title: Blue House

text: Cheong Wa Dae is in fact a complex of multiple buildings, built largely in the traditional Korean architectural style with some modern architectural elements and facilities. Cheong Wa Dae now consists of the Main Office Hall "Bon-gwan" (; Hanja: ; "Main House"), the Presidential Residence, the State Reception House "Yeongbin-gwan" (; Hanja: ; "Welcome-Guest House"), the "Chunchu-gwan" (; Hanja: ; "Spring-Autumn House") Press Hall, and the Secretariat Buildings. The entire complex covers approximately 250,000 square metres or 62 acres.


title: Blue House

text: Cheong Wa Dae was built upon the site of the royal garden of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910). While the Blue House served as an executive office, it was one of the most protected official residences in Asia. Upon the inauguration of President Yoon Suk-yeol in May 2022, Cheong Wa Dae was relieved of its duties as the official residence and executive office of the president and was fully converted to a public park.


title: Blue House

text: The location of "Cheong Wa Dae" was the site of a royal villa in what was then Hanyang, the southern capital of the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392). It was built by King Sukjong (r. 1095–1105) in 1104. Goryeo's principal capital was at Kaesong, and it also maintained a western capital at Pyongyang and an eastern capital at Gyeongju.


title: Blue House

text: After the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897) moved its capital to Hanyang, Gyeongbokgung was built in 1395, the fourth year of the reign of King Taejo (r. 1392–1398) as the main palace, and the royal villa lot became the back garden of the palace. It was used as the site for civil service examinations and military training.


title: Blue House

text: Following Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, the Japanese governor of Korea used the "Gyeongbokgung" grounds for the Government-General Building. In July 1939, Japan built an official residence/office for the governor-general on the site of "Cheong Wa Dae".


title: Blue House

text: With the establishments of the Republic of Korea in 1948, President Syngman Rhee called the building "Gyeong Mu Dae" (; Hanja: , ), which was the name of one of the few old buildings for former official residence there. He used it as his office and residence. President Yun Bo-seon changed the name to "Cheong Wa Dae" after he was inaugurated in 1960. The name was reportedly changed as it had ostensibly become associated with authoritarianism and dictatorship. An alternate name "Hwaryeongdae" was proposed alongside "Cheong Wa Dae" as a possible renaming candidate, but the latter was ultimately chosen.


title: Blue House

text: In January 1968, North Korean infiltrators nearly reached the building in a bid to assassinate President Park Chung-hee during the Blue House raid. In the ensuing melee, 28 North Koreans, 26 South Koreans and four Americans were killed.


title: Blue House

text: On 26 October 1979 Park was assassinated by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) Director in a safehouse in the Blue House grounds.


title: Blue House

text: Presidents Park, Choi Kyu-ha, and Chun Doo-hwan used the building both as their office and official residence. While President Roh Tae-woo was in office, a new office building, official residence and press center, called "Chunchu-gwan", were built. The main office building was opened in April 1991. In 1993 during Kim Young-sam's presidency, the building built by Japan for the then-official residence was dismantled.


title: Blue House

text: On 20 March 2022, South Korea's President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol announced that he would take office on May 10 in the Ministry of National Defense building in the Yongsan District of Seoul, and open the Blue House to the public as a park. In May 2022, in accordance with order issued by Yoon Suk-yeol after he took office, the building officially converted into a public park and opened to public visitation for the first time in its 74 year history, with a maximum of 39,000 visitors allowed on a daily basis.


title: Blue House

text: Geomancers have long considered the area in which "Cheong Wa Dae" is located as an auspicious location. This view was backed up by an inscription on a stone wall that reads: "The Most Blessed Place on Earth", found behind the official presidential residence during the construction of a new building in 1990. Others contend that it is cursed, due to the misfortunes that has befallen on its previous occupants.


