Editing Strategic Air Command (section)

== {{anchor|Nuclear bunkers}}Nuclear Bunkers, SAC Ground Alert, and transfer of SAC's Fighter-Escort Wings ==
{{For|the underground NORAD and aboveground Pentagon command posts|Cheyenne Mountain Complex|National Military Command Center}}
[[File:Offutt Air Force Base - SAC Headquarters.jpg|thumb|247x247px|Strategic Air Command Headquarters at [[Offutt Air Force Base|Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska]].]]
[[File:President Jimmy Carter and Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff General George S. Brown while touring Strategic Air Command's Headquarters.jpg|thumb|247x247px|[[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[Jimmy Carter]] visiting Strategic Air Command's Headquarters.]]
It was described as the "Western Pentagon," specifically a, "...four-story, reinforced concrete and masonry office building..." above ground and a "...segregated, adjacent three-story below ground command post." This was the description of what would become Building 500 at [[Offutt AFB]] and the new headquarters complex built expressly for SAC, with construction commencing in 1955.{{r|Weitze}} SAC headquarters moved from the A Building at Offutt AFB to Building 500 in 1957. The underground [[nuclear bunker]] had 24-inch thick walls and base floor, 10-inch thick intermediate floors, and 24-to-42-inch thick roof.  It also contained a war room with six 16-foot data display screens and the capacity to sustain up to 800 people underground for two weeks.{{r|Weitze}} The below ground bunker portion of the headquarters complex also contained an [[IBM 704]] computer, which was used to develop monthly weather forecasts at targets, as well as for computing fuel consumption and fallout cloud patterns for planning strike routes and egress routes (e.g., determining the timing as to which targets to bomb first).<ref>{{cite web |format=5 webpages transcribing SAC Lt. Gen. [[James Edmundson]]'s interview |title=Race for the Superbomb |publisher=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/ }} [[Public Broadcasting System]] (''[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund06.html SAC mission] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820202100/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund06.html |date=20 August 2016 }}, [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund05.html Response Time] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820193332/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund05.html |date=20 August 2016 }}, [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund11.html War Plans] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820203415/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund11.html |date=20 August 2016 }}, [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund13.html End of the Cold War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820192725/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/interview/edmund13.html |date=20 August 2016 }}'')</ref>

In 1957, SAC also constructed [[Post-Attack Command and Control System Facility, Hadley|The Notch]], a facility alternatively known as the '''8th Air Force Combat Operations Center''' (COC) and the '''Westover Communications Annex''', since it was a sub-post of nearby [[Westover AFB]].  A 3-story nuclear bunker located on [[Bare Mountain (Massachusetts)|Bare Mountain, Massachusetts]], The Notch was built with three-foot thick walls, 1.5 foot thick steel blast doors, and 20 feet underground to protect 350 people for 35 days.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mt. Holyoke Timeline: 1950–1974 |url=http://www.chronos-historical.org/mtholyoke/history3.html |work= chronos-historical.org/mtholyoke |publisher=Chronos-Historical.org |access-date=2013-08-30 }}</ref> The Notch was shut down as a SAC facility in 1970 when 8th Air Force was relocated to [[Barksdale AFB]], Louisiana.

Despite this investment in "hardened" headquarters and command and control facilities, the 1957 [[Gaither Report|Gaither Commission]] identified, "...little likelihood of SAC's bombers surviving [a Soviet first strike] since there was no way [[Ballistic Missile Early Warning System|to detect an incoming attack]] until the first [Soviet nuclear weapon] warhead landed."<ref name=Freeman>{{cite news |last=Freeman |first=Maj Steve |date=September 1997|volume= 5|number= 6 (Special Anniversary Edition) |title=Visionaries, Cold War, hard work built the foundations of [[Air Force Space Command]] |location=Peterson Air Force Base |newspaper=Guardian Magazine...funded Air Force newspaper |page=6 }}</ref> As a result, SAC's bombers and tankers began sitting armed ground alert at their respective bases on 1 Oct 57.<ref>{{cite report |last=Narducci |first=Henry M |date=1 April 1988 |title=Strategic Air Command and the Alert Program: A Brief History |url=http://www.siloworld.net/DOWNLOADS/SAC%20Brief%20History%20Reduced.pdf |publisher=Office of the Historian, Headquarters Strategic Air Command |location=Offutt Air Force Base |access-date=2013-09-08}}</ref>

In another organizational change during this time period, SAC's fighter escort wings were transferred to [[Tactical Air Command]] (TAC) during 1957 and 1958.<ref>{{cite book |last=Boyd |first=Robert J |year=1988 |title=SAC's fighter planes and their operations |publisher=Office of the Historian, Headquarters Strategic Air Command (Supt. of Docs, U.S. G.P.O.)}}</ref> Finally, during January 1958's '''Exercise Fir Fly''', SAC "faker" aircraft (twelve B-47s) simulated bombing strikes against metropolitan areas and military installations in the United States defended by Air Defense Command's [[28th Air Division]].<ref name=NORAD1959A>{{Cite NORAD Historical Summary |version=1959 |access-date=2013-04-30}}</ref>