Downfall Control, the Master Control Station, as it was until 1989, when it was fitted with a new console.

Downfall is responsible for all ground activities on the Range. All access and movements must be approved from here.

Operator also coordinated with SPORT (SPecial Optics and Range Tracking) during aircraft operations.

Outside, an AGM-86 Air-Launched Cruise Missile "flys by."

This was the world's first supersonic bomber, capable of mach 2. Weapons were stored in a "pod" beneath the aircraft (missing on this a/c), and when empty, were to be jettisoned.

The two aft crew compartments are claustrophobic, to say the least. They are as tight as a fighter's cockpit, except the only view of the outside is through two small windows about 8" square.

Like the B-47 before it, when this airplane was introduced, it was faster than nearly every fighter it may have been expected to encounter. Neither the B-47 nor the B-58 ever saw combat.

In 1984, there was a herd of 11 mules on the Range, by 1987, the herd had grown to 33, prompting the Bureau of Land Management and Base Environmental to round them up and move them to other BLM land to the north. This was very unpopular with all the Range personnel.
The mules were quite elusive, often traveling around the range where there were depressions in the terrain, and we often would go months without ever seeing anything but tracks and droppings from their recent trek. Their evasiveness often raised questions of their existence by visitors, who likened them to Snipes. They did, however, on occasion hold up a mission when they wandered onto a bomb or gun target, prompting us to go out and shoo them off, as they were quite accustomed to aircraft flying low overhead, and were not perturbed by them.
Sign on fence reads "Danger, Bombing & Gunnery Range, Active 7 Days/Week"

Before depositing them in the Munitions Residue Burial Site, large dummy bombs must have their cases opened, so as to make the fact that they are inert obvious to any future generations who may dig them up.

This was accomplished by placing 2¹/₂ lbs of C4 Plastic Explosive on each bomb, and connecting them all with detcord.

Detonating Cord is a ¹/₄" line with a detonation velocity of about 17,000 feet per second. This ensures near simultaneous detonation of all the C4 charges. C4 is a white high explosive with the look and feel of Play-Doh. It can be safely molded into any shape.

Here, we "opened" 331 assorted bombs using 1180 pounds of C4.

Top photo shows the final preparations for the blast. Most of the bombs are MK82 500 pounders, the large one is a MK84 2000 pound bomb.

Middle photo shows the blast, from just over a mile away, at T-7 Tower. Explosion initiated at the left, and is just reaching the opposite end of the line when photo was taken. We heard some fragments whiz overhead several seconds after detonation.

Bottom photo shows the results: a field of torn and twisted metal, quite a mess, which then had to be loaded and taken to the MRBS.

Anyone who has heard high explosives detonate in person can attest to how impressive it is. It is nothing like you hear in the movies. The sound is totally different, more concussive, and you feel it as well.