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S: You were also the SRC [Survival Recovery Center] Director.
How do you feel that functioned through both the air
campaign and when things got a little bit hotter around here
with the ground war support?

M: The SRC operated with the Fighter Operations Center,
otherwise known as Alamo Ops. The SRC at the airfield was
called Power House. The SRC performed two functions on the
airfield, and to me they are all within the scope of SRC
operations. SRC here performed post battle damage recovery
operations as well as normal base operations activities,
such as coordinating maintenance on the airfield, sweeping,
airfield lighting, and any other activity--security 
police--all those operations.

Just to digress, the SRC Power House is composed of civil
engineers, the fire department, NBC operations--or ABO [Air
Base Operability] ops, the EOD, the security police, and the
MOC [Maintenance Operations Center]. From this room, we
built a basic little command post with maps and plexiglass
and just everything you need--radios, telephones--to operate;
a command post. It was fundamental in concept. It was
somewhat difficult to create an efficient and effective SRC.
There was always, at least initially, some difficulty
getting the people, since we weren't being attacked
initially. There was a problem getting people set up to
operate in a professional, dedicated manner, understanding
what their mission was, and understanding that it was
important.

We did get to the point where we were a vital point; I would
say Week 2 of the air battle on about the 2Oth. We Power
House-matured into an operation. The SRC, again, just
functioned as any normal SRC would. The senior operator was
in the Fighter Operations Center. We were separated by a

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