Space Sentry
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1960. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. 92, [2] pages. Illustrations. Index. DJ flaps cut off & pasted ins front board & flyleaf, library stamps & partial due slip, large rough spot inside rear board large pencil "D"s written inside flyleaves and rear board, boards and spine quite soiled and spotted, library call number on front board, some wear to spine edges, library stamps on fore-edge, some soiling to text. Foreword by Lieutenant General J. H. Atkinson, Commander, Air Defense Command. This book follows the activities of a U.S. Air Force missileman in text and photographs. The author was a veteran journalist who was a staff writer and aviation expert for Newsday. He was a member of the editorial staff of Newsday that was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for public service. He was a World War II veteran and a member of the Air Force Association and the Armed Forces Writers League. The Air Defense Command, was established in 1946, briefly inactivated in 1950, reactivated in 1951, and then redesignated Aerospace rather than Air in 1968. Its mission was to provide air defense of the Continental United States (CONUS). It directly controlled all active measures, and was tasked to coordinate all passive means of air defense. With advances in Soviet bombers, ADC completed improved radar networks and manned interceptors in the 1950s. At the end of the decade it computerized Air Defense Direction Centers to allow air defense controllers to more quickly review integrated military air defense warning (MADW) data and dispatch defenses (e.g., surface-to-air missiles in 1959). ADC began missile warning and space surveillance missions in 1960 and 1961, and established a temporary missile warning network for the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1968 it was redesignated Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM). Condition: fair, ex-lib.
Keywords: Space, Missiles, Aviation, SAC, Hurlburt Field, Cape Canaveral, NORAD, William Duncan, ICBM, Air Defense Command, Basic Training, BOMARC
[Book #13051]
Price: $22.50