During the Cold War, the Bunker Hilton served as the secure, underground lair for nine US Air Force (USAF) flight crews. From 1961 through 1970, this Strategic Air Command (SAC) facility was fully manned 24/7/365. A 1957 LIFE Magazine article referred to the B-58 as "A Missile With Men In It".
After the fortified facility was abandoned, it quickly filled with groundwater. Most of the historic structure, now owned by the Miami County Economic Development Authority (MCEDA), has remained submerged for several decades.
Only steps away from their subterranean dormitory, ten Corvair B-58A aircraft were parked, armed with a total of fifty nuclear weapons, were capable of taking flight only 15 minutes after the alert crew siren sounded.
The Corvair B-58 Hustler was the first operational jet bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. It used a delta wing and four General electric J79 engines.
With a maximum speed of 1,325 mph, the B-58 had a range of 4,500 miles without aerial refueling. With aerial refueling the aircraft was a true intercontinental bomber; each B-58 of hitting five strategic targets within a matter of hours from takeoff.
Rather than an internal bomb bay, four nuclear weapons were carried in underwing-mounted pods, with the fifth nuclear weapon stored along with aviation fuel in a large pod mounted under the fuselage.
During the height of the Cold War, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) developed and managed the nuclear arsenal and weapons system, including two bombardment groups. One of those was the 305th Bombardment Wing (BW), located at Grissom Air Reserve Base, Indiana (formerly Grissom Air Force Base (AFB), Bunker Hill AFB, and Bunker Hill Naval Air Station (NAS)).
The NAS, first established in 1943, was originally named for the nearby town of Bunker Hill, Indiana. It closed shortly after the end of WW II, in 1946.
With the advent of the Korean War, the US Air Force, Tactical Air Command (TAC), requested the US Navy transfer the defunct NAS to the USAF. Base construction began in 1953, the property transfer completed in 1954, and the runway completed in 1956.
Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force Major Command, responsible for Cold War command and control of two of the three components of the U.S. military's strategic nuclear strike forces, the so-called "nuclear triad," with SAC having control of land-based strategic bomber aircraft and intercontinental ballistic...
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