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US Air Force Preparing To Put Nuclear-Equipped Bombers Back On 24-Hour Ready Alert Status As Global Tensions Rise

The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991.

Published

8 years ago

October 22, 2017

Geoffrey Grider

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The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991.

That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice.

“This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward.”

Goldfein and other senior defense officials stressed that the alert order had not been given, but that preparations were under way in anticipation that it might come. That decision would be made by Gen. John Hyten, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, or Gen. Lori Robinson, the head of U.S. Northern Command. STRATCOM is in charge of the military’s nuclear forces and NORTHCOM is in charge of defending North America.

This B-52 Air Force Bomber Can Hold 70,000 Lbs. in Weapons:

Putting the B-52s back on alert is just one of many decisions facing the Air Force as the U.S. military responds to a changing geopolitical environment that includes North Korea’s rapidly advancing nuclear arsenal, President Trump’s confrontational approach to Pyongyang, and Russia’s increasingly potent and active armed forces.

Goldfein, who is the Air Force’s top officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is asking his force to think about new ways that nuclear weapons could be used for deterrence, or even combat.

“The world is a dangerous place and we’ve got folks that are talking openly about use of nuclear weapons,” he said. “It’s no longer a bipolar world where it’s just us and the Soviet Union. We’ve got other players out there who have nuclear capability. It’s never been more important to make sure that we get this mission right.”

During his trip across the country last week, Goldfein encouraged airmen to think beyond Cold War uses for ICBMs, bombers and nuclear cruise missiles.

“I’ve challenged…Air Force Global Strike Command to help lead the dialog, help with this discussion about ‘What does conventional conflict look like with a nuclear element?’ and ‘Do we respond as a global force if that were to occur?’ and ‘What are the options?’” he said. “How do we think about it — how do we think about deterrence in that environment?”

Asked if placing B-52s back on alert — as they were for decades — would help with deterrence, Goldfein said it’s hard to say.

“Really it depends on who, what kind of behavior are we talking about, and whether they’re paying attention to our readiness status,” he said.

Already, various improvements have been made to prepare Barksdale — home to the 2d Bomb Wing and Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s nuclear forces — to return B-52s to an alert posture. Near the alert pads, an old concrete building — where B-52 crews during the Cold War would sleep, ready to run to their aircraft and take off at a moment’s notice — is being renovated.

Inside, beds are being installed for more than 100 crew members, more than enough room for the crews that would man bombers positioned on the nine alert pads outside. There’s a recreation room, with a pool table, TVs and a shuffleboard table. Large paintings of the patches for each squadron at Barksdale adorn the walls of a large stairway.

A Rare Peek Inside The E-4B ‘Doomsday’ Plane:

One painting — a symbol of the Cold War — depicts a silhouette of a B-52 with the words “Peace The Old Fashioned Way,” written underneath. At the bottom of the stairwell, there is a Strategic Air Command logo, yet another reminder of the Cold War days when American B-52s sat at the ready on the runway outside.

Those long-empty B-52 parking spaces will soon get visits by two nuclear command planes, the E-4B Nightwatch and E-6B Mercury, both which will occasionally sit alert there. During a nuclear war, the planes would become the flying command posts of the defense secretary and STRATCOM commander, respectively. If a strike order is given by the president, the planes would be used to transmit launch codes to bombers, ICBMs and submarines. At least one of the four nuclear-hardened E-4Bs — formally called the National Airborne Operations Center, but commonly known as the Doomsday Plane — is always on 24-hour alert.

Barksdale and other bases with nuclear bombers are preparing to build storage facilities for a new nuclear cruise missile that is under development. During his trip, Goldfein received updates on the preliminary work for a proposed replacement for the 400-plus Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the new long-range cruise missile.

“Our job is options,” Goldfein said. “We provide best military advice and options for the commander in chief and the secretary of defense. Should the STRATCOM commander require or the NORTHCOM commander require us to [be on] a higher state of readiness to defend the homeland, then we have to have a place to put those forces.” source

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Headline News

It’s Time To Get Excited For The 2026 NTEB Camp Meeting Weekend In September Where Our Theme Is ‘Reaching The Lost In The Last Days’

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16 hours ago

April 9, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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The 2026 NTEB Camp Meeting Weekend Is Coming This September With Powerful Preaching, Sweet Fellowship And A Burden For Reaching The Lost In The Last Days

It’s time to get excited for the 2026 NTEB Camp Meeting Weekend this September, and if there was ever a time for God’s people to gather, get strengthened, and get serious about the work of the ministry, that time is now. The world is racing headlong into darkness, confusion, apostasy, and chaos, but the mission of the Church in this present age has not changed one bit. We are still commanded to preach the gospel, still called to be lights in a dark place, and still entrusted with the greatest message this world will ever hear. That is why the theme for this year’s camp meeting could not be more timely: “Reaching The Lost In The Last Days.”

