European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 01, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes . Monday. August 1,1994 doomsday planes take Aid missions under Wing by Kevin Robbin Scripps Howard news service Andrews fab my. For three tense decades a Fleet of air Force jets based in Eastern Nebraska was outfitted and ready to help the president of the United states and his top military advis ers carry out nuclear War with the soviet Union from 30,000 feet in the sky. When the cold War ended the doomsday planes needed a new mis Sion. They found it in peacetime disaster Relief in the United states the Pentagon and the Federal Emer gency management Agency in july agreed to share the four Boeing 747sonce reserved for whisking the president and his advisors to Safe altitudes in the event of a nuclear attack on the United states. The aircraft new task will be Touse their array of gadgets to establish communications for officials at the scene of natural disasters. Reclassified on july 21, the erstwhile National emergency airborne command Post has a new name National air borne operations Center and a dual assignment. The jets still serve their Mili tary role but with the threat of nuclear attack increasingly slim the planes will be used for helping victims of Earth quakes floods Ana hurricanes. We can do this Mission today without compromising in any Way the old mis Sion said air Force Brig. Gen. Thomasa. Twomey representing the joint chiefs of staff. The National airborne Center is the first step in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary role he said. The jets will continue to be based i Nebraska and can be airborne up to 72 hours straight with refuelling. What was inside the jets had been a military secret until Friday when the department of defense and Fen a escorted reporters aboard. The jets Worth $1 billion each contain enough High tech wizardry to communicate with anyone anywhere at any time. Each holds a Crew of 63, including a Core unit of 20 members in flight suits who operate the Complex tangle of knobs meters and switches that manages the system. Known As the operations team the20-member unit represents All four branches of the military. The team monitors the vhf and Uhr radios plus Mes Sage scramblers communications line for the president and the secret service and two switchboards with the capacity for 83 and 411 lines apiece. The vast web of rooms in the belly of the Jet holds the most sophisticated air borne communications network in the world Twomey said. The National airborne Center jets have the greatest communication capability of any aircraft in the world the Genera said. And the jets Are protected  air Force Security police members each wearing a Black Beret and armed with a 9 my sidearm and a smaller ver Sion of the m16 Rifle Are inside or around the plane at All times. Each Jet is a National asset said col. Al Sauter the air Force commander of the Nao project. The plane on display Friday at an senior airman Greg Brock an air Force Security policeman from Osage Iowa guards one of the National airborne operations Center jets at Andrews fab md., on Friday. Drews fab was a 1973 Model. It contains 17 bunks seven toilets a Kitchen 400gallons of water and a strategy room Complete with a world map a marked contrast to its predominately spartan arrangements done in a Bleak Blue Motif is a suite for senior official that has its own Shower bathroom and particular scent leather chairs. Once reserved for such notables As the president and his military advisers the senior level room May soon carry disaster officials in route to a catastrophe. The new Mission Means Fema staff members will be flown to natural disaster Sites where communications systems have been destroyed Crew members will remain at the scene of a disaster until a new communications system is up and running. We re ready to do the Job now said Twomey. Be can launch on a moment notice. Exactly what a moment s notice Means remains classified. So does the Mission history of the planes though it is known that presidents Nixon Carter an Reagan have been passengers. Officials said Crews Are stationed on one of the four planes around the clock maintain ing the old Mission. Chief Pilot Bill Homeyer said the Blue and White jets can hoist their 800,000-Pound maximum capacity off the ground at a surprisingly Swift rate. It s like driving a Mack truck a cruising Speed Homeyer mus Erir but it responds like a sports  " Highway patrol helicopter goes Down in Utah Duchesne Utah a a Utah Highway patrol helicopter crashed into a stand of Trees saturday night authorities said. Rescue teams searched for the Heli copter a. \ its Pilot throughout the night. Duchesne county sheriff Merv Gustin said the helicopter planned to join search party looking for a lost 2-year-old girl who had wandered from a family re Union in Argyle Canyon and had been missing for seven hours. The girl was found unhurt shortly be fore 7 p.m., and the helicopter s Pilot Doyle Thorne had turned Back to Salt Lake City which is about 80 Miles North West of Duchesne. Thorne Hack no passengers Gusti said he gave a Call to dispatch to say he Rasgo ingrown. He just said he was losing Altitude an going into the Trees Gustin said. Be do not know where he was when he  cyberspace Abuzz after obscenity san Francisco a hours after a couple were convicted of sending images of bestial Ity and sexual fetishes Over a com Puter bulletin Board the internet was humming with warnings an protests. If this Case stands you can bet there will be a hell of a lot More prosecutions on the same basis in extremely Short order Karl Den Ninger of Chicago wrote Friday on the computer network. Robert and Carleen Thomas both 3�, t f Milpitas Calif. Were each convicted thursday of 11 counts of transmitting obscenity through interstate phone lines via their bulletin Board on internet which serves 25 million computer. Users worldwide. Each count carries up to five years in prison and $250,000 Fine defense lawyer Richard William said they will Appeal. The couple were charged after a computer user in Memphis tenn., complained. Even an 8.0 earthquake shaking the entire United states would Doles damage to internet than the ruling a Boston user wrote in a Anonymous message. Many users wondered on Lin about what the 1973 supreme court Rule allowing local communities to define obscenity Means i cyberspace a digital world with out boundaries. Some people say it just can t reapplied. This Case. Has one Community attempting to dictate Stan Dards for the Wei Ole country wrote Mike Godwin a lawyer for the electronic Frontier foundation a High tech think tank in Washington , one Man said he planned to end the bulletin Board he produces for a fee because the ruling makes tithe Legal equivalent of playing rus Sian Roulette. I m pulling out of it As of now and believe me i need the Money. But it would be safer to Rob Bank. I might get out of jail before i m 140 years old wrote Law rence Foard from Bro Okhane  did not identify the nature of his bulletin Board. Computer bulletin Board systems Are generally Small scale computer systems run out of hobbyists Homes and carried on a larger sys tem like internet. There Aje Bulle tin boards for everything from Model air plane builders to dating. Although most Are free some sexually oriented ones require a fee paid by credit card to attempt to screen out users under 18 years old. During the Thomases trial i Memphis jurors were shown photographs of the sexually explicit images carried Over their bulletin Board which charged users $99 year. A Tennessee postal inspector testified he joined the bulletin Board under a fake name and received the images in his computer in Memphis. The Case bodes ill for any Amer ican computer system that carries any sexually related material at All Many users said