The only inspections/alerts I recall were the ORIs (Operational Readiness Inspections) that occurred about once every six months. A transport would come in with an Inspector General team aboard, or the red phone would ring, and the alert aircraft were told to launch. Everything was realistic until they got to the active runway, then they were told it was a drill and to stand down. Then the bomb wing's performance was evaluated.

At Amarillo AFB we shared the base with Air Training Command and the runway with the local commercial aviation terminal. Anyone on base could drive over to the SAC area without passing a guard shack but they couldn't get access to the runway or the SAC aircraft parking area. Any private aircraft that blundered into our area were stopped by CDF (Combat Defense Force) vehicles full of armed guards, some with dogs.

While I was there ('65-'67) our wing stopped the armed alert procedure and quit contributing armed aircraft to Chrome Dome. All the bombers were painted black on the bottom and camo on top, and we started supporting the Vietnam war effort with six-month temporary duty rotations to Anderson AFB on Guam. Just before I got out in '68 the base was closed and I was sent to Clinton-Sherman AFB in Oklahoma.