23dec97-afns

[AFNS]

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Air Force News Service
This file contains 5 stories and 3 image cutlines
AFNS electronic filename: 23dec97
971629. Andersen Air Force Base survives Paka's wrath
971628. Last Minuteman II missile silo imploded
971627. 8th Air Force supplies vital link to Diego Garcia
971626. AFRL-Rome technology may avert electronic systems failures
971630. USA basketball team dominates SHAPE tournament
971628a,b. Last Minuteman II missile silo imploded -cutlines
971630a. USA basketball team dominates SHAPE tournament - cutline
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971629. Andersen Air Force Base survives Paka's wrath

by Staff Sgt. Steve Ball
36th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFNS) -- Typhoon Paka hammered Andersen
Dec. 16 for more than 12 hours with sustained winds reaching 150 mph and
gusts well over 200 mph.

At one point during the storm, base weather instruments recorded a gust
to 236 mph. If confirmed, that speed would topple the record on the
Earth's surface of 231 mph, set 63 years ago atop New Hampshire's Mount
Washington.

As Paka approached Guam, it traveled at 10 mph with the eye passing
through the Rota Channel within 10 miles of the base.

Although there were no serious injuries, the dollar figure attached to
the damage the storm caused on base is sure to be well into millions of
dollars, according to Capt. Brent Adams, 36th Civil Engineer Squadron.

Assessment teams have not yet finished visiting all base facilities but
some of the damages include complete destruction of the troop support
and Latte Stone refrigeration units. Nearly all bay doors on facilities
are either ripped open or damaged. Hundreds of trees were uprooted and
snapped, road signs destroyed, ceilings ripped open and doors blown off.
Several cars were flipped over and damaged by flying debris. Even those
in a revetment parking area didn't escape the storm's wrath. But
according to base officials, most of the cars in the revetments were
undamaged.

Preparation was the key to no serious injuries.

"We know we're in 'Typhoon Alley'," said Col. Wayne Hodges, 36th Air
Base Wing commander. "And we expect to see a few typhoons each year.
Paka was a bigger storm than most of us expected, but we were ready.

"We knew the storm was heading for us during the weekend so we began
preparing for the storm two days before it hit," said Hodges. "The
commissary opened Monday [Dec.15] to allow shoppers to stock up on
needed items, we put information out on the base commander's channel
informing people how to prepare for the storm, and then on Tuesday [Dec.
16] we battened down the hatches and readied ourselves for the storm."

This is the third storm of the season to threaten Guam and base members
know it's important to be ready for each one as if it's going to hit
like Paka.

"You never know what these storms are going to do," said Staff Sgt. Ken
Pittman, 36th Maintenance Squadron. "This is our third storm since
we've been here and it's the first one to really hit us here. I'm glad
we didn't get complaisant.

Pittman and his wife, Staff Sgt. Stephanie Pittman, and their children,
Kenneth (6) and Kendra (5), weathered the storm at home as did most
military members.

"For the majority of the storm we had candles burning and were listening
to the radio. We were never really afraid during the storm just anxious
about what was going on all around us. Now that it's over we're just
getting busy with the cleanup and dealing with not having electricity."

Battling water was the biggest problem most housing residents had.
There were several reports of water actually being driven through the
foundation and pouring underneath doors.

Trees fell on several houses, a few storm shutters were damaged and a
few windows were blown out, but other than that, base housing residents
faired extremely well.

Throughout most of the base, power went out early in the storm, about
4:30 p.m. Those with generators were unable to use them during the
storm but now show their foresight at night as beacons of light in
blackened neighborhoods.

The hum of generators is something many residents will get used to as
power is expected to be out on base for three or more weeks. Base
generators are providing power to housing areas on a rotating basis.

"Power is being rotated because we don't have the generators to power
the whole base at once," said Adams.

Although water pressure was restored to base facilities Dec. 18,
residents still need to conserve water wherever possible.

