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Declassified 341st SMW unit histories

USAF via The Black Vault · 88 pages · text by OCR

This Black Vault release contains the Air Force's 2001 response from the 341st Space Wing FOIA office at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, to a request about the 16 March 1967 Echo Flight missile shutdown, with excerpts from 341st Strategic Missile Wing histories covering 1967 to early 1968. The histories say all ten Echo Flight launch facilities lost strategic alert almost simultaneously. Investigators could not find a logical cause and found rumors of UFOs near Echo Flight to be unfounded.

  • p. 26 …THE TASK GROUP WILL CONVENE AT BOEING, SEATTLE ON 4 APRIL TO DEVELOP A TEST PLAN…
  • p. 28 …19 C-208 RUNNBAA/AFPRO BOEING CO SEATTLE WASH RUWJABA/BSD NORTON AFB CALIF BT 9…
  • p. 29 …APB MONT RUWMDAA/APPRO THE BOEING CO SEATTLE WASH RUWJABA/BSD NORTON AFB CALIF C GONE…
  • p. 33 …The group was to reconvene at Boeings' Seattle plant on 4 April 67 for development of…
  • p. 42 …DURING TESTING AT BOEING, SEATTLE. A 30 MICRO SECOND PULSE TO 10 TORG VOLT SQUARE WAVE…
  • p. 44 …BOX 1915 - SEATTLE, WASH. 9824 (BOE 720) ENGINEERING CHANGE PROPOSAL FACILITY DATE 27 December 1966 1…
  • p. 68 …BROADWAY SEATTLE 24, WASHINGTON ENGINEERING CHANGE PROPOSAL 1 MODEL OF THE MODEL Figure A 1248 VES…
  • p. 70 …BOX 1955 SEATTLE, WASH. 9824 (BOE 720) ENGINEERING CHANGE PROPOSAL FACILITY DATE 27 December 1966 1…
  • p. 79 …THE TASK GROUP WILL CONVENE AT BOEING, SEATTLE ON 4 APRIL TO DEVELOP A TEST PLAN…
  • p. 80 …AFB MONT RUWMDAA/APPRO THE BOEING CO SEATTLE WASH RUN 4804/NORTH AMERICAN AUTONETICS DIV ANAHEIM…
  • p. 81 …THE TASK GROUP WILL CONVENE AT BOEING, SEATTLE ON 4 APRIL TO DEVELOP A TEST PLAN…
been recorded in channel 50 data. (U)

The only non-detectable fault from the G&C section which could have caused a No-Go would have been loss of confirm codes. This type of fault would not have produced a VRSA channel 9 and 12, but only a channel 9. This information eliminated the No-Go theory as the cause of the incident. (U)

As stated earlier, all 10 launch facilities shutdown with a VRSA channel 9 and 12 (G&G No-Go and Logic Coupler No-Go) recordings. Because of this consistency considerable investigation was expended in the Logic Coupler area. In the channel 50 analysis it was shown that the guidance section did not experience a No-Go and therefore, it was felt that the VRSA channel 9 report was not valid. It is possible, however, for the Logic Coupler to generate both of these No-Go indications. 78 (U)

The logic of the coupler was studied by the investigating team in an effort to identify a method by which both VRSA 9 and 12 could be activated. The opinion of the team was that external generated signals caused the generation of these two channels and shutdown of the launch facilities. The possibility of this is very remote due to the fact that all 10 couplers would have to fail in the flight within a few seconds of each other. 79 (U)

77. Ibid., p 30.

78. Ibid., p 30.

79. Ibid., p 30.

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Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 88 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.