The B-29s that ended one war, and the SAC headquarters that prevented another
The Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company plant on Fort Crook, Nebraska — today's Offutt Air Force Base — opened in 1942 to build B-26 Marauders, then converted to B-29 Superfortress production. Two of those B-29s would change the world: serial #44-86292, named Enola Gay for pilot Paul Tibbets' mother, and #44-27297, christened Bockscar for its regular pilot Frederick Bock. They left Martin-Omaha in 1945, were modified at Wendover for atomic delivery, and dropped Little Boy and Fat Man on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. After the war, Offutt became headquarters of the new Strategic Air Command in 1948. General Curtis LeMay built SAC into the most fearsome strike force in human history from this office: 2,500 nuclear bombers, 1,000 ICBMs, a workforce of 280,000. From February 1961 to July 24, 1990, SAC kept an EC-135 "Looking Glass" airborne command post in the air continuously — 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for nearly 30 years — ready to take over launch authority if SAC ground command was destroyed. The Looking Glass jets logged a million accident-free flying hours. President George W. Bush flew here on September 11, 2001 to use the underground command center. Today Offutt is home to U.S. Strategic Command. The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum 25 miles west on I-80 has the actual aircraft — the B-29, B-36, B-52, the SR-71, the U-2, and yes, an EC-135 Looking Glass. The deterrent worked because it never had to fire.