by MATTHEW GAULT
Throughout the 1950s and ’60s American bombers carrying nuclear weapons crisscrossed the globe, ready at a moment’s notice to fly into the heart of Russia and bomb it back to the stone age. U.S. Strategic Air Command—a now defunct branch of the U.S. Air Force—commanded this airborne alert force.
It was once the pride of the American military. For more than a decade, SAC bombers were no more than 15 minutes from nuking Russia. But the shifts on the bombers were long—sometimes more than 24 hours—and keeping such an alert force ready was taxing on pilots and crew.
There were many accidents.