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” Acts 16:9 (KJB)

This year it’s more than just a Camp Meeting, it is the burden of the hour. While much of professing Christianity is distracted by entertainment, programs, and compromise, we want to keep our eyes fixed on the work the Lord gave us to do. Souls are perishing, time is short, but the doors are still open, and the fields are white already to harvest. Now is the time to go, now is the time to witness, and now is the time to do all we can while it is yet day. This year’s missions-focused Camp Meeting will help you get there.

How To Register:

DATES:

We are still working out all the details, but here in short is what you need to know.

September 25th: Reception at the Bible Believers Bookstore, open all day, with refreshments from 2:00 – 5:00 PM.
September 26th: Camp Meeting day held this year at Elegant Barns in Hastings, FL – Music by the Macary Family
September 27th: Sunday Service at the Bible Believers Church at the Bookstore from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

The Camp Meeting doors will open at 11:30 AM EST on Saturday. There is no cost to attend this event (donations are gratefully accepted) but everyone must register, please click graphic below to sign up now. Food and refreshments will be provided.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED FOR THIS YEAR’S CAMP MEETING AND SUPER-EASY SIGNUP!!

Speaker list:

Geoffrey Grider: founder of Now The End Begins and pastor at the Bible Believers Church at the Bookstore
Randy Keener: author, editor of Watchman’s Warning site, evangelist and teacher at the Ashville Baptist Institute
Joel Tillis: founder of The Soul Trap and pastor at Suncoast Baptist Church
Spencer Smith: Director of Lighthouse Baptist Missions to Kenya and the Dominican Republic and filmmaker on YouTube
Dr. William Grady: end times author and circuit riding evangelist for the Lord
Hans Li: Chinese National missionary to America and Communist China

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

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When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Donald Trump

History Teaches Us That Wars That Are Won Like WWII End In Surrender, And Wars That Are Not Won End With ‘Peace Talks’ Like The Korean War And Vietnam

Published

24 hours ago

April 9, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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A nation that will not finish a war has no business starting one, as both Israel and America have done with Iran in Operation Epic Fury under Trump and Hegseth

For all the swagger coming out of Washington, the hard reality is this: if you are really winning, you do not usually find yourself scrambling toward peace talks while the smoke is still rising. Multiple reports today say Vice President JD Vance is set to lead the American delegation into talks with Iran in Pakistan this weekend, even as the ceasefire itself remains shaky and disputes over Lebanon, the Strait of Hormuz, and the very terms of the agreement threaten to blow the whole thing apart. Though they are battered and bruised, the regime in Iran is still standing, still controlling the Strait of Hormuz, and as such have every right to proclaim victory. It will be tough to celebrate our 250th anniversary of America with this black cloud hanging over our heads.

“Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:29-30 (KJB)

And that is what makes this whole spectacle so sad and pathetic. Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are speaking the language of triumph while being dragged by events toward the peace table. Hegseth has been out there portraying Trump as a “president of peace,” even while the administration has lurched from threats of devastating force to a hurried two-week ceasefire and now to high-stakes negotiations. That is not the posture of settled victory. That is the posture of leaders trying to control the headline after losing control of the outcome.

America has seen this movie before. Korea did not end in victory, but in an armistice. Vietnam did not end in victory, but in an agreement that papered over defeat long enough for the final collapse to come. In both cases, politicians sold the public on the idea that talks at the table would secure what had not been secured on the battlefield. In both cases, the result was not lasting peace, but unfinished business and national humiliation. That is what happens when leaders start a war without the resolve to finish it.

Here we have Warmonger Pete gaslighting us by trying to make you believe that last night’s TACO moment is somehow an “ultimate victory” for America. Iran’s regime is still in place, they are charging $1 million per vessel in the SoH, and they now have all the time they need to… pic.twitter.com/F3Pcx75UHA

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) April 8, 2026

Now the same poison is back again, only this time it is mixed with branding, ego, and reckless decision-making. Trump’s great weakness has always been his addiction to public image. Everything must be dramatic, everything must be historic, everything must be framed as the greatest show on earth. Pete Hegseth, for all his tough-guy rhetoric, appears cut from the same cloth in this moment: full of chest-thumping declarations, full of boasts, full of victory talk, while the actual facts on the ground say something very different. Iran has not been marched into unconditional surrender. The regional fire has not been put out. The Strait of Hormuz remains a pressure point. Lebanon is still erupting. And yet these men want Americans to clap because they declared success on television.

Public swagger replaced strategic clarity. Boasts replaced discipline. Narrative replaced objective.

That is the reckless part of all this. They overtalked. They oversold. They ran ahead of reality. When leadership becomes more concerned with appearing strong than with thinking clearly, it creates exactly this kind of predicament. Men begin making impulsive declarations they later have to walk back. They draw lines they do not seem prepared to enforce to the finish. They promise outcomes they cannot yet guarantee. Then, when the pressure mounts and the enemy is still standing, they pivot to negotiations and pretend the pivot was the plan all along. But everybody can see it. If you have won, why are you rushing to talks? If the enemy has been broken, why is the ceasefire so fragile? If victory has already been achieved, why are basic terms still being disputed in public? These are not the questions that follow conquest. These are the questions that follow incompetence, miscalculation and drastic overreach.