"All of our well pumps are running on generator power and the generators
are constantly having problems," said Adams. "We should have enough
water for people to flush their toilets, shower and do laundry, but
people should not be watering lawns, washing cars or spraying off
carports."

Some families were undaunted by the storm with children taking advantage
of downed trees and palm fronds using them as makeshift playgrounds.

The children are also taking advantage of an earlier expected break from
school. Schools weren't scheduled to break for winter recess until Dec.
22. Schools are currently scheduled to resume Jan. 2.

Several support facilities opened Dec. 18 and provided what limited
service they could. The base shoppette didn't have power but met
customers at the door with flashlights and walked with them through the
store helping them get what they needed. The commissary also opened
Dec. 18 providing much-needed items such as bottled water, batteries,
canned goods and other nonperishable items.

"We worked with the customers to ensure there was no bulk buying," said
Domingo Bernante, assistant commissary officer. "We wanted to make sure
everyone had a chance to get what they needed."

The Four Seasons store also opened with as sidewalk sale selling mainly
grills, batteries, charcoal, ice chests, and items people could use to
clean up after the storm.

On Dec. 17, the dining facility opened with limited staff and provided
dinner to dormitory residents as well as civilian employees, military
members and their families.

Dec. 18 was the first day back to work for the majority of base members
who spent Dec. 17 cleaning up the areas around their homes.

"People came in and went straight to work cleaning up the base," Hodges
said. "People did an incredible job of pitching in and helping. Just
two days after the storm most of the debris had been picked up
throughout the base."

Many island residents were not as fortunate as those on base with nearly
3,000 homes destroyed and 1,400 people living in temporary shelters,
according to government of Guam officials.

"This is one of the strongest typhoons to hit Guam in 20 years," said
Governor Carl Gutierrez.

President Clinton declared the island a federal disaster area and has
vowed to ensure support arrives on island as quickly as possible.
(Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces New Service)
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971628. Last Minuteman II missile silo imploded

by Staff Sgt. Dee Ann Poole
509th Bomb Wing Public Affairs

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. (AFNS) -- With the simultaneous turning of
seven keys, a Cold War icon became obsolete Dec. 15 as the last
Minuteman II missile silo was destroyed.

The implosion of the silo was in accordance with the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty signed by former U.S. President George Bush and former
Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev July 31, 1991. The treaty took
effect Dec. 5, 1994.

The site, commonly known as Hotel-11, was located north of Dederick,
Mo., more than 90 miles southwest of Whiteman. Whiteman was home to the
351st Missile Wing February 1962 to July 31, 1995, when the 351st MW and
its missiles were inactivated. With 10,000 square miles of rural
Missouri land dotted with 150 Minuteman II launch facilities and 15
launch control facilities, public support was necessary to sustain Cold
War deterrence.

Brig. Gen. Tom Goslin Jr., 509th Bomb Wing commander and former 351st
Combat Support Group commander, said the partnership "worked extremely
well, providing deterrence so there was never a war between the great
super powers for over 30 years."

Capt. Mike Busch, 509th Operations Group executive officer, said the day
brought back a lot of memories. He was a 351st MW missile launch
officer who was on duty when President Bush's directive came to safe the
missiles.

"I felt nostalgic; sad but proud to have been a SAC (Strategic Air
Command) warrior and finely honed instrument of freedom," Busch said,
recalling 213 alerts he pulled and the hundreds of hours of simulator,
classroom and self-study time he conducted, training for day-to-day
alert duty and full-out war.

START established substantial reductions in the number of strategic
nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles. In order to remove systems from
accountability and meet these reduced levels, both sides must destroy or
eliminate their deployed systems.

In July 1992, removal of the Minuteman IIs from their silos began, with
the last missile removed in May 1995. The first silo implosion in the
United States, took place Dec. 8, 1993. (Courtesy of Air Combat Command
News Service)
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971627. 8th Air Force supplies vital link to Diego Garcia

by Master Sgt. Dan McCarthy
8th Air Force Public Affairs

BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. (AFNS) -- From beans to bullets, lug nuts
to radar scopes, the supply channel is a vital link that can make or
break a mobile, modern military operation.

