The Coldest Airbase in the Cold War

Plattsburgh's noisy nuclear shield

Story by Mike O'Keefe
Photos by Dale Wolfe and Joe McNichols

Somewhere over the Northeast, streaking through the blackness of the night, a flight of supersonic fighters, some of the fastest around, make a push towards Mt. Washington in Northern Vermont. The enormous mountain passes below unnoticed, half because of the incredible speed, and half because of the darkness that envelopes the relatively small flying machine.

A small group of about eight to ten men fly all the way up to northern Maine, following a river with practice targets lining the route. As they dip and dive through the cavernous river valley, electronic blips from the fighter's computer echo into the ears of the pilots, directing them through the night. Soon the horizon and the Atlantic Ocean come into visibility, and a sonic boom erupts from behind the formation as the men swoop out over the Atlantic, past New Hampshire and eventually back to the base of operations, landing in Northern New York.

Defending mainland America's northern border during the Cold War was no joke.

And as the Colonel McNichols begins to make the final approach into Plattsburgh Air Force Base, his home for so many years, he thinks upon this; his friends, his family, his job, and location all intersect at Plattsburgh.

Plattsburgh Air Force Base was a formidable, yet typical, Strategic Air Command type airbase. The fleet of jet aeroplanes helped establish a defensive and offensive nuclear perimeter around the United States. And behind each and every supersonic jet that was up in the air, is a story about how a young kid came to be defending the air around one of the most powerful countries in the world, with the most powerful weapons ever conceivedin the bomb bay of his strategic jet fighter.

"For these guys SAC [Strategic Air Command] was their lives."

The Cold War brought new and faster fighting machines to the sky, and furthered these men's incredible stories. During this time, a small group of pilots and airbase personnel became quite close. The pilots at PAFB were stationed there for quite an unusual amount of time, and their duties as military men helped the bonds between them grow.

Many of their duties included patrolling the Northeast and doing general drills in case of the event of an attack. During these drill, an "Alert" period would be instated where military personnel would be enclosed underground, simulating a war status on the base. During this time, the group of people that spent years underground together became quite close to each other.

Bomber, jet fighter, and refueling tanker pilots all worked together to keep watch over the horizon for threat of an attack.

Joseph McNichols was born in Flushing, Queens in 1947. A self described "cocky New York kid," McNichols spent his early years in school attending through college and graduating with a M.A.L.S. from Sienna. After college, he was immediately drafted into the military for the Vietnam War.

McNichols path led him into the Air Force, flying C-130s over the dense jungle of Vietnam. Joe attended Officer Training School in Texas, and then went into Flight school in San Antonio. It was here he learned his profession. Leadership, navigation, teamwork, and most importantly, piloting. Pilots at Flight School were weaned on a small one-engine prop plane, and then moved up to a two person trainer jet. After 100 combined hours in the two aircraft, 20 and 80 respectively, the pilots in training were allowed to move on to the supersonic training aircraft, the T-38. Over the jungles of Vietnam, Colonel McNichols raked in over 1,600 combat flying hours; he completed such tasks as dropping off supplies and clearing helicopter landing zones with enormous ordinance. "One mission, our plane took over 300 hits," McNichols says. He flew into many major U.S. military bases in Vietnam, including DaNang and Saigon. After Vietnam, he continued to stay with the military, and was assigned to flying refueling tankers.

It was then that he was assigned to this region, and it was here that he stayed, for 10 years; which is an unusually long stay for a military life. He helped to instruct young pilots and taught many people to fly the FB-111 "Aardvark." And after a lifetime of flying, and 6,000 hours in the air, the crews were brought even closer together. Making countless loops going from Plattsburgh to Albany in under 14 minutes, looping around over the northern continental U.S. and coming back over the Atlantic to get home. Flying these incredible machines was just another daily task for the pilots of the FB-111, which was the main fighter of Plattsburgh's fleet.

The KC-135 is a vital part of the fleet, keeping jet fuel craving supersonic war machines afloat in the sky. "I flew in the Linebacker two bombing campaigns in Vietnam," Henry Wruster, a retired pilot of the lumbering behemoths, says. The experience that The B-47 Stratobomber is another staple of the PAFB fleet. Dale Wolfe, a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S.A.F, used to fly these high, and extremely low altitude bombers on practice and training runs all over the U.S. Born in Southeast Ohio in 1935, Wolfe went to college and immediately signed up for Aviation Cadet Training. ACT was a year and 2 months of basic class instruction, which was eventually followed by flight school. This flight school is pretty much identical throughout the Air Force. However, Wolfe was clear of the difficulty. "At any time [in flight school] you could be eliminated for academics, military, or flying." This meant that filters contributed to having a very specific type of person making it to the controls of a government plane. This, in turn, helped to explain why these men became so close.

There were some dangerous and unnerving events that did transpire; this was all during the Cold War, after all.

"It looked like an an enormous Soviet missile launch on the radar."

Both McNichols and Wolfe recall times when confusion was in the air, and when this happens with nuclear armaments, the threat is all the more imminent.

Wolfe recalls an early morning alert; at around 2 A.M. As the crews ran onto the tarmac, suited up in flight gear and ready to go, they notice interceptor jets, used for defense against a homeland attack, taking off in formation into the fog. And if the unusual time and weather was not enough to trigger some trepidation about future orders, Wolfe and his crew taxied out onto the runway, waiting for their signal to take off. If they had taken off, radios on all bombers would have been turned off, and unless a sophisticated abort code had been transmitted, the nuclear bombs on board the craft could very well have been used.

It turns out, the radar which scans the horizon for incoming ballistic missiles coming across the North Pole picked up the moon rising over the horizion, and it looked like an enormous Soviet missile launch on the radar.

These event helped shape the lives of all the people who came through the base at Plattsburgh, which was notorious for having some of the most pleasant weather in the Air Force.

"For these guys SAC [Strategic Air Command] was their lives," Ruth, Wolfe's wife and longtime friend says.

"What were they gonna do? Ground Me?"

The atmosphere collided with the people to make a truly honorable group of comrades.
And now, as Colonel McNichols lines his supersonic, and still record breaking-fast plan yet technologically aging craft up for the final approach into PAFB, before a group of onlookers, Colonel McNichols decides that his career needs to go out with a bang. He was ordered to go by the crowd at 500 feet at 500 knots. But for some reason, his gauge reads 650 miles an hour at 50 feet above the deck. As the little ants below him come into view, they dive off the tops of their cars and out of the way of the careening rocketship, just barely clearing their heads. "What were they gonna do? Ground me?" McNichols says. The expert old time pilot pitches up, and swoops into the sky, for the last time out of Plattsburgh Air Base, surely pondering about all the friends that he has made below.

Supersonic Jet or Behemoth Bomber?