# moonshot925 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 15, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747 "2012-09-15T00:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/201 "2012-09-25T19:02:14Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > FWIW, [this newsletter](http://www.afmissileers.org/newsletters/NL2011/Dec11.pdf) (Pdf) from the Association of Air Force Missileers, at page 6, talks about the .38 pistols “that missile crews once carried.” (Aside, I thought the Air Force had revolvers with moon clips in either 9mm or .45 ACP, not .38? The things you learn…) I do not know if that implies that officers in a Launch Control Center do not now carry them, or if they carried them during the time of **moonshot** ’s stated service, or neither. Just adding a data point to the conversation. I guess so, though it certainly would seem odd to have the guys carrying pistols like that in case some Spetznaz units stormed and took over the facility and got down into the bunker(aren’t they something like half-a-mile below the surface). It would be a little like having missillers on a submarine carry .38s in case of a RL version of the movie Under Siege. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/202 "2012-09-25T19:04:02Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > Oh great, just when thread couldn’t get weirder. We get the troll want-to-be to mention weed _one_ time and what happens? Grandpa McPot is out of the woodworks like a shot lighting up a roach and telling us all of his reefer sex fantasies. > > I say it with love **luci**. Now put the bong down. You don’t have to read none of it, won’t bother me any. Freak freely! ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/203 "2012-09-25T19:07:50Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > The biggest tell that moonie is full of buffalo feces is the firearm thing. Movies love to show everyone armed, but it just isn’t true. Especially on airbases. Not only was no one armed except the SP, no one was trained. Most fired the requisite 50 rounds or so from a Vietnam-era M-16 during basic and that’s it. Even if we were attacked (and remember I was on an intelligence base), there was no armory for us to run to and arm ourselves. But there were plenty of cricket bats if things got really dire. Now those things were real dangerous. Both the MCCC and DMCCC carried S&W .38 revolvers. There were M16’s in the LCC utility closet. Everyone was trained to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/204 "2012-09-25T19:11:09Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > I guess so, though it certainly would seem odd to have the guys carrying pistols like that in case some Spetznaz units stormed and took over the facility and got down into the bunker(aren’t they something like half-a-mile below the surface). > > It would be a little like having missillers on a submarine carry .38s in case of a RL version of the movie Under Siege. The cite mentioned the procedure evolved in the days of the Atlas missile, when I guess there were a lot more people running around the complex, and a lot of classified documents the armed missileers were supposed to help guard. The military being the military, the procedure once started was probably very hard to stop. This [profile](http://www.thebulletin.org/files/064003005.pdf) in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists from 2008 mentions the LCC crew laughing at the depiction from _Wargames_ and that “the officers on duty wear no holstered sidearms.” (Page 19.) Edit: Exactly what the fuck are two officers going to do with a full sized M-16 in a capsule what appears to be the size of an overgrown broom closet? The cite I’ve linked to mentions the .38 being worthless for hunting, the only purpose the old missileer could think of for the Minuteman crews continuing to have them issued in the early days of the program, and implying they’d nothing bigger down in the capsule. Certainly not a M-16. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/205 "2012-09-25T19:12:11Z")
This reminds me of some of my students, who seem convinced that they can get away with copy/paste on their assignments, because they’re sure that only THEY know about the vast power of google. The professors could not POSSIBLY be able to catch them! ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/206 "2012-09-25T19:23:29Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > This reminds me of some of my students, who seem convinced that they can get away with copy/paste on their assignments, because they’re sure that only THEY know about the vast power of google. The professors could not POSSIBLY be able to catch them! It reminds me of skydiving quadriplegic girls. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/207 "2012-09-25T19:31:06Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > It reminds me of skydiving quadriplegic girls. That is…evocative. And the next bit I’ll send in when Improv performers ask for suggestions from the audience. (It used to be “tap-dancing squirrels.”) ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/208 "2012-09-25T19:42:20Z")
