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AFSWC History Office
"JTF-8 Joint Staff Memos ,'' from December 1961 through February 1962.
These are a few of the so-called Joint Staff Memoranda.issued by JTF-8
and the first one in the folder is dated 28 December 1961.
<A te
signed by Col. Mann, Chief of Staff of JTF-8.
They are all
This Memorandum,
Number 11,
documented a meeting of Task Force personnel on 27 December 1961.
those in attendance were Starbird,
Mustin, Ogle, Mann,
Parsons,
Among
etc.
Starbird listed a number of salient decisions made on the high altitude program
to date:
That the THOR had been chosen for the booster; that there was a
possible increase in the number of events from two to three; that the earliest
shot date is 7 May but May slipped due to instrumentation availability; that
Systems Command was designating a Project Officer to handle preparations
for this series and be responsible to the Commander of JTF-8; that H&N
had begun advanced preparations on 26 December with equipment loading,
arrival of work crews on Johnston Island on 27 December, and beginning of
the H&N operation on Johnston Island on 3 January; and that Space Systems
Division (SSD) would represent Systems Command in this program and not
AFSWC.
The Air Force recommended against any changes in either the
missile or AGE which would effect the THOR systems reliability and specifically
recommended against several different possibilities suchas the installation
of a nose pod, or the addition of a system to give separation of the booster and
the warhead on the lower high altitude shot.
The Air Force indicated that
tracking the missile and performing the range safety functions were beyond
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