485th TACTICAL MISSILE WING

INTRODUCTION
On 9 August 1988, months of hard work and preparation achieved fruition
with the arrival of a ten-man Soviet baseline inspection team at
Florennes Air Base. The team arrived as part of the verification process
spelled out in the historic Interrnediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missile
Elimination Treaty. Siurultaneous to the Florennes inspection, a second
ten-member Soviet team inspected the European Missi.le Repair Facility,
located dt Gosselies, Belgium, the site of advance repairs for NATOts
cruise and Pershing missile inventory. These two teams, composed of
Soviet military and technical experts, arrived with a predetermined agenda
which would verify to Soviet satisfaction strict adherance to the treaty.
Accompanying the Soviets was a contingent of the American On-Site Inspectj-on
Agency (OSIA), acting both as liaison between the Soviets and the
inspected parties and as representatives of the United States t interests
during the inspection.
How well the i-nspections went, and the efforts put forth by the men
and women of Florennes to smooth the course of this moment in history,
were the the topics of this brief recap. Wing leve1 hi-storians seldom
have the opportunity to eover what can truly be called rfreal hj.storyrr,
for the need to record the day-to-day routine of aircraft or missile
operations is all too often an exercise in important, but dull, contlnuity.
The inspection of onefs base by a Soviet team as part of an effort to
remove an enti.re class of nuclear weapons from the worldfs collective
arsenal, now that is REAL HISTORY, and as such merits coverage from al1
l-eveLs of the historical conrmunity. This sma1l effort, and other such
projeets from the wing historianrs corps, provides a view from the ground
level. As such it probably does not adequately frame the "big picturerr.
This will be the work of those l-ooking in from on-high, using the efforts
of 1ocal historians as sources of information and background coloring.
Much credit goes to the entire Florennes base community, for the inspec-'
tion of 9 - 10 August was an overwhelming success, both in terms of treaty.
adherance ains as well- as in the establishment of closer ties between two
diverse peoples. The treaty verification process, essential to any hopes
for a world eventually free of the threat of nuclear war, continued to
go well. According to Mr. Lyebedev, the Soviet Team Leader, rVe note that
the inspected party strictly adhered to the provisions of the treaty.tt
As to the growth of ties between Soviet and Arnerican people that these
inspections continue to nurture, Mr. Lyebedev culminated his closing
remarks to the base populace with the observation that, "...we are pleased
with the grow"Lh of mutual understanding and trust between the parties
concerned.tt This growth of understanding between the superpowers, and the
resulting effect.s on the security of Europe, these will form the lionrs
share of later coverage of the treaty now being enacted. For now, a
brief look at the role of one small, but important, group of people in
this process is in order.
It is to these people, the men and women of the 485th Tactical Missile
Wing, that this short work is dedicated.