General, Showcasing Eighth Air Force's heritage of possessing non-bomber strategic global striking power.

22 January 1980, Technical upgrades to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM): Under the Strategic Air Command's Integrated Improvement Program, technical teams upgraded Minuteman ICBM silos as well as the newly installed Command Data Buffer System throughout the United States Air Force. This upgraded effort included the Minuteman ICBMs and silos belonging to the 351st Strategic Missile Wing stationed at Whiteman AFB, Missouri and assigned to Eighth Air Force.

Eyewitness to History: Major General (USAF, retired) Kenneth Israel recalled the Command Data Buffer System back in the day was advanced technology that also applied to and enhanced the "Looking Glass" airborne command post aircraft belonging to Strategic Air Command. The Command Data Buffer technology - implemented in 1977 - allowed remote retargeting of individual missiles via secure communication lines thus enhancing missile command reliability without physical access to missile silos.

Rest of the Story: Eighth Air Force's 28 years of experience with missile systems began in January 1959 with the assignment of the 702d Strategic Wing (Snark). The Snark was a rather unique early model of a ground-launched intercontinental range cruise missile with a nuclear warhead but it was a short-lived weapon system. Notwithstanding, during these 28 years, the Eighth possessed two of the three legs - strategic bombers and ICBMs - of the nation's nuclear triad.

Eighth Air Force (8 AF) had ballistic missile units assigned from 1959 to 1970 and then again from 1975 to 1992. (From April 1970 through December 1974, the Eighth's headquarters was deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam with the mission to conduct conventional bomber operations during the Vietnam War.) The missile types assigned to the Eighth during these 28 years included Atlas F, Titan I and II, and then Minuteman I and II. Beginning in 1980, Eighth Air Force possessed 15 percent of the Minuteman II inventory as well as 66 percent of the Titan II inventory of the Air Force. And for a short time from 1979 to 1980, the Eighth also had space units assigned.

The mixture of strategic bombers, aerial tanker aircraft, and ICBMs added to the Eighth Air Force's global reach and strategic striking power as well as to command and control complexities and challenges.

Heritage Connection: The aforementioned 351st Strategic Missile Wing traced its heritage to the 351st Bomb Group, equipped with B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft that conducted 311 air combat missions in World War II while assigned to the Eighth Air Force from April 1943 to May 1945 during the air war over Europe.