51stMMS Reduces Missile Hazards

     Less than a hundred men handle the real payload of every missile that roars spaceward from the launch pads of Vandenberg. These men, specialists all, are members of the 51st Munitions Maintenance Squadron and the re-entry vehicles they mate to Air Force missiles contain, in the cones, everything meaningful in a space shot.

     Since it’s organization in July 1958, the 51st MMS has shouldered the responsibility of providing re-entry vehicles for Vandenberg. Unlike the average munitions maintenance squadron in the Strategic Air Command, which maintains re-entry vehicles for only one missile system, re-entry vehicle analyst teams from the 51st MMS have been assembling, checking and mating re-entry vehicles for every major missile system in the Air Force inventory.

TRIPLE-TON GIANT

     It matters little if the re-entry vehicle is a triple-ton giant of the Titan class or the slender, needle-nosed sphere on a Minuteman, enclosed is the vast array of electronic gear and multi-purpose instruments that are the laboratory from which scientists will extract knowledge.

     Commanded by Lt. Col. Frank J. Gago, the 51st MMS has taken a danger-laden task and reduced the hazards until the greatest threat to its personnel is the drive to and from work. Concerned with explosives, ranging from the smallest caliber pistol round to the greatest demolition charge, safety is second nature to the men of the 51st. Each man is aware that the re-entry vehicle requires total care, and he treats all phases of his work and equipment with the same respect. This, in effect, gives all facets of the operation top level priority. As professionals, they know that lethal weapons have no degrees of danger, only danger itself. Which regardless of the size or substance, must be treated with equal respect.

VARIED SKILLS

     Although the name of the organization gives some hint of the activities, relatively little is known of what actually goes on inside the fenced perimeter of a munitions maintenance unit. The varied skills and diversified talents of munitions experts are veiled in a powdery cloak of secrecy. The care and exactness with which the crews prepare a re-entry vehicle for space travel is done behind locked doors.

     Prior to the delivery of the completed re-entry vehicle to the site, dozens of man-hours are spent in preparation. First a multitude of components undergo rigid testing, which must survive the near-zero cold of outer space and also, the incandescent temperatures of re-entry into the atmosphere.

ASSEMBLE, TEST

     After all components are assembled, the entire system is again tested to insure that ni faults have occurred during the assembly. Should the vehicle fail this final test, it may be necessary to completely disassemble it and start again. Only through constant training and a high degree of supervisory skills, are such occurrences prevented.

     Re-entry vehicle maintenance is by no means the only phase of the 51st’s mission. The storage and handling of all types of explosives is the assignment of the squadron’s munitions storage branch. The unit receives every ordinance item used at Vandenberg. Each is inspected, then properly stored in a specially designed bunker. With the turnover of South Vandenberg to the Air Force, the additional duties of caring for the large solid propellant boosters for the thrust augmented Thor and the major stages of the Scout rocket, have also fallen into the hands of the 51st. Trained in proper explosive handling techniques, the men make their seemingly hazardous job safer than driving to work.

     Not so docile is the work of the explosive ordnance disposal section. Equivalent to the civilian bomb squad, the men of the EOD team must be familiar with all types of weapons and explosives. Should an old unexploded projectile of makeshift bomb be reported, the EOD team removes or disarms it immediately.

DEDICATED MEN

     Talking with men in the shops and offices of the 51st, one gains the impression that each is a dedicated professional. The sleek bullet-nosed re-entry vehicles, prepared in the seclusion of their shops and mounted after the missile is in launch position, hold no mystery for them. They groom and pamper every vehicle, knowing that if their jobs have any meaning at all, it rides behind the thin, heat-resisting walls of the cone.

     With typical GI ease they speak of the re-entry vehicle using space-age jargon which a few years back could only be found in the stuffy tomes of scientific volumes. Fingering the smooth sleekness on the Minuteman cone, an airman explains that the green shading marking the slimness of the vehicle’s length is merely a cooling substance which will burn off on re-entry. He says it is an ablative material, thus reaching back to the ancient Latin tongue, to explain a space age product.