BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Barksdale Air Force Base is decommissioning the last two missiles from a weapon system used in their most famous secret mission.
Members of the flight crew in the 1991 mission, leadership from the 2nd Bomb Wing, and new airmen in the Cruise Missile Maintenance flight on Barksdale Air Force base will be at a ceremony on Dec. 9 to bring the lifecycle of the Conventional Air Launch Missiles (AGM-86c) to a close.
Operation Senior Surprise “Secret Squirrel” on Jan. 16, 1991, brought about the first use of these conventional cruise missiles in wartime during Operation Desert Storm. Eight B-52’s from Barksdale launched 35 combat cruise missiles into Kuwait, in a mission that was classified until a year later.
The 2nd Munitions Storage Squadron will be “containerizing” and decommissioning the last two active cruise missiles before a ceremony commemorating the twenty years of contributions these missiles have made to the warfighting efforts of the United States.
When a weapon system is “containerized” it is packed with all associated support gear for each missile into a single-use shipping container. The decommissioned weapons are actively removed from service.