The job of keeping that lifeline open for the more than 200 Air Force
airmen deployed to Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, falls
on the 8th Air Force Operations Center here.

Working around the clock, seven days a week, the operations center
ensures supplies are identified, procured and shipped as quickly as
possible to keep the six deployed Barksdale B-52 Stratofortresses of the
2nd Air Expeditionary Group in Diego Garcia mission capable, and ready
to launch on a moment's notice.

Col. Michael G. Smith, 8th Air Force logistics chief, said that one of
the roles of the operations center is to identify parts and supplies
which aren't available on the remote island.

"For items where they need to reach back to (Barksdale), primarily for
parts for their aircraft or communicattions equipment, the logistic
folks in the operations center do the validation for the movement of
these parts," Smith said. The physical job of moving the items falls to
the 2nd Bomb Wing.

"For instance, if the 2nd AEG commander determines he needs lug nuts
that aren't on site at Diego (Garcia), he or his representative calls
the 8th AF Operations Center. Then we work within our resources to get
them that part."

The 2nd BW would then pack the part, while the operations center would
notify Air Combat Command and the supported commander at U.S. Central
Air Forces, the air component of U.S. Central Command. The wing would
then ship the part via the most cost-effective mode of transportation.

"Most of the small items have been going through routine commercial air
carriers to the West Coast," Smith said. "For the larger items or
multiple large items, we've been very successful in getting them
land-hauled in a couple of days."

Those items are palletized and sent to Travis Air Force Base, Calif.,
where they are prepared for shipment to Diego Garcia on regularly
scheduled military transportation flights. So far, shipments have been
arriving within 6-10 days, according to Smith.

Coordination for shipments involves several organizations including the
2nd AEG; 8th AF; 2nd BW; ACC; CENTAF; the Navy, which may provide the
last leg of the shipments; and a variety of commercial and military
carriers.

Smith said there is a key piece to the whole support puzzle -- the 8th
AF
Operations Center.

"The primary piece, as far as support for the people (in Diego Garcia),
is that we stood up a full-time operations center.

"It's important to note it's an 'operations center' not an 'air
operations center.' We're manned this way to make sure we provide the
2nd AEG commander and his staff with what they need," he said.

Typically, 8th AF runs a full air operations center to plan and direct
an air war campaign. For this mission, the operations center provides
all the support for the deployed airmen.

Aside from logistics support, the operations center provides other
airpower expertise such as comprehensive bomber and fighter combat
planning for the deployed commander. Smith is quick to credit the 2nd
BW for easing the logistics process.

"It's the wing that overcomes the big hurdles," he said. "It's the wing
packing those pallets at night, it's the wing folks who had to pack
their bags and jump on a C-5 Galaxy, and it's the 2nd Bomb Wing that is
carrying the lion's share of the load. The 8th Air Force piece is to
make sure the 2nd AEG folks get the support they need."

"We're able to do what few can," said Lt. Gen. Phil Ford, 8th AF
commander. "Within the operations center, we have personnel support
people who deal with issues like force protection and services;
intelligence experts, who monitor the airways and provide feedback;
operations and planning folks, who provide flight planning and
coordination; and communicators who fill a host of communications needs
by providing secure command and control systems and secure satellite,
radio and telephone communications." (Courtesy of ACC News Service)
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971626. AFRL-Rome technology may avert electronic systems failures

by Francis L. Crumb
Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate Public Affairs

ROME, N.Y. (AFNS) -- Engineers from the Air Force Research Laboratory
Information Directorate accepted delivery Dec. 18 of a test instrument
developed by SEMTAS Corp. of Annandale, Va., that detects corrosion in
electrical cables and connectors.

