William E. Smith Interview, 25 August 2001(b)
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| WS: | A Camper Crew was one or two officers who were dispatched from our central office. We had a system of Camper Crews that would provide topside security. They were from a separate pool of officers [but] were still assigned to the Missile Wing. They worked at odd times, they could came out and spend two days or three days, or we've had them out there for a long time. And they would exchange themselves—another Camper Crew would come out. Again, they'd have to go through the procedure of identifying through us, and we would get that person off the site and the other person on. And in many cases it was nothing more than just changing persons because they'd leave the vehicle right there, hooked in, they had an umbilical cord, their electricity and those kinds of things. Most of the time they had two people in the Camper Crew, so that one would sleep and one would be awake. There were occasions when they didn't have enough people then one person would have to provide that. We would have to give the breaks. Typically, we're talking 12 hours on and 12 hours off.
They'd have to call us on the radio every so often, and that was one of the things we had to log in: when the person called. If we needed to talk with them then they could find a phone down in the service area. | |
| JK: | Let's say a Targeting Team was going to come onto a site, what would happen? | |
| WS: | We would get information that they would be coming out; typically, they would try to get a Camper Crew out there as quickly as possible. Typically, the Camper came out on it's own, not directly with the Team, but they would have their own set up with their own radio, their own food. However, if the Targeting Team had plans to stay out just a short time, our people would have to provide as much of that as they could. But there always had to be someone topside when you had the missile open that was just a standard procedure. I remember many times we had arguments and complaints because the Targeting Team would say "Oh, just going to be out here an hour or so" well that ties up my team, so the Camper Team would be dispatched. They would check in with us on the radio, he'd open the "A" side, they'd open the "B" side, then he would start to provide security topside once they opened the missile and started their work. | |
| JK: | As I understand it, at an LCF there would be two Flight Security Controllers? | |
| WS: | Yes. | |
| JK: | Is "Strike Team" a correct term? | |
| WS: | "Strike Team" is a correct term. There were six of us that would go out on a site. There would be an FSC day, FSC night. We worked 12 hours; I think typically we worked six to six. | |
| JK: | I suppose that would be timed to overlap the arrival of the Capsule Crew? |
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