Jack of Harts

Dyess Air Force Base was a pure Air Force Base when the Second Great Depression came upon us all. It had not been transferred to the Space Force as some bases had, and though some of its aircraft certainly did brush the edges of atmosphere at times, their mission was purely terrestrial, and as such it was still an Air Force Base at the time. Its primary duties were twofold. The first was airlifting cargo and troops all around the world with the century-old C-130 Hercules aircraft that still performed the job better than every attempted replacement. The second was bombing America’s enemies into the stone age all over the world with the newest and most expensive B-21 Raider stealth bombers. Though the half-century old B-1B Lancers had outlasted all estimates of their service life and continued to serve at Dyess AFB. Both of those ancient airframes would prove to be an important and decisive advantage for America in the months and years of the Second Great Depression and the other difficulties that surrounded it.