[Cover image by Siteseen Ltd. – link to image: http://www.airpowerworld.info/bombers/tupolev-tu-95-bear.htm]

If you are old enough to remember the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, then you probably have some story to tell about how it impacted you.  If not, just know that while we didn’t have direct, open warfare on each other’s soil, the war was very real from the 1940’s to its demise in 1989.  In that setting most Americans had some apprehension that the Soviets would launch nuclear weapons on the U.S. to overcome us.  The fear was that the Soviets might believe that despite the horrendous casualty count that would surely occur on both sides, they would win the outcome by the total number of survivors.  That certainly wasn’t assured and many political theorists pushed the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (that neither side would win as both would be destroyed as effective nation states if they so engaged) as the hedge against such a strike.  However, countless TV shows and movies of the day played on those fears to significant ratings and revenue success. 

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Thankfully, Ronald Reagan was right and his plan to defeat the Soviets by using capitalism to overcome them economically worked.  While Russia has made some progress in re-invigorating its military muscle in recent years, they are not as significant a threat as the Soviet Union was during the Cold War years. 

Going back to the 1960’s though, no one knew that Ronald Reagan would ever be President, let alone that he would hatch and implement a plan to break up the U.S.S.R.  So, their threat was very real and viable at that time.  In that light, my Dad would tell a story that replayed several times in the winter of 1966-67.

No one that has lived in more moderate climates really understands what it’s like to live and operate outdoors in truly extreme cold.  I’m not talking about 0 or 10 below either.  I’m talking 65 degrees below zero.  Dad used to say that the normal laws of physics just didn’t apply when you got into that kind of cold. It’s the kind of cold where spit freezes with a loud crackling sound before it hits the ground.  It’s the kind of cold where if you didn’t keep a light on your car while it was in the garage, it would freeze up so hard you might as well wait until spring to even try to get it to start.  It’s the kind of cold where you can’t actually breath the air in directly (you had to always cover your mouth or breath into your parka hood).

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It was in that kind of cold that the Soviets loved to fly their big bombers aimed directly towards Alaska to test our defense systems (and then paralleling the airspace border just at the edge).  So yes, try scrambling fighter jets on a moment’s notice to respond to and chase the Soviets back out of U.S. territory in that environment. The logistics of getting the pilots prepped, the planes out of a hangar to launch (keeping the hangar doors from freezing up) and keeping the take-off and landing strips manageable were unbelievably challenging in that setting.  Yet, respond we did.

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There were procedures of course to be ready, but the Soviets didn’t like to catch you when you were ready.  Strangely, they didn’t call to say “Hey we’re going to test your readiness today.”  In fact, it seemed at times like they knew when we’d be least ready.  They liked to come when the pilots had come back from earlier flights and were tired and had possibly gone to get a drink to relax.  They liked to come when most of the jets on the ground had just been out, and were thus, out of fuel (or low on it). 

Interesting bit of trivia, at 65 degrees below zero, jet fuel turns to jelly.  Now spin that around in your head for a minute.  So, it’s 65 below zero and you shouldn’t be out in the cold at all if you can avoid it.  Even with a full parka, mitts and appropriate gear on, the cold was bone numbing and it was hard to move and think.  Now you have Soviet bombers bearing down on your location in the middle of the Cold War and you have less than twenty minutes to help scramble the fighters to chase them out of (or intercept them from crossing) U.S. territory.  Your jets are out of fuel and you have to refuel, but the jet fuel (a highly flammable liquid) won’t pour out of fuel canisters on the strip and you don’t have time to pull the jets into the hangars and use pumps that are inside in the warmth.  You can only take your mittens off for a few seconds or risk severe frost bite on your hands and when you do take the mittens off, your hands feel like they’re on fire from the intense pain of exposure.  Yet, you have to get the jet jelly out of a canister or through a tube and into the jet.  You have to heat the fuel somehow and some of your fellow crew decide to use lighters carefully placed at a distance to warm the jelly enough to get it to flow into the jet’s refueling portals.  Did I mention that jet fuel is highly flammable?  Meanwhile, the Soviets are still coming. 

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[Image by Siteseen Ltd. – link to image: http://www.airpowerworld.info/bombers/tupolev-tu-95-bear.htm]

They did come up with some procedures and fixes to help with this in the future mind you, but in the moment, you do what you have to do.  The conclusion of this story is that, yes, we did get the U.S. jets in the air and, yes, we did chase/escort the Soviets back from our airspace.  No one lost any body parts to jet fuel or got burned by trying to warm it while my dad was there. As is often the case, the joy of an adventure in Alaska is in overcoming the challenge.  If you lived in Alaska, in the 1960’s and 70’s, it was a very cold war indeed.

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