Special delivery delays test mission

  • Published
  • By Tammie D. Erazo
  • Air Armament Center Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) --  While officials here were preparing to initiate a weapon test mission recently, Jennifer Cheshire and her father, Larry Owens, were on a mission of their own.

Mrs. Cheshire, 24, who lives nearby, was in labor and bound for a local medical center.

“I told my dad to drive as fast as he could," said Mrs. Cheshire. "Then we saw that the road was blocked.”

It was 9:18 a.m. and the less than two minutes before the test was to begin and the test weapon, a small diameter bomb, was to be launched.

Mr. Owens flagged down several security people and told them his daughter was in labor.

“They asked how far apart the contractions were and radioed that they had a lady in labor,” Mrs. Cheshire said.

“We were about 30 seconds from the release point when safety [officials] made the call to terminate,” said Scott Armistead, a 46th Operations Group test engineer.

The test mission controller immediately called a “skip it, skip it, skip it” command and the test was delayed.

Mr. Armistead explained that at 20 seconds before a launch, they activate the weapon’s batteries, and then they are at the “no return point.”

“Of the hundreds of personnel involved in the test, none could recall ever stopping a test for pregnancy,” said Col. James McClendon, Direct Attack Joint Systems Program Office director.

Once the launch had been delayed, security forces escorted Mrs. Cheshire and her father through the range in about 15 minutes.

By 9:30 a.m., an F-15E Strike Eagle carrying the test weapon had been circling the range for almost an hour and had 15 to 20 minutes of fuel, leaving just enough time for the test.

The test bomb was dropped about 45 minutes after the roads were initially closed, and the mission was completed, as was Mrs. Cheshire’s.

She gave birth to 8-pound, 10-ounce Joshua Malachi, nicknamed “Bomber,” a few hours later at the medical center.

Afterward, Bill Wise, senior acquisition engineer with the Small Diameter Bomb Program office, gave Mr. and Mrs. Cheshire a small diameter bomb patch which they plan to put in Joshua’s baby book.