title: Blue House

text: To the north is the mountain Bukhansan, flanked by two mountains, Naksan, symbolizing the Azure Dragon, on the left and Inwangsan, symbolizing the White Tiger, on the right. To the south is Namsan, the protective mountain of the capital. In front flow the Cheonggyecheon stream and Han River.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The is a line of automobiles produced by the Japanese automaker Nissan from 1978 until 2000, when it was replaced by the Nissan Bluebird Sylphy in the Japanese market.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: Between 2000 and 2005, the name "Pulsar" has been used in Australia and New Zealand on rebadged versions of the Sylphy. This arrangement continued until the introduction of the Nissan Tiida (C11) in 2005; at this time the Pulsar name was retired. In 2013, Nissan replaced the Tiida in Australia and New Zealand with two new models badged as Pulsar. These were based on the Sylphy (B17) sedan and Tiida (C12) hatchback, the latter also sold in Thailand under the Pulsar name. In 2014, a European-only replacement for the Tiida was introduced using the Pulsar nameplate.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The original Pulsar was a hatchback to be sold exclusively at a different Nissan Japan dealership network called "Nissan Cherry Store" as a larger five-door hatchback alternative to the Nissan Cherry. Although Pulsar models were front-wheel drive from introduction, Nissan did offer four-wheel drive as an option on select models internationally.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Pulsar sold in Japan originally served as the intermediate model offered at Nissan dealerships "Nissan Cherry Store" between the Nissan Violet and the Cherry, while different versions of the Pulsar sold at other Japanese networks served as the base model, with other larger Nissan products. Various Pulsar-based models were exported as international market conditions dictated, sometimes labeled as "Sunny", "Cherry" or "Sentra", while the internationally labeled product was actually a Pulsar and not a Japanese market Sunny or Cherry.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The name "Pulsar" is taken from pulsar (portmanteau of pulsating star), a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The N10 model Pulsar, introduced in May 1978, replaced the earlier Cherry F-II internationally, and benefited from the engineering efforts of the Prince Motor Company which developed the Nissan Cherry before the company merged with Nissan in 1966. It retained the rack-and-pinion steering of the Cherry, as well as the independent suspension with coilover struts in front and coil sprung trailing arms at the rear. The Pulsar was a subcompact car to augment the Sunny sedan. The Sunny and the Pulsar ranges were sold at different Nissan Japan dealerships, called "Nissan Satio Shop" for the Sunny, and "Nissan Cherry Shop" for the Pulsar.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: It retained the Cherry name in Europe and many other export markets, even being sold as the "Cherry Europe" in some markets such as Belgium to separate it from the Cherry F-II which remained on sale for a while. The "Cherry"-badged version was first introduced at the Dutch AutoRAI show in February 1979 and went on sale shortly thereafter. An unusual styling feature for the car was its long nose, which was due to Nissan envisaging that the car would also be built with a longitudinal rear-wheel-drive layout for developing markets; however, only front-wheel-drive models were actually built. At the time of introduction, the Pulsar only had a four-door fastback-styled sedan bodywork, and either a 1.2- or a 1.4-liter engine. The three-door and coupé hatchbacks arrived in September 1978. Many export markets also offered a 1.0-liter (A10) option, with while the 1.2-liter A12 offered . This was the first passenger car Nissan assembled in their new Greek plant, where local partner TEOKAR built it with the 1.0 and 1.2-liter engines from 1980 on.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: This model was known as the Datsun Cherry or Datsun 100A/120A/130A/140A/150A in Europe and most of Asia, and the Datsun 310 in the US and Canada. It was exported to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Malaysia with the Datsun Pulsar name. It entered the Australian market in October 1980, with the facelift arriving in October 1981. In New Zealand the facelift model was locally assembled from late 1981, effectively replacing the previous generation 100A which was built and sold locally in the mid-1970s. The Datsun Pulsar was also locally assembled in South Africa and in Malaysia by Tan Chong Motor. Some late South African Pulsars use the square Skyline-style head- and taillights from the Langley, including on the well-equipped Pulsar Panache model.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: Another Pulsar derivative was introduced to Japan, called the , from 1980, and was introduced as a "mini Skyline", and exclusive to "Nissan Prince Shop". The Japanese-market Langley assumed duties of the first generation, Sunny-based coupe called the Nissan Silvia when the second generation Silvia was upgraded to the larger Nissan Violet platform; both the Silvia and the Langley remained exclusive to "Nissan Prince Store" locations. The Langley was given its name from Samuel Pierpont Langley the inventor of the bolometer, a device used to measure electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, and was well regarded for his work in solar physics. Because of its sporting intentions, the Langley was equipped with an independent suspension at all four wheels, using MacPherson struts in the front, and a trailing arm coil suspension for the rear. The engine choices consisted of the A14 and E15 series engines with multi-point fuel injection on top level trim packages, but only in a three-door hatchback.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The N10 series Pulsar was available as a three- or five-door hatchback, a short-lived four-door fastback sedan, a five-door van or station wagon, and a three-door fastback-styled coupé with a wraparound rear window introduced at the end of 1978. The van was first released in November 1978, while the export-only wagon models first appeared in early 1979. Originally the lineup consisted only of the four-door sedan which utilized the same body profile as the later hatchback models; in August 1978 the coupé and three-door hatchback models were added, along with a fuel injected version of the 1.4-liter engine. One year later a five-door hatchback appeared, replacing the four-door sedan which was immediately discontinued.Most markets outside Japan did not receive all versions: for instance, the three- and five-door hatchbacks and the coupé were the only models to be offered in the US. Most markets never got any fuel injected versions. The 1.0-liter "A10" (later also updated to an OHC engine, called E10) was never available in Japan, mainly restricted to markets where tax codes made smaller engines necessary. An interesting anomaly of the French automotive taxation system is that while the A12A-engined Cherry sedans were considered as "6 CVs", the coupés with the same engine were markedly cheaper to own as they were classified as "5 CVs". An unusual feature at the time of introduction was the split folding rear seat fitted to better equipped models, increasing versatility.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: A late-term facelift in March 1981 brought Nissan's newly developed OHC E-series engines in for the last twelve months of production, which also introduced the more conventional (and industry standard) drivetrain with an end-on transmission with unequal length driveshafts - the A-Series engine cars continued to use the transmission-in-sump layout that had been used in the previous generation Cherry models. The facelift involved a new grille and rectangular headlamps. The updated 1982 model Pulsar five-door hatchback with E-series engine was assembled in New Zealand at Nissan's new factory-owned assembly plant in Wiri, Auckland. Only one well-equipped model was offered, with a five-speed manual gearbox.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In 1982 "Nissan" badges began to appear on the cars, due to Nissan phasing out the Datsun name at that time for its international markets. Production of the N10 series ceased in mid-1982, to be replaced by the all-new N12 Cherry/Pulsar.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Japan the five-door van received the VN10 chassis code when shown in November 1978, but was then re-released in August 1979 in a version which met the 1979 commercial vehicle emissions standards — this model was designated VN11. While domestic market passenger models only received the slightly larger A12A engine, the vans and many export markets retained the smaller A12 engine (and the option of the larger A14) as also used in the preceding Cherry F-II. The van was unusual in the Japanese market for the period in being front-wheel drive; Nissan made the most of this and gave it a special rear suspension to allow for a very low loading floor. To further lower the rear opening the rear bumper was also extremely slim. This generation Pulsar van also provided the basis for the first generation of the Prairie people carrier. This van bodywork, with more comfortable fittings, was also used for the wagon model as sold in export markets. After the March 1981 facelift, the van also received the updated E13 and E15 OHC engines and now carried the VUN10 and VMN10 chassis codes. The three-door panel van model seems to have only been sold in the export.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In North America the N10 Pulsar was originally sold only with the largest, 1.4-liter engine and only with four- or five-speed manual transmissions. Called the Datsun 310, in Canada it was also available with Pulsar striping on the rear quarters. Equipment levels were Deluxe or GX, and originally only the three-door hatchback or hatchback coupé bodywork were available. Only the three-door (called a "two-door sedan hatchback" in period materials) was ever available in Deluxe trim, with the GX being optional and all other bodystyles only sold in GX trim. A four-speed manual was installed in all sedans, while the GX Coupé received a five-speed unit. The three-door GX was unusual in receiving manual, remotely controlled (from the center console, behind the parking brake) rear side windows. A five-door hatchback ("sedan hatchback") model was added to the line during the 1980 model year, only in GX trim.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: For 1981 the Pulsar received a facelift in North America, with a sloping, horizontal bar grille and rectangular headlights in place of the previous round units. A larger 1.5-liter engine replaced the earlier 1.4-liter unit, although in desmogged form it only produced . This was still a pushrod unit (unlike the new E-series which was on its way into the Pulsar in the rest of the world), with a two-barrel carburetor and a catalytic converter. The 310 never stood a great chance in North America, where the cheaper and somewhat larger rear-wheel-drive 210-series always outsold it. The lack of an automatic option was a further hindrance in the US market.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: A more angular version was announced in April 1982, making its European debut in October. By this time, Nissan had more or less standardised its naming policy worldwide, so as a Nissan it tended, except in European markets, to be known as the Pulsar. In Europe it retained the "Cherry" moniker, and in Malaysia and South Africa it was sold as the Nissan Langley. This generation Pulsar sedan or hatchback was sold in North America only for model year 1983. Some unusual options were carried over from the previous generation, such as having the rear locks (on four-door models) remote operated by cable from the front seat. The rear child locks could also be controlled with a slider mounted beneath the driver's seat.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: New Pulsar models were introduced in the Japanese home market with three- or five-door hatchback bodywork, as well as the Pulsar EXA two-door coupé. In June a four-door sedan arrived as well. Most Pulsars sold had flush-fitting, aerodynamic rectangular headlights, but the lowest-spec cars received smaller rectangular units set deeper within the grille surround. There was no van model of the N12 Pulsar; instead, Nissan Cherry stores sold a version of the B11-series AD Van as the "Pulsar AD." In May 1983 the 1.7-liter CD17 diesel and a turbocharged petrol model were introduced. At the same time, a door mirror was fitted to some models rather than the traditional fender-mounted unit. The law had been changed only two months earlier, allowing for such fitment, and the Pulsar was the first Japanese car to take advantage of the change. The lowest-spec models, like the Pulsar TC, continued to use fender mirrors until the end of N12 production.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The series was facelifted at the end of March 1984, with wider and slimmer headlights. There were no longer two types of headlamps available. This is also when the Pulsar Milano trim level was introduced. This was a three-door hatchback with a more European and Italianate flair - while Alfa Romeo were not involved in its development, calling the model by the name of Alfa Romeo's hometown was a nod at the collaboration. In May 1985 the turbocharger was changed to a water-cooled design.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The , in its second generation, was a Pulsar sold at "Nissan Prince Store" locations next to the Skyline, and shared many styling influences from the Skyline. The market acceptance of the Langley inspired Nissan to sell a second badge engineered version at "Nissan Bluebird Shop" as the . This model partially replaced the larger Nissan Stanza clone called the Nissan Violet Liberta. The Liberta Villa was only available as a sedan, offered as a smaller companion to the (itself a Skyline clone). The top trim package was the SSS turbo with the "E15ET" engine, and the top two trim packages offered multi-port fuel injection with the base model offering a carburetor—all with the 1.5-liter petrol engine. As with the Pulsar and the Langley, the "CD17" diesel engine was also offered on the Liberta Villa.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Singapore the Pulsar was clearly defined as a class below the Sunny (even though a Pulsar sedan is longer than a Sunny and sits on a longer wheelbase). While the Sunny could be had with 1.3 or 1.5-liter engines, the Pulsar was only available with the 1-litre E10 engine. It was also fitted with the small recessed lights used for the lowest-cost models. In Singaporean specifications, the E10 engine produces DIN and was also available together with air conditioning.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Australian market Pulsar N12 series arrived in October 1982. Offered as a five-door hatchback, 1.3-liter TC and 1.5-liter TS specifications featured. These early cars were manufactured in Japan. May 1983 saw the debut of an update to the Australian range. Now produced locally, the update heralded minor trim changes, suspension and steering revisions and new seats. Specification levels were overhauled with the Pulsar E opening up the range with its 1.3-liter engine, followed by the 1.5-liter GL and GX. In October 1983 the sedan body was introduced in GL and GX guises (1.5-liter). A turbocharged Pulsar ET five-door arrived in April 1984, sharing its engine and trim with the EXA. It was only available with a five-speed manual. The ET also had alloy wheels, a modified suspension and various aerodynamic improvements. The engine was imported fully built from Japan, which placed a limit on how many ETs could be built without falling foul of laws on local content.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The next update came in August 1984 alongside a badge engineered twin, the Holden Astra (LB)—a scheme devised under the Button car plan. To differentiate the Pulsar, Nissan Australia applied the upmarket Japanese market Langley body details for its facelift. The headlamps were now fitted as quad units and narrower horizontal tail lamps distinguished the rear styling. Other changes included an increase in specification, minor suspension calibrations, and refreshed interior trims. Sedan versions had their facelift delayed until November that year, and the ET hatchback lingered on with the older styling until the demise of the N12 in 1987. The Australian-built Pulsar ET was also exported to New Zealand, beginning in 1985.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The final Australian N12 update arrived in April 1986 prior to the 1987 N13 introduction. The Holden version was known as the LC Astra. The revisions brought further trim changes, tweaks to the five-speed manual transmission, new colours, a new entry-level DX model, a change from GX to GXE, and the introduction of a larger displacement 1.6-liter engine tuned for unleaded petrol replacing the 1.3- and 1.5-liter leaded units used previously. The ET model also saw its 1.5-liter turbocharged engine updated for unleaded fuel.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The N12 was assembled in New Zealand at Nissan NZ's plant in Wiri South Auckland from 1982, and facelifted in 1984 when the main change was a switch to the now compulsory laminated windscreen. This generation was offered in both three and five door hatchback form with both 1.3- and 1.5-liter Nissan E-series engines shared with the also locally assembled Sunny sedan (NZ did not import the equivalent Pulsar sedan). The Holden Astra badged variant was not sold in New Zealand. The EXA Coupé was a limited official Nissan import new but thousands more Japanese market specification models arrived in the later 1980s and early 1990s when the NZ market was opened up to used imports.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The European market Cherrys were available with engines ranging from a 1.0-liter, petrol unit via a 1270 cc 60 PS, a 1488 cc 70 PS up to the turbocharged 1.5-liter "E15ET" and also included the diesel "CD17". In early 1983, a 1.7-liter diesel option was introduced; this was the first Cherry diesel. Only a small "diesel" badge on the bootlid betrayed the engine option. To accommodate the extra over the front axle, the diesel received stronger front springs and a model-specific, slightly larger, single-spoke steering wheel to counteract what would have otherwise been a heavier steering.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Cherry Turbo was an attempt at breaking into the then very popular GTi category, but being a somewhat half-hearted effort it did not have much of an impact in the marketplace. The Turbo sat on comparatively skinny Dunlop tires and had few changes aside from its many stickers and the turbocharger. Period tests complained about peaky power delivery (and the same long gear ratios as for the regular Cherry), torque steer, and a harsh ride. The Pulsar/Cherry underwent a light facelift in July 1984.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: This model was also built in Italy by Alfa Romeo as the Arna (named after the joint venture which created it, Alfa Romeo Nissan Autoveicoli), using Alfa Romeo boxer engines. Confusingly, the Italian models were also sold in the United Kingdom and Spain as the "Nissan Cherry Europe". At Alfa Romeo, the Arna was meant to replace lesser versions of the popular Alfasud, but never had the Italian car's appeal. The Cherry Europe also failed in its "home" market (Europe) lacking the build quality and reliability of its Japanese built twin car.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In 1986, Nissan's design chief refused to follow the smoother, aerodynamic look of other cars, and told his design team to come up with an affordable, subcompact car. A squarer Pulsar N13 series was released as a result; innovations included a permanently four-wheel drive model with a viscous coupling which appeared in May 1986. In February 1987 a version with three viscous couplings was introduced: one for each axle and one in between. This was originally limited to a production of 200 cars, at a price increase 50 percent higher than for the regular four-wheel-drive version. For 1988 it became a regularly available model; this was very similar to the Attesa system which first appeared in the Bluebird soon thereafter. In 1986, the Pulsar won the Car of the Year Japan award. Capitalizing on the popularity of the larger R31 series Nissan Skyline, this generation shares many visual styling cues with the larger car.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The N13 series EXA was spun off as its own model internationally, but retained the Pulsar NX name in the United States. It was designated as the N13 series, despite actually being based on the Nissan Sunny (B12) chassis.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Pulsar was sold in Japan as a three- and five-door hatchback, plus a four-door sedan. There was no turbocharged version of the N13 Pulsar, with Nissan choosing to focus on multivalve engines instead. In April 1988, the 1.5-litre engines were changed to the new GA generation.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Langley and the Liberta Villa (both sold as sedans and three-door hatchbacks) also continued sales in Japan as upmarket versions of the Pulsar, with a limited engine lineup. Both the Langley and Liberta Villa had slightly different bodywork to the Japanese-specification Pulsar—although most parts were interchangeable. Langley and Liberta Villa three-doors sported completely redesigned rear-ends, which were slightly longer and tapered off in a notchback-like manner and were much sportier in appearance with their more steeply raked rear windows. The sedans featured reshaped upper doors (windows), rear windshields, rear quarter panels, and are noted for the repositioning of the license plate to the rear bumper from the boot lid. The Langley and Liberta Villa were themselves differentiated by their own frontal styling. Compared to the Pulsar, the Langley had narrower trapezoidal-shaped headlamps and a unique grille—whereas the Liberta Villa had narrow rectangular-shaped lights and again its own grille design. The N13 Langley and Liberta Villa featured other options such as a limited-slip differential, luxurious interior and the much sought-after black headlights on the Langley, centre grille and round Skyline-style taillights, with the equipment shared in the Liberta Villa. The Japanese-market Langley five-door hatchback was dropped with the N13.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Malaysia, the N13 Pulsar was sold as the Nissan Sentra, which was introduced in 1987 to replace the slow selling B12 Sentra. From mid-1989 it became available with the 12-valve GA16S engine, in a model called the SLX Super-valve.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In South Africa, the Pulsar was sold as the "Nissan Sabre". There were three- and five-door hatchbacks and a four-door sedan.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Pulsar–Astra relationship continued in Australia, with the series there continuing to use the more upmarket Langley sedan as the donor vehicle. The sedan version was called the Pulsar Vector. The five-door hatchback was also offered, but this model differed from the Japanese Pulsar with reshaped upper doors (windows) and rear quarter panels. The development of the model was a collaboration with Holden, using the Family II engine built in Australia. Nissan introduced a facelift in 1989. After Holden ended their cooperation with Nissan in 1989 (and took up with Toyota instead), sales of the Holden Astra came to an end. Nissan Australia, however, kept using the GM engines until the succeeding N14 version was introduced.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In New Zealand, the previous Sunny and Pulsar ranges were replaced by a single model line now called the Nissan Sentra—which were based on the Japanese market Pulsar and again mostly locally assembled, all with Japanese-manufactured Nissan engines. Versions in New Zealand were available in four body shapes; three-door hatchback (SG, SR), five-door hatchback (SGS, ZXE), four-door sedan (SG, SGS, ZXE), and a five-door "Sportwagon" (SG, SGS).