moonshot, when I was on detachment from 22 Regiment to the RAF, between the ages of 19 and 27 (months) I spent some time supporting your contemporaries in the 501st tactical missile wing (we deployed up to 108 pershing II missiles and 364 BGM-109G Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missiles, which I can now reveal because it is not classified). I mention this for two reasons: a) did you know derek? and b) we had a special word, [walt](http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Walts). Do you recognise yourself in people like [this](http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Rob_St_Pier)? If not, is that cause you are ashamed to look in the mirror in the morning? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/209 "2012-09-25T19:55:32Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > To be fair, lots of people have really poor grammar and capitalization skills. > > That said, its far more common for people to not capitalize when they should be doing so. > > I have to admit being a bit surprised when I saw he’d capitalized “freighter” as well. Oops. Should have mentioned - I brought it up because it was the first google hit for “[Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=uss+philadelphia+turkish+freighter&sugexp=chrome,mod=7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)”. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/210 "2012-09-25T19:59:03Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > They didn’t let you have gum? No smoking, sure, I can understand, but sugarless gum? I do not recommend trying to chew a [Trident](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_missile). ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/211 "2012-09-25T20:10:59Z")
I knew a guy with the 501st TMMS. Jeff Hunter. 96 GLCMs at RAF Greenham Common IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/212 "2012-09-25T20:21:08Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > This [profile](http://www.thebulletin.org/files/064003005.pdf) in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists from 2008 mentions the LCC crew laughing at the depiction from _Wargames_ and that “the officers on duty wear no holstered sidearms.” (Page 19.) Bah, how reliable is _The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists_? Why use it when we have [siloworld.net](http://siloworld.net). ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/213 "2012-09-25T20:30:13Z")
> [@moonshot925](#): > > I knew a guy with the 501st TMMS. Jeff Hunter. 96 GLCMs at RAF Greenham Common IIRC. Yeah he was one of my best mates, did he ever tell you about Derek? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/214 "2012-09-25T20:33:07Z")
> [@Dissonance](#): > > Oh great, just when thread couldn’t get weirder. We get the troll want-to-be to mention weed _one_ time and what happens? Grandpa McPot is out of the woodworks like a shot lighting up a roach and telling us all of his reefer sex fantasies. > > I say it with love **luci**. Now put the bong down. Gotta have something to dull the pain while you damned kids sit around all day sniffing your bath soaps and twiddling your Tweeters. ---
**Author:** ![moonshot925](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@moonshot925](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonshot925)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/215 "2012-09-25T20:35:02Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > Yeah he was one of my best mates, did he ever tell you about Derek? No. Who’s Derek? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/216 "2012-09-25T20:46:31Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > A more tedious duty—even with the co-ed crews the USAF controversially debuted in the mid 1980s—is difficult to imagine. And to get to spend your 1/2 day of free time in a place like Minot, N.D or Great Falls, MT… Wheeeee. A good job for catching up on your reading, I guess. And at least nobody’s shooting at you. My intelligence work was likely equally tedious, especially as some wall fell someplace a few months after I started. Long days of trying to appear busy and useful. Maybe once a year something would happen, and even then it was only a 1 in 4 chance that it happened during your shift. Never my shift. I guess it could have been worse. I could have been a German linguist, whom all found new assignments washing missiles or aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/217 "2012-09-25T22:20:13Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > moonshot, when I was on detachment from 22 Regiment to the RAF, between the ages of 19 and 27 (months) I spent some time supporting your contemporaries in the 501st tactical missile wing (we deployed up to 108 pershing II missiles and 364 BGM-109G Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missiles, which I can now reveal because it is not classified). > > I mention this for two reasons: > > a) did you know derek? > > and b) we had a special word, [walt](http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Walts). Do you recognise yourself in people like [this](http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Rob_St_Pier)? If not, is that cause you are ashamed to look in the mirror in the morning? You should ask him what the color of the boathouse is. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/218 "2012-09-26T16:30:13Z")
there is no fucking boathouse in fucking heroford! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/219 "2012-09-26T16:35:08Z")
What about Hereford? Is there one there? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747/220 "2012-09-26T16:38:39Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > there is no fucking boathouse in fucking heroford! I don’t like your attitude! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moonshot925/634747.md?page=12)