1960-08-26-sc-p1-dod-secretary-visits-sites
August 26, 1960 Spokane Daily Chronicle Page 1:
Secretary Gets the Word
[photo]
Lt. James Searff (left) gives helicopter safety instructions to Secretary of the Air Force Dudley C. Sharp at Fairchild air force base shortly before the secretary flew today to the intercontinental ballistic missile site at Odessa. Center is Col. Jan M. Laitos, strategic air command missile project officer from Offcutt air force base, Neb. Secretary Sharp also was scheduled to see the ICBM site at Deer Park this afternoon.
Visiting Air Force Leader Eyes Missile-Bomber Unit
Air. Force Secretary Dudley C. Sharp presented an air force Commendation medal and looked at the nation's first mixed missile-bomber force in the Spokane area today.
“We expect to go on for many, many years with the ‘mixed concept’ (both bombers and mis siles), the way we look at it now,” the secretary said in an inter view at Fairchild air force base.
He began his tour of Fairchild early and later was scheduled to visit intercontinental ballistic missile sites at Odessa and Deer Park. He left by helicopter for the Odessa site shortly before noon.
Fairchild is not only a strategic air command B-52 bomber base but is headquarters for nine Atlas missile sites now under construction,
The secretary made the medal presentation to Maj, Louis C. Wampler in the missile office) area at Fairchild, during an interlude in a busy morning of briefings and meetings on the base.
Wampler earned the medal for duty at Chateauroux air force Station, France, before coming to the ‘‘site activation task force for missiles” at Fairchild.
Referring to the missile base construction program, Sharp said there was some difficulty at earlier ICBM sites but now we are having tremendous cooperation among the air force, missile contractors, the engineers and the labor unions.”
No Lags Foreseen
“We have streamlined and reorganized the air force portion of the program and we feel we will not run behind construction schedules any more,” he said
The secretary said most of the missile sites are being constructed on a fixed-price basis and bids have been lower than expected.
However, he said, missile site installations not on a fixed-price contract have been less satisfactory from a standpoint.
Both systems have been used building the nine Atlas missile bases in the Spokane area The secretary said he has seen construction progress at Offutt AFB, Neb., and Warren AFB, Wyo., and felt he should view missile-program progress in the Spokane area.
He came to Spokane from Detroit where he addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. He will leave Fairchild| tomorrow to attend an air show at Billings, Mont.
Col. Harold W. Ohike, 18th air division commander at Fairchild; Col. R. L. Howard, acting 92d bomb wing commander, and Col. F. R. Creasman, base commander, presented short talks on the bomber program at Fairchild prior to the missile conferences.