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Europe, the N13 Pulsar was usually sold under the Nissan Sunny name - however, this was not the same car as the Nissan Sunny (B12) sold elsewhere around the same time. In Greece the N13 Pulsar retained the Cherry nameplate. Some markets (such as the United Kingdom and Greece) received a lineup starting with a 1.0-liter engine, but in most countries the 1.3 was at the bottom of the lineup. A carburetted 1.6 was also on offer (fuel injected and catalysed in some countries), as was the 1.7-liter diesel engine. Typical equipment levels for the non-sporting models were LX and SLX. Four-wheel-drive was also available in the sedan. While the Pulsar was generally sold with Sunny badging in Europe, the Sunny Wagon (B12) was sold as part of the same Sunny family.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The top version, called the Sunny GTi, initially had the 1.6-litre 16-valve engine with at 6,400 rpm in the catalysed version. The version sold in countries unencumbered by emissions regulations produces at 6,600 rpm. The GTi was quite discreet, with external changes limited to side skirts and small spoilers front and rear, as well as alloy wheels. It was not a particularly strong contender in the GTi market, to rectify this Nissan later introduced a more powerful and torquier 1.8-litre version.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In 1990, the N14 model saw Nissan turn to a more rounded design. The Langley and the Liberta Villa were replaced with the Nissan Primera, assigning the Primera to "Nissan Prince Shop" locations.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: This version of the car was launched in the United Kingdom as the Nissan Sunny from March 1991, the last generation of Sunny to be sold in the United Kingdom, where it was replaced late in 1995 by the Almera. One anomaly from this period resulted from Nissan taking control of its British import and distribution business from Automotive Financial Group (AFG); the acrimonious split between Nissan and Octav Botnar resulted in AFG sourcing the vehicle badged as the Pulsar and selling it concurrently in the UK alongside the "official" version (badged as the Sunny) by the newly established Nissan Motor GB.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: This version continued to be offered in CKD kit form in New Zealand as the Sentra (unrelated to the version sold in North America). In Europe, the Sunny name continued, applied to three-door hatchback, five-door hatchback and four-door sedan models, alongside the separate model line Sunny California station wagon from Japan (called either the Sunny Estate or Sunny Traveller). This was the last generation of the Pulsar (now with Sunny badges, as in the rest of Europe) to be assembled in Greece, where TEOKAR went out of business in April 1995.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: There was no N14 Pulsar offered in the United States or Canada either. Instead, the North American Pulsar for those markets evolved into what was known as the NX1600. The NX cars are sport coupés sharing the same chassis, engines, body electronics and even dashboard with the Pulsar N14.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Japan, the N14 range was large, comprising eight different models with a total of eighteen available variations, including six different engines, three body shapes, and two drivetrains.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Australia, the N14 (aka ES) was available in four-door sedan and five-door hatchback. Nissan Australia assembled the range that sold from October 1991 to February 1993 at their factory in Clayton South, Victoria. Similar models with unique specifications and Sentra badging were shipped to New Zealand where a wagon version, sourced from Japan and assembled locally, was also offered. After Nissan closed the Clayton South plant in October 1992 for financial reasons, the models (known as the "Series 2") were imported from Japan and sold in Australia until September 1995, while Nissan NZ imported its own versions in CKD form to sell alongside the locally assembled wagon until the plant in Wiri, South Auckland, shut down in 1998. Unlike the N13 Pulsar/Astra, Holden in Australia did not use a variant of this Pulsar, instead choosing to use a rebadged variant of the rival Toyota Corolla, which they sold as the Holden Nova until the late 1990s when they reintroduced the Astra name for their variant of the Opel Astra. The Pulsar N14 was awarded Australian "Wheels" magazine's Car of the Year in 1991, an honor it shared with the Honda NSX.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In South Africa the N14 (aka ES) was built locally by Nissan South Africa. It was only available with FWD as a four-door sedan (badged Sentra) and five-door hatchback (badged Sabre). Originally released in 1994, and given a cosmetic facelift in 1997 rather than being replaced with the N15, it was produced until 2000 and also exported to Namibia.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The N14 series also saw the introduction of the GTI-R three-door hatchback (sold in Japan as a Pulsar with chassis code E-RNN14, and sold in Europe as a Sunny with chassis code EGNN14). This was a homologation variant produced between 1990 and 1994 in order to enter the WRC under Group A rules. It featured a turbocharged 2.0-litre "SR20DET" engine producing and . The body is largely the same as the standard N14 three-door model, but distinguished by the large rear wing and bonnet scoop. It has an ATTESA all-wheel drive system and a unique variant (coded "54C") of the "SR20DET" engine. With a power-to-weight ratio of 0.083 and AWD, the standard GTI-R is able to accelerate from 0–100 km/h in 5.4 seconds, cover the standing quarter-mile in 13.5 seconds, and reach a (manufacturer claimed) top speed of 232 km/h (144 mph).


