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Show r tater MALTA iis.fiFs three two one - FIRE!' The sergeant gave in the blockhouse the count-dow- n at HiU AFB. Outside in the nearby test pit, a 200 pound JATO bottle, Becurely latched in its cradle, went off with an ear "SWOOSH." Lt. Don Boldt, ammunition of. ficer with the 25th Ammunition Supply Squadron, and his crew of technicians examined the bottle, pulled it out of the rack, and inserted another. . The test of 1,200 "Five four splitting JATO bottles continued 18 hours a day for 25 days. Static firing of the bottles last year was just part of the series of tests the 25th used in testing the JATO units for the Strategic Air Command. Technicians drilled holes in the bottles' exterior and in- stalled fittings to pressure-chec- k them. The bottles were also subjected to conditioning temperatures ranging from minus 85 degrees to plus 200 degrees, Farenheit. The round-robi- n of tests included the casings for cracks and . ng example of the increasing role the Air Force is placing on the test branch. OOAMA is the only Con US AF installation operating an ammunition storage depot. It is also the AF's center for testing those airmunitions explosives that are in the AF inventory. '. From air bases in Guam and Okinawa, from North Africa to Iceland, samples of airmunitions are being shipped to the test branch to determine how they have been affected by storage, heat, cold, moisture, vibration and other conditions. The explosives run the and gauntlet from ammunition to rocket motors, aircraft engine starter cartridges, and solid fuel propellants for guided missiles. Excluded are nuclear, biological and chemical warfare weapons whose testing is done elsewhere. Wendover Used Tests considered too big to be ammuconducted in the 2,720-acr- e held AFB are Hill at area nition on the isolated ranges of Wendover AF Auxiliary Field, an "on-the-sh- re approxiOOAMA of Hill southwest miles 115 mately AFB. An example of the big stuff August 7.' tK.3 - iiiuu iv Page 10 -- for TGSittag aiwpciiDefeiiis adminishouses, shops, igloos and trative buildings. Part of 25th The test branch, composed of seven officers and 37 airmen, is the just one important function of ammunition squadron commanded Inby Maj. George Wetzler, Jr. chart cluded in the organizational of the 25th are branches concerned with storage, maintenance of airmunitions; and safety aspects of the program. Total' strength of the 25th is 19 officers and 198 airmen. The 25th receives technical direction from OOAMA's Directorate of Airmunitions, headed by Col. E. W. Miles, which has worldwide functions' covering the entire range of airmunitions. Maj. Wetzler said that there is no margin for error in the airmunitions testing program. "When a trigger is pulled or a switch is pressed, the Air Force depends on us to deliver the goods," said Maj. Wetzler. ' TECHNICIANS prepare to hut-lik- e ITS! test-bak- a Snark booster e temperature conditioning oven. For a Touch of rocket U Sari Francisco sub-installati- on fr"r r Delectable Food Served in An Atmosphere of Delightful Intimacy shuttled to Wendover was an explosive test on the Snark booster rocket last year which was, the largest test of its type ever conducted in the U. S. 11 :30 a.m. to 2 a.m. Open Tues., Wed., Thurs., Sun. From 11:30 a.m. to Open OOAMA's test facilities, said Maj. Brown, simulate almost any condition from manufacture to firing. There is no actual free firing as such; instead the airmunitions are tied down and static fired. Midnight. CLOSED MONDAYS 465 To . to 100,000 foot altitudes; a giant rotary drum to expose packaged airmunitions to the same handling operations experienced in transportation and warehousing; a huge electron volt machine (one of seven in the U. S.) to find cracks in casing or in 1 .1 I.I II propellants that could cause malSPECIAL equipment for testfunctions; three temperature - cona includes ditioning "ovens" which simulate high "drop" ing tower to test effects of dropping from frigid Arctic temperatures to those found in the Sahara on airmuntions. Desert; a smaller 250,000 volt the solid propellant for cracks and machine for light-weigairair holes. munitions, and a static firing Major Hoyt O. Brown, chief of stand combined with an adjacent the test branch, said that the fir- blockhouse where the actual firing ings were in support of a SAC is done. Some of the test facilities, inproblem of premature firing of ome of the bottles. Random sam- cluding about 30 fire-probuildples were shipped into the test ings, were already available when branch to solve the problem. Sev- the Air Force took over the old eral samples were found unsatis- Ogden Arsenal on April 1, 1053. factory and SAC was advised of The Army arsenal, dating back the ones not to be used.' to WW I, joined Hill AFB on its Role west end. Transferred were 3,500 Increasing The JATO assignment is just an acres and more than 700 ware two-milli- X-r- on ay On Highway 91 West 5th So. Bountiful, Utah - accomplish the testing mission, nearly $500,000 in special test equipment has' been constructed in the test area in the past two years. Special Equipment Included are a CO foot-hig- h "drop" tower to test effects of dropping on airmunitions; an altitude chamber that simulates up Friday and Saturday Ph. AX 5-55- 26 want to be happy - but We can't be happy - 'til l"Je make you happy too! 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