Solo Before Solo was Cool
Happy first day of winter!
Dig these great 1960 Cold War (see what I did there?) Kodachromes from the LIFE Archive of the SAC Alert strip for the 436th BS (Heavy), 4238th Strategic Wing, at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. We see blue N3A parka-clad Air Force Air Police ready with their trusty M1 Carbines to keep persons unwanted away from the KC-135 tanker bird behind them.
It looks very Ice Station Zebra.
Of course, the cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay would switch out the M1 for the new-fangled AR-15 in 1962, the Air Police were redesignated the Security Police in 1966, and the more sedate OD/gray-colored N-3B cold weather parka replaced the bright blue N-3As, so the above aesthetic was long lost by the time intergalactic smuggler turned Rebel scum Han Solo rode a Tauntaun out into the Hoth night against all advice.