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: There were several different models of the GTI-R sold to the general public, identifiable by the model number found on the VIN plate located on the firewall in the engine bay.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Pulsar GTI-R was manufactured in Japan between August 1990 until November 1994. The Sunny GTI-R was produced from February 1992 until October 1993. The first year of production (1990–1991) was the largest due to Nissan needing to fulfil the FIA Group A regulations at the time (5,000 models total, with 500 of them homologation models) in order to enter the car as a manufacturer in the WRC.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In 1995, the N15 Pulsar was launched as a compact car, rather than subcompact, and sold in Europe as the Nissan Almera. The New Zealand Nissan Sentra changed name to Pulsar after the Nissan assembly plant in Wiri, Auckland closed down in 1998, in favor of imports from Japan. Again, four- and five-door models were offered, with three-door models being available in Europe and Japan only, and not Australia and New Zealand. North American customers did not receive this car, with the Sunny-based Sentra B14 being sold there instead.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The chassis designation "N" series carried over to the Bluebird Sylphy (N16) in 2000 for the Japanese market.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Australasian versions included the LX, SLX, Q and SSS variants. New Zealand specific versions included the S and SE variant. The SSS model (5-door hatch only) featured the SR20DE engine featuring /179 Nm.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Japan, the N15 was available under numerous nameplates, giving Nissan in Japan the opportunity to sell the Pulsar at two different Japanese network dealerships, called "Nissan Cherry Store" that sold the Pulsar, and "Nissan Satio Store" that sold the Lucino. Hatchback models were badged Pulsar Serie.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: In Australia and New Zealand, Nissan continued to use the Pulsar name for the N16 series that was labelled Nissan Bluebird Sylphy in Japan.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The B17 series Sylphy sedan was marketed as the Nissan Pulsar for the Australian and New Zealand markets since 2013. The model was discontinued in these two markets in April 2017, alongside the L33 Altima with no successor.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The C12 Pulsar hatchback was released in 2013 as a rebadged Nissan Tiida for Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. The C12 model was discontinued in Australia and New Zealand in April 2016 alongside the K13 Micra hatchback with no successor. It was also discontinued in Thailand in 2018, while it continues to be marketed in Taiwan as the Nissan Tiida.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: On 16 May 2014, Nissan revealed the C13 series Pulsar for the European market. Based on the CMF platform, this model does not replace the C12 version, but is a European-only alternative. The C13 Pulsar signifies Nissan's reentry into the highly competitive compact hatchback segment, following the withdrawal of the Tiida from the market in 2011. It marks the first time the Pulsar nameplate has officially been used in mainland Europe, rather than the Cherry, Sunny and Almera nameplates that have been used in Europe over the generations. European sales began in March 2015. Pulsars for sale in Europe were built at Nissan's Barcelona plant in Spain.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: Initially, the C13 Pulsar was available with a 1.2-liter DiG-T petrol engine with CVT transmission or a 1.5-liter diesel unit producing . In October 2014, Nissan introduced the 1.6-liter DIG-T which develops and went on sale since March 2015.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The model was marketed in Russia since March 2015 as the Nissan Tiida, where it was assembled in Izhevsk from January 2015, but production only lasted until December of the same year due to low sales. It is also sold in China as the C13 series Nissan Tiida since 2016 after being displayed at the April 2016 Auto China. In other Asian markets, the Nissan Pulsar is launched in Singapore since January 2017.


title: Nissan Pulsar

text: The Pulsar was discontinued in Europe on 12 September 2018 due to poor demand, with Spanish production having ended in June of the same year. The Almera sedan was also discontinued in the Russian market alongside the Pulsar with sales and production ending in October 2018. The model is still sold in China under the Tiida nameplate with a 1.6-litre NA engine.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: the 270th archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, since 2 November 1991. In accordance with his title, he is regarded as the "primus inter pares" (first among equals) in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and as the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: Bartholomew I was born as Dimitrios Arhondonis (), in the village of Agios Theodoros on the island of Imbros (later renamed Gökçeada by Turkey). After his graduation, he held a position at the Patriarchal Theological Seminary of Halki, where he was ordained a priest. Later, he served as metropolitan of Philadelphia and Chalcedon and he became a member of the Holy Synod as well as other committees, prior to his enthronement as ecumenical patriarch.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: Bartholomew's tenure has been characterized by intra-Orthodox cooperation, intra-Christian and inter-religious dialogue, and formal visits to Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim leaders seldom previously visited by an ecumenical patriarch. He has exchanged numerous invitations with church and state dignitaries. His efforts to promote religious freedom and human rights, his initiatives to advance religious tolerance among the world's religions, as well as his efforts to promote ecology and the protection of the environment, have been widely noted, and these endeavors have earned him the title "The Green Patriarch". Among his many international positions, he currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute. In 2018 the Moscow Patriarchate broke communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a result of disputes over his decision to grant autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: Dimitrios Arhondonis was born in the village of Agioi Theodoroi on the island of Imbros (now Gökçeada, Turkey), son of Christos and Meropi Archodónis (née Skarlatos), both of Greek descent. He was the fourth and last child and as a boy helped his father in his coffee shop that also doubled as a barber's.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: Bartholomew I was the target of an assassination plot which was planned to take place on May 29, 2013. One suspect was arrested and there is an ongoing search for two others.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: As ecumenical patriarch, he has been particularly active internationally. One of his first focuses has been on rebuilding the once-persecuted Eastern Orthodox churches of the former Eastern Bloc following the fall of Communism there in 1990. As part of this effort he has worked to strengthen ties among the various national churches and patriarchates of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He has also continued the reconciliation dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church started by his predecessors, and initiated dialogue with other faiths, including other Christian Churches, Muslims, and Jews.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: He has also gained a reputation as a prominent environmentalist, putting the support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate behind various international environmental causes. This has earned him the nicknames of "the Green Patriarch" and "the Green Pope", and in 2002 he was honored with the Sophie Prize for his contribution to environmentalism. He has also been honoured with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award which may be bestowed by the Legislative Branch of the United States government.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In an interview published on 19 November 2006 in the daily newspaper "Sabah", Bartholomew I addressed the issues of religious freedom and the then upcoming papal trip to Turkey. He also referred to the closing of the Halki seminary by saying: "As Turkish citizens, we pay taxes. We serve in the military. We vote. As citizens we do everything. We want the same rights. But it does not happen... If Muslims want to study theology, there are 24 theology faculties. Where are we going to study?" He also addressed the issue of his ecumenical title and it not being accepted by the Turkish government: "We've had this title since the 6th century... The word ecumenical has no political content. [...] This title is the only thing that I insist on. I will never renounce this title."


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: During his trip to Turkey in November 2006, Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Istanbul on the invitation of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. The Pope participated in the feast day services of St. Andrew the First Apostle, the patron saint of the Church of Constantinople. This was the third official visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate by a pope (the first being by Paul VI in 1967, and the second by John Paul II in 1979). He attended the Papal inauguration of Pope Francis on 19 March 2013, paving the way for better Catholic–Orthodox relations. It was the first time that the spiritual head of Eastern Orthodox Christians had attended a papal inauguration since the Great Schism in 1054. After, he invited Pope Francis to travel with him to the Holy Land in 2014 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the embrace between Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI. Pope Francis was also invited to the Patriarchate for the feast day of Saint Andrew (30 November).


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: On 16 April 2016 he visited, together with Pope Francis and Archbishop Hieronymus, the Moria Refugee Camp in the island of Lesbos, to call the attention of the world to the refugee issue. In December 2018, he visited the Korean DMZ and prayed for permanent peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In October 2018 the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate agreed to grant autocephaly (independence) to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, to reestablish a stauropegion of the ecumenical patriarch in Kyiv, to revoke the legal binding of the letter of 1686 which led to the Russian Orthodox Church establishing jurisdiction over the Ukrainian Church, and to lift the excommunications which affected clergy and faithful of two then unrecognized Orthodox churches in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP). In response, the Russian Orthodox Church announced it was cutting ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which marked the beginning of the 2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: On 5 January 2019, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the newly founded Orthodox church of Ukraine.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: On 2 July 2019, it was announced that Pope Francis had given Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew possession of nine bone fragments believed to belong to St. Peter and which were publicly displayed by Pope Francis in November 2013 during a Vatican 'Year of Faith' Mass. Bartholomew, who also gained possession of the bronze reliquary which they are displayed in, described the Pope's gesture as "brave and bold."


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In 2022, the Ecumenical Patriarchate accepted the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid into communion, recognized North Macedonia as its canonical territory and granted it autocephaly.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: He received an honorary doctorate from the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in the South Korea on 23 June 2005.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In December 2018, he received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In October 2021, he received an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame in the United States.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: On November 1, 2021, he received the Human Dignity Award from American Jewish Committee (AJC), the premier global Jewish advocacy organization. The AJC honor recognizes Bartholomew's singular care for humanity and the environment, exceptional commitment to interreligious coexistence, and indispensable advancement of Orthodox-Jewish relations.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: On December 3, 2013, he received the Global Thinkers Forum 2013 Award for Excellence in Peace and Collaboration.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In 1997, Bartholomew received the Congressional Gold Medal. The Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are the highest civilian awards given by the United States.


title: Bartholomew I of Constantinople

text: In April 2008, he was included on the "Time" 100 most influential people in the world list. On 13 March 2007, the third anniversary of the death of Cardinal Franz König, Bartholomew was awarded in Vienna's St. Stephen Cathedral the "Cardinal König Prize" from the Foundation "Communio et Progressio".


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile components of the United States military's strategic nuclear forces from 1946 to 1992. SAC was also responsible for the operation of strategic reconnaissance aircraft and airborne command post aircraft as well as most of the USAF's aerial refueling fleet, including aircraft from the Air Force Reserve (AFRES) and Air National Guard (ANG).


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC primarily consisted of the Second Air Force (2AF), Eighth Air Force (8AF) and the Fifteenth Air Force (15AF), while SAC headquarters (HQ SAC) included Directorates for Operations & Plans, Intelligence, Command & Control, Maintenance, Training, Communications, and Personnel. At a lower echelon, SAC headquarters divisions included Aircraft Engineering, Missile Concept, and Strategic Communications.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1992, as part of an overall post-Cold War reorganization of the U.S. Air Force, SAC was disestablished as both a Specified Command and as a MAJCOM, and its and equipment redistributed among the Air Combat Command (ACC), Air Mobility Command (AMC), Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), and Air Education and Training Command (AETC), while SAC's central headquarters complex at Offutt AFB, Nebraska was concurrently transferred to the newly created United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), which was established as a joint Unified Combatant Command to replace SAC's Specified Command role.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 2009, SAC's previous USAF MAJCOM role was reactivated and redesignated as the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), with AFGSC eventually acquiring claimancy and control of all USAF bomber aircraft and the USAF strategic ICBM force.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The Strategic Air Forces of the United States during World War II included General Carl Spaatz's European command, United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe (USSTAF), consisting of the 8AF and 15AF, and the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF) and its Twentieth Air Force (20AF).