The acceptance comes one week after the National Transportation Safety
Board cited the possibility that TWA Flight 800's center fuel tank
explosion July 17, 1996, may have been sparked because of a combination
of factors, including corrosion at the point where wires joined a fuel
probe.

This ends a three-year Small Business Innovative Research contract with
SEMTAS, a small research and development firm specializing in corrosion
detection, electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic
interference.

In many environments, corrosion on electrical connectors is probably the
leading cause of system malfunctions. Identification of degraded
connector performance because of corrosion is difficult because of the
intermittent nature of many connector-caused system failures. Corroded
electrical contacts are also temporarily wiped clean of corrosion on
critical pin and sleeve surfaces when connectors are manually separated
for inspection.

The SEMTAS test instrument can detect the presence of significant
corrosion on connectors prior to "un-mating" them. The technique
injects a test signal through the cable insulation and records out the
signal reflected from the connector contacts. The reflected signal will
indicate the extent to which corrosion is affecting the transmission of
the electrical signals across the connector junctions.

This technique is proving sensitive enough to detect damaging levels of
corrosion on one or more electrical connector pin(s) within a large
multiconductor bundle.

Frank H. Born, the program manager in Rome, has been in contact with
NTSB personnel to discuss possible applications of the technology to
future inspections of aging aircraft in an effort to reveal hidden
corrosion problems.

"We expect this technology will be commercialized, since it has
applications as a tester for cables and connectors throughout the
transportation industry for any system subject to corrosion," said Born.

"This detector will identify the presence of significant corrosion at
any cable or connector junction," said Born, who described the tester as
a portable unit with a self-contained power supply. "You don't need to
unmate the connectors or even expose them. All that is required is
access to the wires that lead to the connectors."

The technology, he added, has potential applications in identifying
hidden electronic corrosion in automobiles, trains, subway and shipboard
systems.
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971630. USA basketball team dominates SHAPE tournament

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- The 1997 Armed Forces
Basketball Team traveled to Belgium early in December and returned home
as champions of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Basketball
Tournament.

The United States of America team was comprised of members from each
military service. Air Force team members were Edward Simpson; Keesler
Air Force Base, Miss.; Christopher Loll, Los Angeles AFB, Calif.; Mark
Forbes, Hurlburt Field, Fla.; Chris Sivertsen, F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo.;
and Otis Jones, Pope AFB, N.C. Jarvia Hardley, Bolling AFB, D.C., was
one of the coaches.

The USA team went undefeated in five contests. In the opening game, the
USA team defeated Lithuania, 91-66.

The second contest was against Denmark, as the USA team rolled to a
130-55 win. Simpson was a leading scorer in this game, with 20 points.

Next up was USA against the team from SHAPE, Belgium. The USA jumped to
a quick 12-point lead and never looked back in a 98-73 win.

The semifinal game saw the USA team face the defending champions, the
Italian team. This was a fiercely contested game, with neither team
leading by more than 6 points. In the end, the USA team won 73-71.
Loll and Forbes each scored 10 points during this contest.

In the championship game, the USA faced an undefeated France team.
Strong performances by Loll, 19 points, and Simpson, 17 points, powered
the USA team to a 88-78 victory.
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971628a,b. Last Minuteman II missile silo imploded -cutlines
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971628a.gif and 971628a.jpg
The implosion at Hotel-11 ends the Minuteman II implosion process
started by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. (Photo by Staff Sgt.
Dee Ann Poole)

971628b.gif and 971628b.jpg
Close-up shot of the cloud produced by the implosion at Hotel-11 ending
the Minuteman II implosion process started by the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty. (Photo by SeniorAirman Tim Neville)

971630.gif and 971630.jpg
Otis Jones, Pope Air Force Base, N.C., prepares to make a foul shot as
Mark Forbes, Hurlburt Field, Fla., looks on. Both Jones and Forbes are
members of the USA team that won the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers
Europe Basketball Tournament in Belgium recently. (Courtesy photo)