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The Russians backed down and this all ended like the Cuban Missile Crisis about 10 years prior. I still remember those days, nights, comments, and how scared and worried I was.

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Originally posted by Bullhunter:
The Stragetic Air Command (SAC) the U.S. Air Force Alert Bomber Force up graded it's Nuke Alert, during the Yom Kippur War Oct. 1974

Egypt and Syria attack Israel with support from the USSR. Israeli Forces rally and turn the tide and cut of the Egyptian Army in the Sinai and threaten their total destruction.
The USSR stops sending military supplies and decides to send Russian troops instead into the fight.

The USA decides it cannot allow a soviet military aided victory in the Middle East and puts all its SAC Bombers and tankers on full alert.
I’d had some close calls in my life and a few scary times, but for three days and nights during this time at Griffiss Air Force Base, NY I was very worried.

We normally had 4 of our B-52 Bombers and 2 of our KC-135 Tankers on Emergency War Order (EWO) alert duty. On an afternoon our base was put on full alert. All vacation leaves and days off were canceled. Every aircraft we had was ordered to full EWO Alert Status. We were instructed to even pull the B-52 and KC-135 out of the inspection hangers and put them back together to go on alert.
Every place around the aircraft flightline was now a restricted area – no loan zone. This meant that you not only need a restricted area security badge, but you need to be with someone else of the same career field job that also had a restricted area badge. Any maintenance on any aircraft required two people who knew the jobs of each other weather you were changing a nut and bolt or cleaning the cockpit windows. Two armed guards were on each aircraft 24 hours. Every aircraft was fully loaded with nuke weapons.

Buses were parked next to the aircraft and flight crews slept in the buses to be close to the EWO aircraft. Us maintenance troops were required to spend extra shifts in the alert area to ensure maximum technician support if the alert klaxon horn sounded. Some of us slept in the shops and a few got to go home in shifts to get a few hours sleep.

One of the airman made a comment that this was all exciting and that we were making history. One of the senior sgts told him that it was so exciting that if the alert klaxon sounded then the aircraft would all take-off for targets inside Russia and Russian forces would be coming our way and our base was surely a target. He then told the group of us, ‘then it’s time for us all to bend over and kiss our asses goodbye and go home and spend time with our families and wait for the fireball.”
That sure changed the mood.

The Russians backed down and this all ended like the Cuban Missile Crisis about 10 years prior. I still remember those days, nights, comments, and how scared and worried I was.

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the yom kipur war was not in 1974
started oct. 6 1973

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Didn't we also strip Europe of tanks to replace Israeli loses in the opening round of the fighting in Sinai?

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the yom kipur war was not in 1974
started oct. 6 1973