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The U.S. Army Air Forces' first mission in the Strategic Bombing Campaign in the European Theater during World War II included the VIII Bomber Command, which conducted the first European "heavy bomber" attack by the USAAF on 17 August 1942; the Ninth Air Force, which conducted the first Operation Crossbow "No-Ball" missions on 5 December 1943; the Twelfth Air Force; and the Fifteenth Air Force, which executed bombing operations on 2 November 1943 during Operation Pointblank.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The Operation Overlord air plan for the strategic bombing of both Germany and German military forces in continental Europe prior to the 1944 invasion of France used several Air Forces, primarily those of the USAAF and those of the Royal Air Force (RAF), with the command of air operations transferring to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force on 14 April 1944.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Planning to reorganize for a separate and independent postwar U.S. Air Force had begun by the fall of 1945, with the Simpson Board tasked to plan, "...the reorganization of the Army and the Air Force...". In January 1946, Generals Eisenhower and Spaatz agreed on an Air Force organization composed of the Strategic Air Command, the Air Defense Command, the Tactical Air Command, the Air Transport Command and the supporting Air Technical Service Command, Air Training Command, the Air University, and the Air Force Center.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Strategic Air Command was originally established in the U.S. Army Air Forces on 21 March 1946, acquiring part of the personnel and facilities of the Continental Air Forces (CAF), the World War II command tasked with the air defense of the continental United States (CONUS). At the time, CAF headquarters was located at Bolling Field (later Bolling AFB) in the District of Columbia and SAC assumed occupancy of its headquarters facilities until relocating SAC headquarters (HQ SAC) to nearby Andrews Field (later Andrews AFB), Maryland as a tenant activity until assuming control of Andrews Field in October 1946.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC initially totaled 37,000 USAAF personnel. In addition to Bolling Field and, seven months later, Andrews Field, SAC also assumed responsibility for:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC also had seven additional CAF bases transferred on 21 March 1946 which remained in SAC through the 1947 establishment of the U.S. Air Force as an independent service. Those installations included:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Under the first SAC Commander in Chief, General George C. Kenney, initial units reporting to the Strategic Air Command headquarters on 21 March 1946 included the Second Air Force, the IX Troop Carrier Command and the 73d Air Division.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Fifteenth Air Force was assigned to SAC on 31 March (15th AF's 263rd Army Air Force Base Unit—with —transferred the same date directly under HQ SAC ), while the IX Troop Carrier Command was inactivated the same date and its assets redistributed within SAC.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: With postwar demobilization still underway, eight of the ten assigned bomb groups were inactivated before the Eighth Air Force was assigned to SAC on 7 June 1946


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Despite the pressures of demobilization, SAC continued the training and evaluation of bomber crews and units still on active duty in the postwar Army Air Forces. Radar Bomb Scoring became the preferred method of evaluating bomber crews, with the last of 888 simulated bomb runs scored against a bombing site near San Diego, California during 1946, subsequently increasing to 2,449 bomb runs by 1947. In the wake of the successful employment of air-dropped nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki to effectively end World War II, SAC became the focus of the nation's nuclear strike capability, to the extent that Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Publication 1259/27 on 12 December 1946 identified that, "...the 'air atomic' strategic air force should only come under the orders of the JCS."


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In addition to the strategic bombing mission, SAC also devoted significant resources to aerial reconnaissance. In 1946, SAC's reconnaissance aircraft inventory consisted of F-2 photo variants of the C-45 Expeditor support aircraft, but by 1947 SAC had acquired an F-9C squadron consisting of twelve photo-reconnaissance variants of the B-17G Flying Fortress. An F-13 squadron, the F-13 later re-designated as the RB-29 Superfortress, was also established. SAC conducted routine aerial reconnaissance missions near the Soviet borders or near the 12-mile international waters limit, although some missions actually penetrated into Soviet airspace. The flight profiles of these missions—above 30,000 feet and in excess of 300 knots—made interception by Soviet air forces difficult until the Soviet's 1948 introduction of the MiG-15 jet fighter. Project Nanook, the Cold War's first Top Secret reconnaissance effort, used the first RB-29 missions for mapping and visual reconnaissance in the Arctic and along the northern Soviet coast. Later missions were Project LEOPARD along the Chukchi Peninsula, followed by Projects RICKRACK, STONEWORK, and COVERALLS.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1946, the US possessed only nine atomic bombs and twenty-seven B-29s capable at any one time of delivering them. Furthermore, it was later determined that an attack by the 509th Composite Bomb Group during the 1947 to 1948 time frame would have required at least five to six days just to transfer custody of the bombs from United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sites to SAC and deploy the aircraft and weapons to forward operating bases before launching nuclear strikes.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Postwar budget and personnel cuts had an insidious effect on SAC as its Deputy Commander, Major General Clements McMullen, implemented mandated force reductions. This continued to wear down SAC as a command and morale plummeted. As a result, by the end of 1947, only two of SAC's eleven groups were combat ready. After the 1948 Bikini Atoll nuclear tests, the "Half Moon" Joint Emergency War Plan developed in May 1948 proposed dropping 50 atomic bombs on twenty Soviet cities, with President Harry S. Truman approving "Half Moon" during the June 1948 Berlin Blockade, (Truman sent B-29s to Europe in July). SAC also ordered special ELINT RB-29s to detect improved Soviet radars and, in cooperation with the 51st Air Force Base Unit, SAC also monitored radioactive fallout from Soviet atomic testing on Novaya Zemlya.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In terms of overall Air Force basing and infrastructure, SAC continued to acquire an ever-increasing share of USAF infrastructure and the USAF associated budget. In 1947, before the USAF was established as an independent service, construction commenced on Limestone AAF, Maine (later renamed Loring AFB), a new SAC installation specifically designed to accommodate the B-36 Peacemaker. Fort Dix AAF, New Jersey (later McGuire AFB); Spokane AAF, Washington (later Fairchild AFB); and Wendover Field, Utah (later Wendover AFB) were also transferred to SAC between 30 April and 1 September 1947. Following the establishment of the USAF as a separate service, SAC bases in the United States consisted of:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In addition to bases under its operational control, SAC also maintained tenant wings at several bases under the control of other USAF MAJCOMs. These non-SAC bases with SAC tenants included:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC also often maintained a tenant presence at former SAC bases that the command subsequently transferred and relinquished to other MAJCOMs, to include but not limited to:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC transferred to the United States Air Force on 26 September 1947, concurrent with the latter's establishment as a separate military service. Units directly under SAC HQ included the 8AF and 15AF, as well as the 311th Air Division, 4th Fighter Wing, 82nd Fighter Wing, 307th Bomb Wing, and two reconnaissance units, the 311th Reconnaissance Wing and the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron. The 56th Fighter Wing was subsequently assigned to SAC on 1 October 1947.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Following the establishment of the U.S. Air Force, most SAC installations on U.S. territory were renamed as "Air Force Base" during late 1947 and into 1948, while non-U.S. installations were renamed as "Air Base".


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In May 1948, in an exercise versus Air Defense Command's "Blue" force, a SAC "Red" strike force simulated attacks on Eastern Seaboard targets as far south as Virginia. After a "scathing" 1948 Lindbergh review of SAC operations in the air and at six SAC bases, General Kenney was removed as Commanding General on 15 October 1948 and replaced on 19 October 1948 by 8AF's commander, Lieutenant General Curtis LeMay. Upon LeMay's assumption of command, SAC had only 60 nuclear-capable aircraft, none of which possessed a realistic long range capability against the Soviet Union.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The B-29D, which had become the B-50 in December 1945, was first delivered to SAC in June 1948. This was followed by SAC's first Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber arriving at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico in September 1948.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In November 1948, LeMay had SAC's headquarters and its command post moved from Andrews AFB, Maryland to Offutt AFB, Nebraska. At Offutt, the command moved into the "A Building", a three-story facility that had previously been used by the Glenn L. Martin Company during World War II. Concurrent with the establishment of this new headquarters facility, Lemay also increased SAC Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) runs the same year to 12,084. SAC also enhanced its organic fighter escort capability by initiating replacement of its World War II vintage piston-engine F-51D Mustang and F-82E Twin Mustang fighter aircraft with F-84G Thunderjets.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In January 1949, SAC conducted simulated raids on Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Assessments of these simulated raids by "...LeMay's entire command...were appalling", despite the SAC deputy commander, Major General McMullen, having instructed all bomber units to improve their effectiveness. To motivate crews and improve operational effectiveness command-wide, SAC established a competition, the first so-called "Bomb Comp" in 1948. Winners of this inaugural event were the 43rd Bombardment Group (unit) and, for aircrew award, a B-29 team from the 509th Bombardment Group.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Given its global operating environment, SAC also opened its own survival school at Camp Carson, Colorado in 1949, later moving this school to Stead AFB, Nevada in 1952 before transferring the school to the Air Training Command in 1954.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC also created Emergency War Plan 1–49 (EWP 1–49), which outlined the means for delivering 133 atomic bombs, "...the entire stockpile...in a single massive attack..." on 70 Soviet cities over a 30-day period.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The first Soviet atomic bomb test occurred on 29 August 1949 and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) subsequently identified SAC's primary objective was to damage or destroy the Soviet Union's ability to deliver nuclear weapons. The JCS further defined SAC's secondary objective was to stop any Soviet advances into Western Europe, and its tertiary objective was the previous EWP 1–49 industrial mission.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In July 1950, in response to combat operations on the Korean peninsula, SAC dispatched ten nuclear-capable bombers to Guam and deployed four B-29 bomber wings in Korea for tactical operations, although this action caused SAC commander LeMay to comment "...too many splinters were being whittled off the [deterrence] stick".


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Initial SAC B-29 successes against North Korea in the summer of 1950 were countered by subsequent Soviet MiG-15 fighter-interceptors, and SAC's 27th Fighter Escort Wing began escorting the bombers with F–84 Thunderjets. Ground-directed bombing (GDB) was subsequently used for close air support (CAS) missions after three SAC radar bomb scoring (RBS) squadron detachments (Dets C, K, & N) arrived at Pusan in September 1950. In 1951, SAC "began to eliminate its combat groups", transferring medium bombardment groups "to Far East Air Forces (FEAF) Bomber Command for combat." In 1951, LeMay convinced the Air Staff to allow SAC to approve nuclear targets, and he continued refusing to submit war plans for JCS review, which the JCS eventually came to accept (of 20,000 candidates in 1960, SAC designated 3,560 as bombing targets—mostly Soviet air defense: airfields and suspected missile sites.)


