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There's a lot of comments I could make about the differences between USAF controlling back then, and the FAA's mentality of controlling back then.
USAF controllers, especially with experience from Osan AB, ROK TRACON, knew well before the PATCO strike about the benefits of using "FLOW CONTROL" and using "COORDINATOR CONTROLLERS" that the FAA was NOT familiar with at the beginning of the strike.
The USAF "Strike Busters" IMMEDIATELY implemented both techniques into the FAA and that started most of the delays being transferred from "Holding Patterns" over fixes, to "Ground Delays" on the ramp, and "Controlled Departure Times".
At USAF bases, it was common place for "Coordinators" between the "Arrival Controller" and the "Tower Local Controller" to build holes for departures by telling the "Radar Coordinator" to run 3 arrivals as close together as possible, and then to leave a 15 mile hole for departures, so as to get 3 or 4 flights of fighters airborne.
These control techniques are still being used today in the FAA and the USAF, but the FAA tends to want to give priority to arrivals over departures, and sometimes forgets about the departure side of moving traffic.

At USAF bases, it was common place for "Coordinators" between the "Arrival Controller" and the "Tower Local Controller" to build holes for departures by telling the "Radar Coordinator" to run 3 arrivals as close together as possible, and then to leave a 15 mile hole for departures, so as to get 3 or 4 flights of fighters airborne.

Yep, at Travis, we had coordinator positions between tower and Approach. We did the same thing, got a hole to launch 141s and C-5s. The holes were not so much for separation purposes, but for wake turbulence There was no danger of them hitting each other, because we had parllel runways. It was wake turbulence. People called us from other bases, like Dover and other places, to get help on wake turbulence procedures also.

I was already in Germany when the strike happened. There was a guy coming from Griffis, who was on leave and was told not to answer any phones, so he could escape to Germany too. He helped train me as a 2 striper at MT Home.