I do believe, with all my heart, that according to Daniel 2:21, God put Donald Trump on the throne over America. I also believe that God put him there, not for blessing, but in judgment over a nation that has become very much like Babylon. Just look at all the global chaos now,… pic.twitter.com/CTUTupV6Py

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) April 7, 2026

And let’s be plain about it: peace talks before victory are often just decorated surrenders. They are where the political men who start the wars go to escape the consequences of their own rhetoric. They are where wars launched with thunder are quietly traded for ambiguous formulas, temporary pauses, and face-saving language. The enemy could not win outright, so he waits for the politicians to lose their nerve. Then he takes back at the negotiating table what he could not seize under fire. That is why this moment is so dangerous. The administration is boasting as though the war aims have been accomplished, while the facts suggest something far murkier: a pressured ceasefire, unresolved military and political issues, conflicting interpretations of the deal, and a fresh push for talks that could easily become the mechanism by which unfinished war is rebranded as peacemaking. Even reporting from today notes that Iran and the U.S. are advancing sharply different understandings of what comes next, and that the talks may determine whether hostilities resume or merely pause under a prettier name.

The Bible gives a sobering warning about halfway execution: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.” Jeremiah 48:10 (KJB)

That verse is not a license for reckless violence, but it is a sharp warning against doing grave things weakly, deceitfully, or by halves. Once judgment is undertaken, to falter in purpose is to invite ruin. And in national life, that means if leaders commit a nation to war, then lose their nerve before victory is secured, they do not create peace. They create delay. They create instability. They create the staging ground for the next war. In fact, Trump just posted this to Truth Social: ” …In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!” The insanity is real and terrifying.

That is what makes the Trump-Hegseth performance so pitiful. They want the applause of victors without bearing the burden of actually securing victory. They want to sound like conquering generals while behaving like political operators boxed in by their own overstatements. They want America to believe that marching toward peace talks is proof of strength, even while the ceasefire wobbles and the enemy still retains leverage. That is not strength, that is managed embarrassment.

A nation that will not finish a war has no business starting one. And a leader who brags about victory while inching toward the negotiating table is not displaying resolve. He is advertising weakness under a banner of strength. Korea showed it. Vietnam showed it. And if this Iran crisis ends the same way, it will be one more chapter in the long American habit of mistaking talk for triumph, and retreat for peace.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Headline News

THE PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST: With Minutes To Go, President Trump Blinked, Gifting Iran With A 2-Week ‘Ceasefire’ Leaving Regime In Place To Fight Again

Published

2 days ago

April 8, 2026

Geoffrey Grider

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President Trump blinked last night, leave the regime in Iran firmly in place to restock, rearm and fight another day against Israel and the United States

Let’s stop the nonsense right here. The regime is still in place. There was no collapse, no overthrow, no final blow. Tehran survived the storm, retained its ruling structure, and forced the United States into a pause instead of absorbing the annihilating follow-through strike that had been loudly threatened. That is not what defeat looks like. That is what “live to fight another day” looks like. Iran got everything they wanted last night, Trump had them in the crosshairs and let them go. On his Truth Social page, President Trump said “A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough!… Likewise, so has everyone else! Just like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!!” TACO Trump strikes again, leaving America noticeably weakened in the eyes of our enemies like Russia And China who now know Trump will back down at the critical moment.

“The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.” Psalm 55:21 (KJB)

On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, if 20th-century history teaches us anything about the Middle East and Iran , it is that the regime that has been in place since I graduated high school will do anything, say anything, and pretend to agree to anything to stay in power. Last night, President Trump had the opportunity to end it, once and for all, to eradicate the regime of the Ayatollahs, remove the enriched uranium, and reset the world’s most prolific terror state. But with mere minutes to go until his own deadline was reached, President Trump stepped away and gave Iran everything they needed to keep fighting. According to the UK Daily Mail, Iran is charging $1 million per ship to pass through the strait, something that they are now referring to as the ‘Tehran Tollbooth’. America is talking like it won, but Iran is still ruling Iran, still controlling the Strait of Hormuz, still forcing the world to deal with it, and now possibly collecting massive transit money on top of it. That is not the profile of a regime on its back foot. That is the profile of a regime that took the punch, stayed on its feet, and is already looking for a way to profit from the next round. So yes, from a “fight another day” perspective, Iran won big. It survived. It kept the regime intact. It retained leverage over the world’s energy artery. And if these toll reports are even close to true, then Tehran is now making money off a ceasefire America needed after telling the world the war was already won. It was a black eye for Trump and a bad day for America.

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