ARMED FORCES: Sudden Attack

Just before 6 o’clock on the evening of Sept. 1, the Air Force’s weather forecast was justified; across Carswell Air Force Base at Fort Worth, Texas rolled a thunderstorm. Comfortably indoors, or away on holiday pursuits, the command did not worry about the reason for the base’s existence: its mighty 6-36 intercontinental bombers were snugly tied down on the flying line, and in windblown Texas they had stayed safe in gales of 60 m.p.h. Then, without warning, the big storm hit.

The⅜ tiedown cables holding the planes snapped like twine, and the wind whipped the 139-ton craft about like Piper Cubs. As the big blow struck, a C-47 was ready to take off. The pilot saw what was coming, and “flew” at full power into the teeth of the gale. The plane stood almost motionless above the field. In Carswell’s control tower, the wind indicator hand shot up, indicated 91 m.p.h. Then part of the anemometer blew away.

As suddenly as it had struck, the tornado blew itself out across the wreckage of the flying line. Last week the Air Force announced the storm’s toll: one $3,500,000 6-36 destroyed, 106 others damaged at Carswell and at the Consolidated Aircraft plant. Estimated loss to U.S. taxpayers: $48 million.

General Hoyt Vandenberg, Air Force Chief of Staff, called for an investigation to determine whether the damage could have been prevented and whether the Air Force should park fewer of the big planes at any one field. To some bewildered citizens, the most amazing report was that the 107—more of the big atom-bomb carriers than the U.S. had even publicly acknowledged owning—had been lined up wing to wing. As the U.S., of all nations, had the most reason to know, enemy attacks can be as unpredictable as tornadoes—and even more disastrous.