Strategic Air Command Semiannual Film Report, Feb-July 1968 US Air Force
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STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND SEMIANNUAL FILM REPORT February to July 1968 describes the SAC Automated Command & Control System (SACCS, SAC Control System, 465L Project, 465L Program), a Cold War network of computer and communication systems for command and control of Strategic Air Command combat aircraft, refueling tankers, and ballistic missiles. Other subjects: “GIANT PLOW, GLASS POLE AND CRESTED ICE PROJECTS; BUNKER HILL AIR FORCE BASE RENAMED GRISSOM AIR FORCE BASE; MACKAY TROPHY AWARD TO KC-135 CREW; B-52’S IN SEA; AND GENERAL BRUCE K. HOLLOWAY, NEW SAC COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.”
US Air Force film report FR-818.
Originally a public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
Wikipedia license:
Grissom Air Reserve Base is a United States Air Force base, located about 12 miles (19 km) north of Kokomo in Cass County, Indiana and Miami County, Indiana. The facility was established as Naval Air Station Bunker Hill in 1942 and an active Air Force installation from 1954 to 1994. Since then it is a joint-use civil airport/military base with the Grissom Aeroplex providing general aviation and charter service.
The base is named in memory of astronaut and Indiana native Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, who, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee, perished in the Apollo 1 fire at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 in 1967…
General Bruce Keener Holloway (September 1, 1912 – September 30, 1999) was an American Air Force general. A West Point graduate, a World War II fighter ace, and the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command (SAC)…
General Holloway assumed command of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe in July 1965, serving in that capacity until his appointment as vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force August 1, 1966 at The Pentagon. He became commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, on August 1, 1968, and remained in that position until retiring from the Air Force on 30 April 1972…
The ITT 465L Strategic Air Command Control System (SACCS, SAC Control System, 465L Project, 465L Program) was a Cold War “Big L” network of computer and communication systems for command and control of Strategic Air Command “combat aircraft, refueling tankers, [and] ballistic missiles”. International Telephone and Telegraph was the prime contractor… The 465L System included IBM AN/FSQ-31 SAC Data Processing Systems, Remote (RCC) and Simplex Remote Communication Systems (SRCC), SAC Network Control Office, “4-wire, Schedule 4, Type 4B alternate voice-data operation”, and one-way communication with “ICBM launch control centers” (the SAC Digital Network upgraded to two-way communications.) In addition to IBM for the “Super SAGE type computers”, another of the 6 direct subcontractors was AT&T (“end-to-end control” of the communications circuits)…
Development
On February 11, 1958, Headquarters USAF published GOR 168 for SACCS (the Westover AFB command post was to get a computer system) and on April 1, HQ USAF changed the SACCS designator from Program 133L to 465L. SAC’s QOR for the NSCS was issued September 13, 1958, and in October 1959 the systems cost had increased from $139.7 million to 339.8 million in 12 months: the Office of the Secretary of Defense—with “doubts regarding the validity of the entire 465L concept”—cut the program… In July 1961, the Department of Defense redirected SACCS 465L to a pre-strike system and established a separate [airborne] post-attack command control system with air and ground elements.
by 1962, “SAC installations, inclusive of those overseas and of tenant bases, peaked at 85.” “Project 465L, the SAC Control System (SACCS) [with] over a million lines, reached four times the size of the SAGE code and consumed 1,400 man-years of programming; SDC invented a major computer language, JOVIAL, specifically for this project.”
…On January 1, 1968, the SACCS attained operational capability (maintenance at Offutt and March were by the respective 55th Strategic and 33rd Communications Squadrons.)…
Gradual replacement
On October 6, 1975, SACCS officially integrated with the Worldwide Military Command and Control System when the original IBM 4020 Military Computers were replaced by Honeywell 6080 computers…
