Mole hole

Diagram of a Christmas tree at Glasgow Air Force Base, with the mole hole in the lower right-hand corner

Mole hole, officially the Readiness Crew Building, is a type of structure built by the Strategic Air Command at United States Air Force bases around the country.

History

Due to aircraft being parked at the Christmas tree being on constant alert duty, the Strategic Air Command realized that they needed specialized buildings to house crews who rotated alert duty. In 1958, Leo A Daly, an architect from Omaha, Nebraska was hired to design buildings that would respectively hold 70, 100, and 150 men. These standardized structures would eventually be nicknamed "mole holes" due to the fact that the men would run out onto the Christmas tree through corrugated steel tunnels attached to the building when the Klaxon sounded. The buildings would house readiness crews. The concrete buildings contained thick concrete exteriors, bathrooms, a briefing room for crew members, dormitories, several classrooms, and a kitchen.

Crews on alert duty would typically be on alert for seven days out of a 21 day period, while being on rotational alert duty. During their alert duty, they would fly no training missions, as they were to be kept always ready for an operational launch on a nuclear strike.

During an alert, the men would run out to the Christmas tree, where they would travel to the five or so aircraft that were waiting to launch. At this point, the aircraft would perform an elephant walk to the runway, where a potential MITO would be performed.

Over the course of their construction, 10 facilities to house 150 people were built, 10 for 100 men, and 45 for 70 men. The facilities replaced various facilities that housed crew members earlier, including house trailers which sat next to the aircraft.