Operation Chrome Dome: The Air Force Missions That Kept America Safe During the Cold War

Veterans recount how they experienced the most precarious moments of the Cold War era.

The cockpit of a Boeing B-52D Stratofortress on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Courtesy of Lyle Jansma, Aerocapture Images

“War is hell, Mr. Thornhill, even when it’s a cold one.” A CIA agent spoke these words in the 1959 Cold War spy thriller, “North by Northwest.” The Cold War played out between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1947 to 1991. All during that time, the United States had a constant fear that the Soviet Union would start an unprovoked nuclear war.

In preparation for a surprise attack, Thomas S. Power, a general in the Air Force and commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC), initiated a program whereby the United States had aircraft equipped with thermonuclear bombs in the air 24/7, in order to provide rapid first-strike or retaliation capability against the Soviet Union. One such operation went by the code name, “Chrome Dome.”  

Missions

Operation Chrome Dome began during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s waning days in office, in 1960. By 1964, a recurring mission had a B-52D heavy bomber leaving the Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, flying northeasterly to New England, and then heading out to the Atlantic Ocean, where it refueled while in flight.