Cold War Exercises

 While in AK in the early 80s, I was on Worldwide Mobility which meant I was ready to be deployed anywhere in the world at a moment's notice. It was the height of the Cold War. I was vaccinated for every disease on the planet. 

It was constant exercises. We'd get called in the middle of the night. My bags were always ready. Most of the time, we just showed up, went through a line of people to help with finances, shots, red cross, cursor health checkup, and checking dog tags in order to prepare to be deployed. We'd just get sent home after that.

Sometimes we actually boarded buses to the aircraft only to go back and be released. One time, we boarded the plane and taxied only to turn around and let us go. One time in 1983, we actually took off and was gone for 2 weeks. 

A full bird Colonel was flying the C-130. He was also being evaluated and graded. Most pilots were Captains. As we neared our destination in the far north of AK, he began maneuvers to avoid ground fire. We banked 90 degrees in each direction right over the trees several times. I had a port window over my right shoulder. A few guys barfed and the rest of us held our noses.

We sat on the sides of the aircraft with our feet on our vehicles. The chains holding them down made popping noises as they strained to hold the vehicles down.

Suddenly we hit a landing strip very violently, hopping a few times. The ramp immediately began to lower as we raced down the landing strip. When we stopped, we started to pop off the chains on the vehicles. Most of us departed the aircraft with engines running. I stopped and snapped that picture. That is an All Terrain forklift used for scooping up cargo pallets. Our teammates were right behind us doing the same.

Our mission was to airlift the Army. It was a HUGE exercise called Brim Frost. There were over 500 sorties in total. Personnel from all over come to practice war in sub zero temps and shit loads of snow. As troops and equipment landed, we unloaded them. Native Alaskans are part of the National Guard and were invaluable to our forces. All troops were dressed in white uniforms.

We had to prove that our Squadron could split in half and serve in 2 locations. Half stayed behind and boarded the troops and we unloaded them. All while abiding by safety rules and gas masks on one occasion. We kicked ass and won an Outstanding Unit Award. These are not given out like kid's trophies.

When we arrived back to base 2 weeks later, we were greeted by a cheering crowd of our peers and family. Not mine. We had a huge beer party. I was proud to be part of this. It also made me aware that wartime was dangerous for me. One year later I applied to be cross trained to computer programming.