Issue 10: Tech from the Military

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16 | ORIGINS They don’t know how I got it. Also they didn’t tell me this at the time, but I could have died. I was at Chelsea Naval Hospital, and it turns out that one of my kids from my youth group had joined one of the services. I had just happened to meet him and he gave me the ins-and-outs of how I could stay at the Chelsea Naval Hospital the rest of my tour in the service. He had it all figured out because during the Vietnam War the hospitals were so, so crowded. The doctors were so busy that if they didn’t see you physically they didn’t know you were there. They had roll call. You had to be there every night. But in the morning, you usually had one little job to do like run the paper from here to there. He would actually hide under his bed after roll call in the morning and then around ten o’clock in the morning he would just go home because he lived right next door to the hospital. He would come back in the evening, have roll call, and repeat. As long as the doctor didn’t see you to process you out, you could stay there. He was firefighter. And so, what happened was, I was there. I thought, this is fine with me, you know, because it was nice. The Air Force was just like a job, it wasn’t like the Army. When did you leave the hospital? And how did you end up in Texas? So, what happened was they had received orders from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. I had won this award in Greenland and I had to be at the award ceremony for the chapel in the Air Force at Wright-Patterson on a certain day. I ended up going to get my award. I forgot the name of it. Then while I was there I got my orders for State-side and I was assigned to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, which was a sack base at that time. Back then you had a technical command and a strategic command. The strategic command was kind of the frontline: bombers, fighters, and spy planes. It was very secure. I still needed to have my Top Secret Crypto Clearance. So that’s where I ended up, which I did not like. I liked Greenland better than I like Abilene, Texas because there was no trees, there was really nothing there. So Greenland was wide open during Vietnam. The Soviets could have come in, they could have wiped out the whole North Atlantic communication, they could have taken out the DEW Line, they could have done serious damage to the United States. Why do you think they didn’t? They didn’t do it because they didn’t know what kind of technology we had. They didn’t know how well we could see them. They just didn’t know. They didn’t know. It really was a pretty good system. They knew when anything was flying up or coming out Russia. That’s why it was all across northern Canada and Greenland because we could see over into northern Russia. Without sight, it wouldn’t give us enough time. That’s when they had all the strategic bombers constantly flying. There was always a nuclear strategic bomber in the air at that time. And I think that Russians just didn’t know. They were kind of, in a sense, afraid not knowing what the Americans knew and how well we could see them, real- www.knowyourorigins.org
COLD WAR | 17 STIG NYGAARD | CC BY 2.0 ly. And that’s why the DEW Line was so important to maintain. Although, the ice cap was always 50 degrees below zero. So, when I was in Greenland, you could go outside and it would be 50 or 60 degrees out. It’d be really nice. You go to the BX. Come out of the BX, it could be 50 to 70 below zero. In one hour it changed 100 degrees one day. And it’s only because the wind would change. If the wind blew off the ice cap it was always 50 below zero. It just kind of never changed. And then, in the summertime, the wind blew up from the United States and it could be up to 70 degrees. So it was pretty dangerous. They told us that if we didn’t have a buddy and we fell down that within three and a half minutes we’d be frozen solid. And they’d never shut off any vehicles. So, like the MP trucks and other stuff just constantly ran. They never shut off unless they drove them into a garage. Today, some DYE sites are empty relics, some have decayed and been removed to the concrete slab, and some are repurposed for scientific research. While names have changed, even with a focus shift to the Middle East since 1990 preoccupying global events, a desire from Russia has emerged to recapture the super power status of the past. The days of Soviet missiles pointed at a hot dog stand by the Pentagon, $15 million failed Operation Kitty by the CIA to surgically place surveillance bugs in cats, and CIA-sponsored mislabeled prophylactics to disperse among Russian women may be a funnier side to an end of an era. What remains for the future as Russia and the United States collide over the Middle East? ◊ Origins Scientific Research Society
Page 2 and 3: On the Cover We wanted to show a mo
Page 5 and 6: World War II cost more money, destr
Page 7 and 8: After World War II, or what Russian
Page 9 and 10: COLD WAR | 9 map of the dew line |
Page 11 and 12: EXPERIENCE 1958 TELEVISION The Arct
Page 13 and 14: COLD WAR | 13 How did you get assig
Page 15: COLD WAR | 15 What is one of your m
Page 19 and 20: The Union Army Balloon Corps starte
Page 21 and 22: from my class received orders and e
Page 23 and 24: TAKING FLIGHT | 23 PILOT TRAINING T
Page 25 and 26: TAKING FLIGHT | 25 E X P L O R E Ho
Page 27 and 28: The United States Department of Def
Page 29 and 30: DEFENSE TODAY | 29 The Pentagon As
Page 31 and 32: DEFENSE TODAY | 31 DAVID GUO | CC B
Page 33 and 34: MILITARY MARINE MAMMALS | 33 During
Page 35 and 36: JAMAICA TO OKINAWA | 35 JAMAICA, a
Page 37 and 38: I said to General ‘Sir, we are ob
Page 39 and 40: JAMAICA TO OKINAWA | 39 activity. C
Page 41 and 42: WWII COMPUTING TODAY | 41 FROM WWII
Page 43: WWII COMPUTING TODAY | 43 Many time
Page 47: REFERENCES & FURTHER READING | 47 D

Issue 10: Tech from the Military

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