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I was reading today in the NYT about tension between Thatcher and Reagan over the Grenada adventure. The Brits are declassifying some stuff from that period and that's why this came up. Anyway, the invasion wasn't very popular in the UK and Lady Thatcher was a bit peeved that Reagan not only didn't consult her, he didn't even give fair warning. There's two sides to that and that isn't what's interesting to me here. Concurrently with that event the US was setting up basing in the UK for USAF cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. That also was not very popular there. Here's the thing that got me: the article says a USAF technician who was doing maintenance on said missiles discovered that the British (missile?) keys also unlocked the USAF missiles. At that point the USAF changed all the locks on the missiles. Now the article isn't clear on what those keys unlocked exactly, I'm sure they weren't "launch" keys or arming keys and I doubt they gave direct access to the warheads but were probably just for the missile portion. Nonetheless, two questions are raised. First, why were the US and UK keys identical? Second, what was a USAF technician doing with a British key? I hope the Brits were advised of the situation so they could change their locks as well.

oops, wrong forum

"Big bellied Billy" the locksmith has the government contracts cornered there in merry old England? I just cant imagine the keys would look like an oversize house key...[:D]