Every now and then, a missile "can" with Top Secret data has maintenance issues. It has to be removed from the missile itself and returned to Wright-Patterson AFB to be securely erased. They cannot do it at the missile base. So, typically, a junior officer is assigned to accompany the can along with an enlisted man. Both are issued side arms for the trip. This was just after I fnished my final missile training at Minot but may have been before I went on my first missile alert with Bill Graham.
Saturn Airways, using converted Lockheed Electras, was a contracted cargo carrier with scheduled flights across the Northern Tier of Air Force bases, linking them together. This photograph was probably taken at Minot on the first leg of the trip. We then flew on to Grand Forks AFB, then Duluth Air Force Station in Minnesota, next to Kinchlow AFB, K.I. Sawyer AFB and, finally, Wright-Pat in Ohio. (The Electra may have arrived in Minot from Malmstrom AFB in Montana.)
At each stop, either myself or the enlisted man had to be up and keep an eye on the can as other cargo was loaded or unloaded en route, which lasted overnight and into the next day with all of the several stops along the way.
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