Talk:Offutt Air Force Base/Archive 1

Archive 1

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Bockscar was not built at Building D, it was built at the current gymnasium. It states this on the plaquard before you enter the main hall. I lived there for nearly six years myself.

As a former US serviceman who worked at an Air Force unit in the old Martin bomber plant building at Offutt for many years, I can state that "Building D" is in fact the (now converted) factory. The base gymnasium is close by, and is also an older building, so it may be associated, but is much smaller.

Building D houses several USAF units, including Air Force Global Weather Central, the 55th Strategic Reconaissance Wing, and the base motor pool. A number of other facilities are also in the vast building, among them the base bowling lanes and education center. It's popularly though (though unconfirmed) that it's in the top 5 largest buldings in the US Department of Defense.

Much of the floor of Building D is still composed of small wooden bricks, tightly arranged and with their end-grain facing upward. This was the original flooring, we were informed, when the building was used for manufacturing airframes. When a servicemember was transferred away from Building D, it was common to present them with one of these bricks: cleaned, shellacked, and personalized with an attached engraved plate with the airman's name and an explanation of the the brick's source and thus its significance.

More on Building D: link

This information current as of 1990 -- does anyone have any updates?

I've seen the bricks, the bowling alley, and the education center. I know some operators for AFWA work there, but it is just one flight away from the main unit; it's common for AFWA to have a dedicated workcenter on location for bases with alot of air traffic. I didn't know people gave the bricks away, but sounds like a typical military tradition. It is built into a hill; about half the first floor is underground. Another factoid/story: There was once an underground tunnel from Building D to Stratcom, but it has since been filled in for security reasons.

A common saying among enlisted is: 'Once you get deployed to Offutt, you can't get off it.'131.7.52.17 15:27, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Bockscar/Enola Gay

The OP is right -- Bockscar was built at the Field House (gymnasium), not Building "D". As for the bricks, when I separated from the military in 2001 I received a brick, but as of 2006 (I'm still working in Building D) the tradition has started to die out due to lack of usable bricks. Puskarm 18:51, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

September 11

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, George W. Bush who was in Florida's 13th District reading My Pet Goat at the time first flew to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and then to Offutt en route back to Washington, DC. Bush arrived at 2:50 PM (Eastern), conducted a video conference in an underground command bunker and left for Washington, DC at 4:30 PM.

Air Force One left Barksdale for Offutt Air Force Base around 1:30 p.m. The Air Force One entourage was pared down to a few essential staffers such as Ari Fleischer, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett, and Gordon Johndroe, plus about five reporters. During the flight, Bush remained in “continuous contact” with the White House Situation Room and Vice President Cheney.

Air Force One landed at Offutt shortly before 3:00 p.m. At 3:06, Bush passed through security to the US Strategic Command Underground Command Center and was taken into an underground bunker designed to withstand a nuclear blast.

There, he held a teleconference call with Vice President Cheney, National Security Advisor Rice, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, CIA Director Tenet, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, and others. The meeting lasted about an hour. Rice recalled that during the meeting, Tenet told Bush, “Sir, I believe it’s al-Qaeda. We’re doing the assessment but it looks like, it feels like, it smells like al-Qaeda.”

By this time, people were anticipating and expecting another reassuring public statement from Bush. The White House staff was preparing for Bush to address the nation from the Offutt bunker, but Bush decided instead to return to Washington.

As a side note, Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, was hosting an unpublicized charity benefit inside the high security Offutt military base at 8:00 a.m. With him were business leaders and several executives from the World Trade Center, including Anne Tatlock of Fiduciary Trust Co. International, who likely would have died had it not been for the meeting. They watched a lot of the television coverage that morning, but it’s unknown if any of these people were still at Offutt by the time Bush arrived in the afternoon.

A photo of Bush speaking to Cheney shortly after leaving Offutt was later used for Republican fundraising.

Air Force One left Offutt around 4:30 p.m. [MSNBC, 9/22/01, CNN, 9/12/01, Telegraph, 12/16/01]

This large Sept 11 section leaves Offutt too unbalanced WP:WEIGHT in favor of a single days worth of events, so I moved the section here. Comments are appreciated. Gohiking 17:30, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

I had considerable similar qualms for the same reasons and was going to move it here but wanted sleep on it. After sleeping on it I think we should put it back in its on section. I'm glad to see the Offutt history expanding. The history is probably now ready for subheads (e.g., Fort Crook, Offutt Field, Offutt Air Force Base and now Bush Visit on September 11. This information is ***very interesting*** I cleaned up the brackets for the references and wikified the names. From the article you get the impression that "Al Qaida" was first discussed with the President at Omaha and that of course would considerably raise the visit's notability. I've always been surprised the Offutt article is not expanded more. The aircraft plant days certainly needs expansion as well as the SAC days. Anyway with some clean up, and making it more encyclopedic, I would be in favor of putting it back. Americasroof 14:42, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Americasroof, It looks a bit better than before. When I have time, I will prolly do some copy edit for length, but I'll leave as is for now. Gohiking 14:49, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm going to have modify it again as it appears the source (and for all the whacky reference style) cooperesearch.org timeline. The timeline gets more interesting since Stratcom was coincidentally conducting Global Guardian global training exercise. Americasroof 15:14, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Air Show

Would it not be relevant to include a little bit about the annual air show that takes place on base? --Greyduk 02:20, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Space Shuttle

User:Indrian deleted the following. I am including it here for the recordAmericasroof (talk) 16:06, 14 December 2008 (UTC):

On July 1, 2007, the Space Shuttle Atlantis returning from its mission STS-117 via a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft stopped at the base for refueling while being transported back from Edwards AFB to Florida because storms in the southeastern U.S. had hampered the flight back. The Atlantis had delivered astronaut Clayton Anderson from nearby Ashland to a mission aboard the International Space Station. The visit to Offutt was the second by a space shuttle; the Space Shuttle Columbia visited in July 1985 atop one of the shuttle carriers.

References