XII Strategic Air Command "would be a matter of hours," Because the first six RB~57D aircraft to come off of the production line were not to include in-flight refueling equipment, it was deemed logical to get those first six planes for modification to samplers, All other findings were favorable to the hopes of having them in time for employment during HARDTACK, Meanwhile, the requirements had been upped to a total of 16 B-57 airplanes, six of which were to be RB-S7D.°" A short and cryptic message of 19 August 1957, apparently signaled the end of the four years of personal and paper persuasion, Information received from Commander of Joint Task Force SEVEN indicated that modification of B-57D aircraft by Glenn L. Martin Company would proceed as originally planned, 53 The victory was short lived, for when HARDTACK tests requiring 60,000 foot sampling came off, the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (Light), Strategic Air Command, was called upon to accomplish sampling, After years of negotiations, the unit responsible for, and highly competent at maclear cloud sampling, found itself, as military units often do, standing on the sidelines watching a "line" outfit accomplish the mission. According to Captain Cale Herry in June 1961, the 926th Test Squadron 5h (Sampling) never received a B-57D aircraft, 256 arwund SWEH-2-003h ree