I used to watch these take off at Amarillo AFB back in 1962. I thought they were beautiful then and still believe that. Nothing like it. Occasionally I have seen them in high in the sky in Texas where they fly out of Barksdale in La. Still something to behold.
My recollection is that they cost only $9 million to build one of them when they were new. I’ve wondered why they couldn’t bring out the old plans and just replace the outdated components with updated electronics and engines and build new bombers.
Just imagine what they could do in the ME with a squadron of them carpet bombing the terrorists. Nothing would remain and they would get a real experience of true terror themselves.
I was just a kid with no connection to the Air Force (other than a dad who was Army attached to the Air in WWII who helped enforce a training base’s sanitary rules to prevent disease outbreaks), and my experience was post war.
Yeah, living in Fort Worth (Carswell and the big bombers) I saw and heard them high overhead at times.
But once at a cookout on the shores of Lake Worth, I experienced this B-52 takeoff on a path right over my head and still very close to ground.
That sound pinned me to the spot I was in.
I literally could not move until it passed.
Yes!
The sound of FREEDOM.
Many years later I experienced more than one low B-1 flyover from Dyess in Abilene.
Wow!!!