a “Go Code” message from U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC), the pilot announces, “We’re going in,” navigating the aircraft in low over mountains, lakes, fields, and forests to avoid Soviet air defenses. B-52 bomber reaching its “Positive Control” (“fail safe”) point on the way to its target in the Soviet Union. Washington, D.C., Ma– The declassified Air Force film shows the crew of a U.S. This segment from the “SAC Film Report” for 1965-1966 provides an overview of the Arc Light B-52 bombing of South Vietnam, including the decisions on bombing requests from the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. In this lecture on the Combat Mission Folder and its components, the speaker never utters the word “U-2,” but the discussion of “Secret NOFORN Eyebid photography” is about the use of U-2 photography for identifying Soviet strategic targets. The search teams sought to locate the Combat Mission Folder but found that it had been destroyed. This film segment from “SAC film report February-July 1966” on the “Palomares Broken Arrow,” depicts efforts to locate the nuclear weapons, including one that was lost in the Mediterranean Sea for months, and the cleanup of radioactive material. ![]() In this dramatization, excerpted from “Nuclear Effects During SAC Delivery Missions,” the B-52 crew receives the "Go Code," confirms it, and begins to fly to the target. Most of the titles are blurred but one or two can be read: “SAC DGZ 6167” (DGZ or Designated Ground Zero] 6167” and “Nuclear Weapons Safety Supplement.” This excerpt from “Nuclear Effects During SAC Delivery Missions” shows the compilation of top secret documents that went into the Combat Mission Folder. ![]() FOIA Advisory Committee Oversight Reports.
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