Got this from my Dad this morning...this is his conjecturin'.....
Let's see - DoD denies, NORAD/NORTHCOM denies, Pacific Missile Test Range location...... Hmmm
Sometime in the early/mid seventies, I was flying a night (really dark, no moon or stars) hop in an F-4J in southern CA. I asked for a night TACAN practice approach into Vandenberg AFB. After some initial hemming and hawing, the controller said okay but they had some things going on to the west and I should be prepared to break off the approach at any time. About half way through the approach, I received a very curt direction to level off, turn south and exit the pattern immediately. The next thing I knew the entire western sky lit up like a nuke. It was so bright that I was temporarily flash blinded and had real difficulty seeing my instruments. No one could/would tell us what had just happened – so we flew home to Miramar in a complete mystery. The media had a hey day with that one too, just like this event. "No one" knew what it was, not the government, the Air Force, the Navy, no one. Sometime later, I learned that it was a test launch of an ICBM from a C-141 (or C-5, I can’t remember). The missile was loaded "nose cone in" on tracks that would allow it to roll out Booster first down the opened tail ramp. It was stabilized into a vertical position by a drogue chute and then ignited remotely at altitude – apparently a success. Since SALT was on the table, I always presumed that this was a workaround for the limitations that would be put on the number of hard launch silos that was to be a part of the treaty.
Fast forward thirty five years – What missile silos have recently been taken out of play? (Hint: missile defense of Europe). What might be an alternate method of launching GBIs (Ground Based Interceptors)? Hmmm, of course that’s mere speculation on my part. Oh well.
R/ Jon
