Folding wings said "
I've tried to stay away from this thread but, yet again, have been encouraged by a.n.other to respond to the ramblings of SAMXXV as I too was in Germany, on Tornados, in the late 80s, albeit at Bruggen. I also did 2 tours at Laarbruch on Buccs in the 70s. All 3 tours involved sitting on QRA(S) and, whilst Staneval at Bruggen, I was also the station WST Supervising and Training officer.
Most of what SAMXXV states in Post 76 is utter bollocks; he states it in a manner suggesting that only the RAF(G) crews were involved in a potential nuclear holocaust.
Being the nuclear strike controller meant only that you were an aircrew bod on a ground tour, as a station ops officer, given the task on that day of being the man on the radio who released the R-Hour Launch. Since all the target information was held in a secure TS vault that could only be accessed under the '2-man principle' and only by those entitled he could not, as he states, have had access 24/7 to ALL the nuclear targets. I doubt he even actually saw a route map or IP-tgt map!
Targets where? I don't think so! In all the years sat in QRA in Germany, on both Buccs and GR1s, I don't ever recall having to go that far east to hit my Strike targets. All the missions planned were lo-lo, so reaching the Oder was a tad tricky! To have gone hi-lo-hi would have been suicide! I recall that the missions had an RTB leg (nobody asked the obvious question!). The Bucc, with its internal bomb-load, went further than the GR1, which served only to replace the Bucc and so took over the former's targets when it arrived in RAFG in 1993. Most of the targets were much closer to home for both. Indeed, on the plan, many would have already been struck by ICBMs by the time we would have got there!
Lonely night shifts studying targets on behalf of the crews - I don't think so! He may have rehearsed his lines and studied the launch sequence plan but looking at targets and even knowing which country they were in rather than their precise location - he's dreaming!
I could be wrong, of course, he may have been a senior station executive (who would still have been obliged to adhere to the 2-man principle) but I doubt it given his admitted experience on Bloodhounds and his role in Laarbruch Ops - both tasks usually reserved for below average JO aircrew who could, in those days, be retained in the service to undertake mundane aircrew-related ground tours!
Retard, I don't think so, unless you mean in the QWI context of High Drag!
Be like me - stop reading his drivel - you'll only end up mad like he is!
Now jinda, stop encouraging me over this walt!
Foldie
Sorry old pal but you are deluded. If you remember so well you would realise that the Laarbruch WOC had the Mission Planning cell downstairs with their "Vault" containing all the current "Int". Upstairs was Stn Ops. There we had the dreaded SCARS2 steam driven telegraphic system fed by both SACEUR & No 10 (Read HQSTC or "War Office" as you may).
Upstairs the 24/7 Ops Officer had "2 man control" access to several 6ft cabinets containing TS & UK/US Eyes Only documents, each fitted with two combination locks. The Ops Officer (me) memorised one combination & another Ops Officer had the combination for the second lock. These cabinets contained (amongst other things) a folder with detailed planning/targeting/timing/navigation/defrag timings etc. etc. for every one of the Laarbruch GR1's. Because we had to try & remember umpteen safe combination's, every one in Ops had the second (not theirs) combination written down. - Is that a surprise?
We also had a cabinet that required 2 keys to open it. One key was held by the on-shift Duty Ops Off, the other was held by the duty Cpl (downstairs). That cabinet held the SACEUR & HM Government authentication codes for a nuclear release. This cabinet was also opened almost nightly by SACEUR setting off a "test" message on the SCARS2 teleprinter - usually at 0200hrs due to a bored operator.
In conclusion, you may have the best of intentions with your limited knowledge of what actually happened at a nuclear strike base. The crews knew nothing - other than studying their personal single target during their 3 year tour.
And, yes, every one of the 48 crews at Laarbruch had a different target to drop their vastly different kiloton nukes on - with the MOD planners defining exactly how many friendly people would be instantly killed - It ranged from 100,000 to 300,000.
That said, it is thankfully behind us in the UK - until Israel decides to nuke Iran in the coming months..........
Oh & thank you for your kind comment that I was failed aircrew. Nothing could be further from the truth. I actually asked my boss (Tony Thornthwaite AKA TTT) to be given the position of conventional attack controller (ask John Broadbent - OC XV Sqn) which meant that on a 5 day Taceval I worked my arse off for 5 days rather than just looking after the 5th day nuclear strike launch.....