Parking Lot Outside Alert Area

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Men on alert for a week were allowed to visit the business area of the base, but not the housing area. Often, they could check out one of the ubiquitous four-door dark blue Air Force pickup trucks to meet the family at, say, the Officers' Club for dinner, or at the bowling alley for some relaxation. But they were required to wear their flight suit at all times during that alert week, even when meeting the family. Sometimes, when all trucks were in use and they really wanted to get with the family, a phone call to the house would spur the mother and children to drive to this parking lot, just outside the inner, razor-fenced and heavily-guarded part of the alert area, to meet their husband and father. Some picnic tables and grills were nearby in the grass. (The men could not travel in their own automobiles at any time while on alert, only the blue trucks.) An interesting juxtaposition here, with the families cooking hot dogs and kids frollicking in the grass, while about a football field's length to the west were supersonic bombers armed with live nuclear weapons, ready to go at a moment's notice...