"Kevin Brooks" wrote:
"Cub Driver" wrote:

Did it in fact carry nuclear-tipped missiles?

It could carry the low yield AIM-26A Falcon had a W-54 warhead with a
reported yield of .25 kT; the missile was pulled from service in 1971. The
AIR-2 Genie unguided rocket, with a larger W-25 at between 1 and 2 kT, was
also fielded, carried by the F-89, F-101, and F-106. Genie was not retired
until the F-106 left the interceptor force in favor of the F-4 and later
F-15A.

(What *were* we thinking?)

That we were acheiving a much greater assurance of destroying an *inbound*
and much larger nuclear payload than the then-current crop of conventional
guided missiles afforded, that's what.

Gotta' ask Ford...where were you in '62? We came damn close to
armageddon while we were stationed at Elmendorf AFB (Alaska) when
Dad was flying the ol' Deuce with the famed 317th FIS. After Kennedy
was shown the reconnaissance photos of Soviet nuclear missile
installations in Cuba, we (that is, everyone but my ol' man who was of
course, away pulling alert somewhere) were ordered to move into the
basement which was fully stocked with a 3-week supply of canned
goods and bottled water supposedly serving as our "bomb shelter."