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Although experimented with prior to World War II, SAC refined aerial refueling to a fine art. SAC's in-flight refueling mission began in July 1952 when its 31st Fighter-Escort Wing refueled sixty F-84G Thunderjets from Turner AFB, Georgia to Travis AFB, California non-stop with fuel from twenty-four KB-29P Superfortresses modified into aerial tankers. Exercise FOX PETER ONE followed with 31st FEW fighters being refueled Hickam AFB en route to Hawaii.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 15 March 1953, a 38th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron RB-50 returned fire on a Soviet MiG-15, while a 343d Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron RB-50 was shot down over the Sea of Japan 2 days after the Korean Armistice, while on 7 November 1954, an RB-29 was shot down near Hokkaido Island in northern Japan. By the time of 27 July 1953 Korean War cease-fire, SAC B-29s had flown over 21,000 sorties and dropped nearly 167,000 tons of bombs, with thirty-four B-29s lost in combat and forty-eight B-29s were lost to damage or crashes.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC's first jet strategic bomber was the swept-wing B-47 medium bomber, which first entered service in 1951 and became operational within SAC in 1953. The B-47 was a component of the October 1953 "New Look" strategy, which articulated, in part, that: ""...to minimize the threat...the major purpose of air defense was not to shoot down enemy bombers—it was to allow SAC...to get into the air"[--and]" not be destroyed on the ground"[--to allow]" massive retaliation".".


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Concern of a bomber gap grew after the 1955 Soviet Aviation Day and the Soviets rejected the "Open Skies" Treaty proposed at the Geneva Summit on 21 July 1955. US bomber strength peaked with "over 2,500 bombers" after production "of over 2,000 B-47s and almost 750 B-52s" (circa 1956, 50% of SAC aircraft & 80% of SAC bombers were B-47s).


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In an effort to concurrently enhance it reconnaissance capabilities, SAC also received several RB-57D Canberra aircraft in April 1956, with the aircraft initially based at Turner AFB, Georgia. In 1957, these aircraft were forward deployed to Rhein-Main Air Base, West Germany, in order to conduct reconnaissance missions along the borders of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations. However, an unintended consequence of this deployment was that Hawker Hunter fighters of the Royal Air Force stationed in the United Kingdom and in continental Europe often intercepted these classified RB-57 missions as they returned to Rhein-Main AB from over the Baltic.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Since it was designed as a medium bomber, SAC's B-47 Stratojet traded speed for range. Because of this shorter range, and in order to better enable the B-47 fleet to reach its target sets in the Soviet Union, SAC routinely deployed its US-based B-47 wings to overseas forward operating bases in North Africa, Spain and Turkey. This program, in effect from 1957 to 1966, was known as "Reflex" with Sixteenth Air Force (16AF), a SAC numbered air force permanently stationed in Europe, having tactical and administrative control of the forward-deployed aircraft and units.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Beginning in 1955, SAC also moved a portion of its bomber and aerial refueling aircraft to 24-hour alert status, either on the ground or airborne. By 1960, fully one third of SAC's bombers and aerial refueling aircraft were on 24-hour alert, with those crews and aircraft not already airborne ready to take off from designated alert sites at their respective bases within fifteen minutes. Bomber aircraft on ground alert were armed with nuclear weapons while aerial tanker aircraft were sufficiently fueled to provide maximum combat fuel offload to the bombers.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Concurrent with this increased alert posture and in order to better hone strategic bombing skillsets, the 1955 SAC Bombing and Navigation Competition was characterized by radar bomb scoring (RBS) runs on Amarillo, Denver, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, San Antonio and Phoenix; and the 1957 competition (nicknamed "Operation Longshot") had three targets: Atlanta, Kansas City, and St. Louis. This use of RBS with simulated target areas utilizing mobile and fixed bomb scoring sites adjacent to major cities, industrial areas, military installations and dedicated bombing ranges throughout the United States. This format would continue through successive SAC Bombing and Navigation Competitions through the remainder of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Commencing in the late 1950s, in addition to representation from every SAC wing with a bombing and/or air refueling mission, later SAC competitions would also include participating bomber and aerial refueling units from the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command and (after 30 April 1968) its successor, RAF Strike Command.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: It was described as the "Western Pentagon," specifically a, "...four-story, reinforced concrete and masonry office building..." above ground and a "...segregated, adjacent three-story below ground command post." This was the description of what would become Building 500 at Offutt AFB and the new headquarters complex built expressly for SAC, with construction commencing in 1955. SAC headquarters moved from the A Building at Offutt AFB to Building 500 in 1957. The underground nuclear bunker had 24-inch thick walls and base floor, 10-inch thick intermediate floors, and 24-to-42-inch thick roof. It also contained a war room with six 16-foot data display screens and the capacity to sustain up to 800 people underground for two weeks. The below ground bunker portion of the headquarters complex also contained an IBM 704 computer, which was used to develop monthly weather forecasts at targets, as well as for computing fuel consumption and fallout cloud patterns for planning strike routes and egress routes (e.g., determining the timing as to which targets to bomb first).


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1957, SAC also constructed The Notch, a facility alternatively known as the 8th Air Force Combat Operations Center (COC) and the Westover Communications Annex, since it was a sub-post of nearby Westover AFB. A 3-story nuclear bunker located on Bare Mountain, Massachusetts, The Notch was built with three-foot thick walls, 1.5 foot thick steel blast doors, and 20 feet underground to protect 350 people for 35 days. The Notch was shut down as a SAC facility in 1970 when 8th Air Force was relocated to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Despite this investment in "hardened" headquarters and command and control facilities, the 1957 Gaither Commission identified, "...little likelihood of SAC's bombers surviving [a Soviet first strike] since there was no way to detect an incoming attack until the first [Soviet nuclear weapon] warhead landed." As a result, SAC's bombers and tankers began sitting armed ground alert at their respective bases on 1 Oct 57.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In another organizational change during this time period, SAC's fighter escort wings were transferred to Tactical Air Command (TAC) during 1957 and 1958. Finally, during January 1958's Exercise Fir Fly, SAC "faker" aircraft (twelve B-47s) simulated bombing strikes against metropolitan areas and military installations in the United States defended by Air Defense Command's 28th Air Division.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: After SAC's 1st Missile Division was activated on 18 March 1957, SAC HQ established the Office of Assistant CINCSAC (SAC MIKE) at the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division in California on 1 January 1958. SAC MIKE was responsible for missile development liaison, the intermediate range Jupiter and Thor missiles having been transferred to SAC for alert in 1958.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Beginning on 1 February 1958, a SAC Liaison Team was also located at the NORAD Command Post at Ent AFB, Colorado, and the two commands agreed that direct land line communications should connect SAC bases with NORAD's Air Defense Direction Centers. Also in the late 1950s, SAC continued to enhance its intelligence collection activities and develop innovative means of improving the survivability of its forces to surprise attack. From 1958–, a SAC Detachment (TUSLOG Det 50) operated at Incirlik AB, Turkey, monitoring Soviet missile telemetry from the Kapustin Yar and Tyuratam launch complexes, while in 1959, SAC's Operation Big Star studied, prototyped and evaluated the potential of deploying of Minuteman I ICBMs on civilian railroad tracks via USAF-operated locomotives and trains.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: President Eisenhower approved the first Atlas ICBM launch by a SAC crew for 9 September 1959 at Vandenberg AFB.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: While missile operations continued to ramp up, robust training for flight crews to ensure survivability for strike missions also continued. In some instances SAC bombers would oppose ADC fighter-interceptors simulating Soviet interceptors. Conversely, SAC assisted ADC readiness by simulating Soviet bomber threats to the continental United States that ADC fighters would respond to. However, following a mid-air collision between an ADC F-102 and a SAC B-47 during a 17 December 1959 Quick Kick exercise, simulated NORAD fighter attacks were prohibited against SAC bombers.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 18 March 1960, SAC intercontinental missiles began alert at Maine's Snark Missile Launch Complex adjacent to Presque Isle AFB. The following month, on 22 April 1960, SAC turned over the last British-based PGM-17 Thor IRBM to the Royal Air Force. This was soon followed by SAC's first Titan I ICBMs at Lowry AFB's Titan I Missile Complex 1A in Colorado being placed on alert that June.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Beginning in November 1959, in order to counter Soviet surface-to-air missile threats, SAC began adding low-altitude bombing training for its manned bomber force as an adjunct to its legacy high-altitude training. Use of low level flight route corridors known as "Oil Burner" routes (later renamed "Olive Branch" routes in the 1970s), and the first of three SAC RBS trains were utilized starting in 1960. On 30 June 1960, SAC had 696 aircraft on alert in the Zone of Interior, also known as the ZI (referred to today as the Continental United States, or CONUS) and at overseas bases. These 696 aircraft were 113 B-52s, 346 B-47s, 85 KC-135s, and 152 KC-97s. SAC's Emergency War Order (EWO) required the first aircraft to be airborne within 8 minutes and all aircraft to be airborne within 15 minutes after notification.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: During the mid-1950s, having recalled numerous World War II USAAF and Korean War USAF combat veteran pilots, navigators, bombardiers and aircrewmen from inactive reserve status back to various lengths of active duty, SAC took the lead in integrating the Air Force's reserve components into the overall SAC structure. By the beginning of the 1960s, SAC had also engineered the assignment of KC-97 Stratofreighter aerial refueling aircraft to Air National Guard groups and wings and having them fall under SAC's operational claimancy.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 11 August 1960, President Eisenhower approved the creation of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff (JSTPS), co-located at SAC headquarters at Offutt AFB.) JSTPS also included non-SAC agencies tasked with preparing the Single Integrated Operation Plan, or SIOP, and the National Strategic Target List for nuclear war.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 1 July 1960, a SAC RB-47 with a six-man crew was shot down in international airspace over the Barents Sea by a Soviet MiG-19. Four of the crewmen were killed and two surviving crewmen were captured and held in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow for seven months.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 3 February 1961, SAC's Boeing EC-135 Looking Glass, began operations as the Airborne Command Post for the Nuclear Triad and the Post-Attack Command and Control System. From this date and for the next years, until 24 July 1990, SAC would maintain at least one Looking Glass aircraft continuously aloft 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with an embarked SAC general officer and battle staff, ready to assume command of all strategic nuclear strike forces in the event that SAC headquarters was destroyed in a Soviet first strike.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC's airborne alerts during this period also included Operation Chrome Dome for the bomber and tanker force. Although ostensibly a peacetime mission, Chrome Dome placed heavy demands on flight crews and five B-52 aircraft were lost to airborne mishaps during the operation's eight-year period.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 11 May 1961, SAC took delivery of its first B-58 Hustler supersonic medium bomber, assigning it to the 305th Bombardment Wing at Bunker Hill AFB. Optimized for high-altitude, high-speed penetration into Soviet territory prior to Soviet advancements in high-altitude surface-to-air missiles, the B-58 was expensive to operate and inefficient at lower altitudes. Its service in SAC would be comparatively short, eventually being replaced by the FB-111 by 1970.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: After an early 1961 development by SAC of a Radar Bomb Scoring (RBS) field kit for use in the U.S. Army's Nike surface-to-air missile systems, SAC aircraft flew several mock penetrations into Air Defense Command sectors in the 1961 SAGE/Missile Master test program, as well as the joint SAC-NORAD Sky Shield II exercise followed by Sky Shield III on 2 September 1962.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1961, following the Berlin Crisis, President John F. Kennedy increased the number of SAC aircraft on alert to 50 percent and during periods of increased tensions SAC kept some B-52 airborne in the event of a surprise attack.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1962, SAC gained full control of the various "Q Areas" developed by Sandia Laboratories for nuclear weapon storage adjacent to Loring AFB (Site E (Maine)/Caribou AFS), Ellsworth AFB (Site F (South Dakota)/Rushmore AFS), Fairchild AFB (Site G (Washington)/Deep Creek AFS), Travis AFB (Site H (California)/Fairfield AFS), and Westover AFB (Site I (Massachusetts)/Stony Brook AFS). These adjunct sites were subsequently converted to USAF-operated and maintained weapon storage areas (WSAs) in the same manner as WSAs on other SAC bases.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The solid fuel LGM-30A Minuteman I was first deployed in 1962 and the LGM-25C Titan II reached operational service in 1963. Project Added Effort phased out all first-generation ICBMs beginning on 1 May 1964 when Atlas-D were taken off alert at Vandenberg AFB's 576th SMS (LGM-30F Minuteman II replaced Minuteman I in 1965).


