Jay M. Lamb completed training at Amarillo Technical Training Center, TX, and was assigned to 9th Strategic Aerospace Wing, Mountain Home AFB, ID, 15 Nov 1962 as an Airman 3rd Class serving as a jet mechanic. Performed duty as crew chief on a B-47E.

Airman Lamb says that over a two-year period (1965-1967) he would go from Mountain Home AFB to Alaska for temporary duty. He was on nuclear alert duty for the Strategic Air Command. B-47 bombers stationed at Mt Home AFB were rotated once a month to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, loaded with two hydrogen weapons and placed in an alert compound. The flight crews and maintenance crews were on shift 48 hours and off shift 48 hours. It was cold war duty and the targets were China and the Soviet Union. When the alert was sounded the crews had 15 minutes to get to the aircraft, start the engines, and taxi across the runway threshold, and take off for the assigned target.

The 9th Bomb Wing moved from Mountain Home AFB, ID to Beale AFB, CA and converted to the SR-71 Blackbird.

In 1967 he received the Federal Aviation Administration rating as an airframe and powerplant mechanic.

In 1970 Jay Morrell Lamb was rated as a Commercial Pilot with airplane single and multi-engine land with instrument rating.