Posted on 07/06/2006 7:59:03 PM PDT by GoldCountryRedneck
B-52 Flyby of USS Ranger
This picture is real because I witnessed this flyby personally.
This picture was taken in the spring of 1990 as we started our deployment to the Persian Gulf.
I was up in the "tower" with the air boss as the Viking squadron rep for the launch/recovery and these Buff drivers (2 of them) called that they were at 8 miles for a flyby. They had been 'orange air' for a big war - at - sea exercise we were doing When they called 5 miles the boss said "we don't see you" and we heard back "look low".
Out on the water we saw this smoke trail first, (the planes merged with the color of the water) at about a 1-2 miles we could make them out and the two buffs came by at 20-30 feet off the water splitting the ship at about 350kts. Then they pulled up and did a big plan form 180 and said "do you want to see that again" - The air boss said "hell yea" so they went back out and did it again. It was the only time in my 20-year career that I have seen any service jets purposely flying below flight deck level.
One of my reserve buddies showed me this picture this weekend and I got all excited about it. It was always one of those moments at sea that I had talked about.
All the best.
N. T.
Yeah. The BUFF isn't quite designed for a 95-degree bank angle...
I think you may have your dates wrong. I was a Sea College Airman on the Ranger from 1987-1989, so I caught a the 87 and 88 WESTPAC. I was in the V5 division and I worked in Pri-Fly and on the LSO platform.
In 1988 we were working up for a WESTPAC a few hundred miles out of San Diego. They sent the Air Force out to find us, and war game us. We killed them all, and the Boss let them fly by. We all thought this guy was a goner, and the Boss had a word with Air Force observers in the tower.
Notice how the deck is almost empty, we had a lot of birds in the air for the fight. It's one of those days and sights you never forget. I guess it could have happened in 1990 too, but I was back in Florida in school, so I wouldn't know.
I think you meant to post to someone else, I didn’t post the photo.
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