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In October 1962, an SAC BRASS KNOB mission U-2 piloted by Major Richard S. Heyser detected Soviet intermediate range ballistic missiles in Cuba. BRASS KNOB operations involving multiple U-2 aircraft were subsequently commenced at a forward operating location at McCoy AFB, Florida the same month. On the morning of 27 October, a SAC RB-47H of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, forward deployed to Kindley AFB, Bermuda crashed on takeoff, killing all four crewmembers, while later that afternoon, a 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron U-2 forward deployed to McCoy AFB for BRASS KNOB operations was shot down over Cuba by an SA-2 Guideline missile, killing the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Throughout the early 1960s, the Kennedy Administration, under the aegis of Secretary of Defense McNamara, cancelled numerous SAC modernization programs. This included the Mach 3 North American B-70 Valkyrie in 1961, the GAM-87 Skybolt missile in 1962, and the Rocky Mountain Deep Underground Support Center in 1963. The B-70's demise came due to its design as a high-altitude bomber with very limited low-altitude performance, making it vulnerable to rapid advances in Soviet high altitude surface-to-air missile defense systems. The following year, Skybolt, an air-launched ballistic missile, was cancelled following numerous test failures and the perceived greater reliability of land-based and submarine-based ballistic missile systems. Although initially entering service in 1957, SAC's 2nd-generation aerial refueling aircraft, the KC-135 Stratotanker, had reached sufficient inventory numbers to allow SAC to begin divestiture of its KC-97 Stratofreighter tankers, transferring them to SAC-gained Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units. As the KC-135 became the primary aerial tanker in active service, SAC employed the aircraft for several non-stop B-52 and KC-135 flights around the world, demonstrating that SAC no longer needed to depend on Reflex stations at air bases in Spain and Britain.)


title: Strategic Air Command

text: After the Secretary of Defense rejected LeMay's November 1964 proposal for a "...strategic air campaign against 94 targets in North Vietnam...", thirty SAC B-52Fs were deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam on 17 February 1965, representing the first increment of SAC aircraft forward deployed for the Vietnam War. The following month, in March 1965, the Strategic Air Command Advanced Echelon (SACADVON) was established as a "...liaison unit for CINCSAC [was] located at MACV Headquarters to assist with the B-52 effort."


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 23 May 1965, SAC B-52Fs began unarmed missions for radar mapping "...and later to test bombing with the assistance of ground homing beacons..." SAC began saturation bombing on 18 June 1965 (8000 tons per month in 1966) and conducted Operation Arc Light missions from 1965 until the end of hostilities involving U.S. forces in 1973.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: All B-52F missions in 1965 were against targets in South Vietnam (RVN) except for the December "...Duck Flight mission [that] hit a suspected VC supply storage area [for which] part of the target box was in Laos." In April 1966, Vietnam operations began with the B-52D model, a 1956 model designed to use the AGM-28 Hound Dog cruise missile and the ADM-20 Quail aerial decoys for low altitude operations and modified in late 1965 by Project Big Belly to increase conventional bomb capacity.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC's RBS Squadrons were discontinued when most detachment personnel transferred to Vietnam from 1966 to 1973 for Combat Skyspot ground-directed bombing operations. The first "Quick Reaction" bombing was the "Pink Lady" mission on 6 July 1966 using SAC B-52D/Fs to support the U.S. Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division. The 1972 Operation Linebacker II also used Skyspot for Hanoi/Haiphong bombings in North Vietnam which resulted in the loss of 25 SAC aircrew members.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: By May 1967, SACADVON had moved to Seventh Air Force headquarters at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, South Vietnam to schedule and coordinate "...strikes for the 7th AF and MACV." From a level of 161,921 military and 20,215 civilian assigned to SAC in June 1968, SAC lost 13,698 first term airmen from November 1968 to May 1969 in a three phase drawdown known as Project 693 to comply with Public Law 90-364.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: While conventional bombing, air refueling and strategic air reconnaissance operations in Southeast Asia increasingly occupied SAC's operational commitments, SAC's primary mission of nuclear deterrence continued to remain its primary focus. In 1969, "...SAC's B-52s and B-58s could carry B28, B41, B43, B53, and BA53 nuclear weapons" (SAC had 311 nuclear AGM-28 Hound Dog missiles at the end of the year.) This also coincided with the B-58 Hustler's in-progress retirement from SAC's active inventory and its replacement with the FB-111.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 18 March 1969, along the South Vietnamese border, SAC first bombed Cambodia (Operation Menu through 26 May 1970 was controlled by Skyspot). On 17 February 1970, SAC conducted the first "GOOD LOOK" bombing of Laos at the Plaine des Jarres after B-52 photorecon missions ("GOOD LOOK ALPHA" in August 1969 and "GOOD LOOK BRAVO" ) and the observations of a Skyspot installation in Thailand. SAC transferred "...HQ 8th AF...to Andersen AFB, Guam on 1 April 1970 to oversee B-52D/G operations and to complement SACADVON". 8th AF took over from Third Air Division the generation of "frag" orders based on daily strike requests and amendments from COMUSMACV.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1970, SAC deployed the LGM-30G Minuteman III ICBM with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle or MIRVs, for striking 3 targets, while concurrently retiring the B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: 1972 saw the commencement of Operation Linebacker II, a combined Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy Task Force 77 aerial bombing campaign, conducted against targets in North Vietnam during the final period of US involvement in the Vietnam War. Linebacker II was conducted from 18 to 29 December 1972, leading to several informal names such as "The December Raids" and "The Christmas Bombings". Unlike the previous Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Linebacker interdiction operations, Linebacker II would be a "maximum effort" bombing campaign to destroy major target complexes in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas which could only be accomplished by SAC B-52D/Gs. It saw the largest heavy bomber strikes launched by the U.S. Air Force since the end of World War II. Linebacker II was a modified extension of the Operation Linebacker bombings conducted from May to October 1972, with the emphasis of the new campaign shifted to attacks by B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers rather than smaller tactical fighter aircraft. During Linebacker II, a total of 741 B-52D/G sorties were dispatched from bases in Thailand and Guam to bomb North Vietnam and 729 actually completed their missions. Overall SAC losses during Linebacker II numbered fifteen B-52s. The U.S. government claimed that the operation had succeeded in forcing North Vietnam's Politburo to return to the negotiating table, with the Paris Peace Accords signed shortly after the operation.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: By early 1973, offensive SAC air operations in Southeast Asia ceased and numerous SAC aircrewmen who had been shot down and captured as prisoners of war by North Vietnam were repatriated to the United States.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC aircraft used during the Vietnam War included B-52D, B-52F, B-52G, KC-135A, KC-135Q, various versions of the RC-135, SR-71, U-2, and EC-135.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: During the Vietnam War, due to the escalating costs of combat operations in Southeast Asia, SAC was required to close several SAC bases, consolidate other bases, or transfer several bases to other MAJCOMs, other services, or the Air Reserve Component in order to remain within budgetary constraints. This included:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: With the Vietnam War draw-down following the Paris Peace Treaty in 1973, reduced defense budgets forced SAC to inactivate several more wings, close still more bases in CONUS and Puerto Rico, transfer still additional bases to other MAJCOMS or the Air Reserve Component, and retire older B-52B, B-52C, B-52E and B-52F aircraft:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1973, the National Emergency Airborne Command Post, or NEACP, aircraft entered SAC's inventory. Consisting of four Boeing E-4 aircraft, these highly modified Boeing 747 airframes were assigned to the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Offutt AFB and were forward deployed as necessary to support the National Command Authority.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: By 1975, SAC's manned bomber strength included several hundred B-52D, B-52G, B-52H and FB-111A aircraft, and "...SAC's first major exercise in 23 years" was Exercise Global Shield 79. As for the ICBM force, SAC reached a peak strength of 1000 Minuteman II and III and 54 Titan II ICBMs on active status before seeing reductions and retirements through a combination of obsolescing systems and various arms reduction treaties with the Soviet Union.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: By 1977, SAC had been pinning its hopes for a new manned strategic bomber in the form of the Rockwell B-1A Lancer. However, on 30 June 1977, President Jimmy Carter Carter announced that the B-1A would be canceled in favor of ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and a fleet of modernized B-52s armed with air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs).


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 1 December 1979, SAC assumed control of the ballistic missile warning system (BMEWS) and all Space Surveillance Network facilities from the inactivating Aerospace Defense Command (ADC). These activities would later be (transferred to Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) when the latter was established in 1982. SAC also continued to operate the Air Force's entire KC-135 aerial refueling fleet, its EC-135 LOOKING GLASS and E-4 NEACAP command post aircraft, as well the entire strategic reconnaissance aircraft fleet consisting of the U-2, SR-71, RC-135, and WC-135.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 1981, SAC received a new air refueling tanker aircraft to supplement the aging KC-135 Stratotanker force. Based on the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 commercial airliner, the KC-10A Extender was deployed equipped with improved military avionics, aerial refueling, and satellite communications equipment. That same year, President Ronald Reagan reversed the 1977 Carter administration decision regarding the B-1, directing that 100 examples of a refined version of the aircraft, now designated the B-1B Lancer, be procured as a long-range combat aircraft for SAC.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM reached SAC in 1986, and the 114 Peacekeepers had a total warhead yield of about 342 megatons. This also served to offset the retirement of the obsolescent and maintenance-intensive LGM-25C Titan II ICBM, the last example of which was deactivated in May 1987. An additional underground "16,000 square-foot, two-story reinforced concrete" command post for HQ SAC was also constructed at Offutt AFB from 1986 to 1989 from a design by Leo A. Daly, who had designed the adjoining 1957 bunker. The first Rockwell B-1B Lancer was also delivered to SAC in 1987.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 22 November 1988, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, under development as the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB), a so-called "black program" since 1979, was officially acknowledged and rolled out for the first time for public display. The first "stealth bomber" designed for SAC, the aircraft made its first flight in May 1989.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC reorganization at the end of the Cold War began as early as 1988 when the Carlucci Commission planned the closure of:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The closures were the beginning of a post-Cold War process that would later become known as Base Realignment and Closure or BRAC. Although Mather AFB's navigator training mission would relocate to Randolph AFB, Texas, the Mather B-52G bomber/KC-135A tanker wing would inactivate and the AFRES KC-135 tanker group would relocate to nearby McClellan AFB, relocating again four years later to Beale AFB when another BRAC process would close McClellan AFB.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Concurrently, the Pease AFB bomber/tanker wing would lose its FB-111 aircraft and transfer to Whiteman AFB, Missouri in preparation for transition to the B-2 Spirit while a portion of Pease would be transferred to the New Hampshire Air National Guard for its ANG KC-135 air refueling wing and be renamed Pease Air National Guard Base.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Additional closures and divestments of SAC bases would continue throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, accelerating even more so as a result the START I Treaty's mandated elimination of both the entire B-52G fleet and the inactivation of all Minuteman II and Peacekeeper ICBMs, as well as the 1992 reorganization of the Air Force that disestablished SAC and dispersed its assets to other new or existing MAJCOMs, primarily ACC and AMC. In addition to closures of Mather AFB and Pease AFB, this would eventually include the following subsequent closure and realignment actions, primarily due to BRAC:


title: Strategic Air Command

text: On 1 July 1989, the 1st Combat Evaluation Group reporting directly to SAC headquarters was split with most HQ 1CEVG organizations transferring to SAC HQ (e.g., the Command Instrument Flight Division) and RBS personnel, equipment, and becoming the 1st Electronic Combat Range Group. Airborne NEACP alerts ended in 1990 and during 1991's Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi invasion and occupation, SAC bomber, tanker and reconnaissance aircraft flew operations (e.g., B-52s with conventional bombs and conventional warhead AGM-86 ALCMs) near Iraq from bases in Great Britain, Turkey, Cyprus, Diego Garcia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Following Operation Desert Storm, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the "de facto" end of the Cold War, President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney directed SAC to take all bomber and refueling aircraft and Minuteman II ICBMs off of continuous nuclear alert on 27 September 1991 and placing said aircraft on quick reaction ground alert.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The 31 May 1992 major reorganization of the USAF organizational structure subsequently disestablished SAC, moving its bomber, reconnaissance and aerial command post aircraft and all SAC ICBMs, along with all Tactical Air Command aircraft, to the newly established Air Combat Command (ACC). The newly established Air Mobility Command (AMC) inherited most of SAC's KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft and the entire KC-10 Extender aerial refueling tanker force, while some KC-135s were reassigned directly to USAFE and PACAF, with one additional air refueling wing assigned to the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) as the KC-135 formal training unit.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Land-based ICBMs were later transferred from ACC to Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), while manned bombers remained in ACC. USAF nuclear forces in ACC and AFSPC were then combined with the United States Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine forces to form the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), which took over the SAC Headquarters complex at Offutt AFB.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 2009, the entire land-based USAF ICBM force and that portion of the USAF manned bomber force that was still nuclear-capable, e.g., the B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress, was transferred to the newly established Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), while the B-1 Lancer conventional bomber force remained in ACC. In 2015, these B-1 units were also transferred to Air Force Global Strike Command, which assumed responsibility for all current and future USAF bomber forces.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: The SAC Museum located adjacent to Offutt AFB was moved in 1998 to a site near Ashland, Nebraska and renamed as the Strategic Air and Space Museum in 2001.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Organizations commemorating SAC include the Strategic Air Command Veterans Association, the SAC Society, the B-47 Stratojet Association, the B-52 Stratofortress Association, the FB-111 Association, the SAC Airborne Command Control Association, the Association of Air Force Missileers, the SAC Elite Guard Association and the Strategic Air Command Memorial Amateur Radio Club. After the Cold War, SAC histories included a 1990 almanac and a 2006 organizational history.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: In 2009, the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) was activated with the lineage of Strategic Air Command. AFGSC, headquartered at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, is one of two USAF component commands assigned to United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). AFGSC currently consists of Eighth Air Force (8AF), responsible for the nuclear-capable manned heavy bomber force, and Twentieth Air Force (20AF), responsible for the ICBM force.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: Strategic Air Command in the United Kingdom was among the command's largest overseas concentrations of forces, with additional forces under SAC's 16th Air Force at air bases in North Africa, Spain and Turkey during the 1950s and 1960s.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC "Provisional" wings were also located in Kadena AB, Okinawa and U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield / U-Tapao AB, Thailand during the Vietnam War


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC also maintained bomber, tanker, and/or reconnaissance aircraft assets at the former Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and at Andersen AFB, Guam; RAF Mildenhall, RAF Fairford and RAF Alconbury in the United Kingdom; Moron AB, Spain; Lajes Field, Azores (Portugal); Diego Garcia, BIOT; and the former NAS Keflavik, Iceland through the 1990s.


title: Strategic Air Command

text: SAC also conducted operations from RAF Fairford, RAF Alconbury and RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, Moron AB in Spain, Lajes Field in the Azores (Portugal), RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, Incirlik AB in Turkey, Diego Garcia in the British Indian Ocean Territory, and from multiple air bases in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates during the first Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm) from 1990 to 1991.


title: Meatballs (film)

text: Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for Bill Murray's first film appearance in a starring role and for launching the directing career of Reitman, whose later comedies include "Stripes" (1981) and "Ghostbusters" (1984), both starring Murray.


title: Meatballs (film)

text: The film was the highest-grossing Canadian film of all time in the United States and Canada, winning the Golden Reel Award. It is the first of six film collaborations between Murray and Harold Ramis and several sequels, of which only "" (1986) had any connection to the original.


title: Meatballs (film)

text: Tripper Harrison leads a group of new counsellors-in-training (CITs) at Camp North Star, a cut-rate summer camp located in Ontario, and leads practical jokes on camp director Morty Melnick, mainly by taking Melnick from his cabin late at night so that he awakens in unusual places.


title: Meatballs (film)

text: Rudy Gerner, a lonely boy whose mother died about a year earlier, is sent to summer camp by his workaholic father, but decides to run away. Noticing Rudy is lacking self-confidence, Tripper tracks him to a nearby bus station and takes him under his wing. They rapidly bond as friends after many morning jogs. Tripper helps Rudy gain confidence while Rudy encourages the reluctant Tripper to start a romance with Roxanne, the girls' head counsellor. Many of the CITs also find romance: Candace "kidnaps" Crockett in a speedboat and confesses her feelings for him, while Wheels, who had broken up with A.L. the year before, successfully rekindles their relationship during a dance, and the nerdy Spaz falls for the tomboy Jackie.


title: Meatballs (film)

text: A subplot deals with North Star's rivalry with Camp Mohawk, a wealthy summer camp located across the lake. During a basketball game, North Star is being beaten by Mohawk when they attempt their own perverse form of victory. This sets the stage for the yearly Olympiad between the camps, which Mohawk has won 12 consecutive times.