[narby]

For the next ten minutes I watched as 9 B-52's taxied into position, formed up on the runway and then ran down the runway in echelons of 3 about 1000 yards apart and lumbered into the sky.

I was in an excercize at a USAF base in Germany in the 70's where we did a "max effort" for an entire week. We flew our wing of 60+ F-4E Phantoms 5 or 6 times a day. I was on the end-of-runway crew, and we would process through all 60+ airplanes in 10-15 minutes. Then they would taxi onto the runway 8 at at time and launch in 4 waves of 2, then 8 more would taxi up. There was constant afterburner noise from at least 4 airplanes at a time for the whole 10-15 minutes.

Then we'd climb back in the crew van and watch them return, and a couple hours later do it all over again.

[HardStarboard]

>>> There was constant afterburner noise from at least 4 airplanes at a time for the whole 10-15 minutes. <<<

The sound of Freedom!! I've got liberal friends that, today, would bemoan the "waste" of fuel.

They will never understand!

[reagandemo]

Back in the 70's when I was in college we used to go to a ridge line and sit a drink beer and wait for the Buffs to show up. See Berea Ky was where they would grade the pilots on their bombing skills. The Buffs would show up and at full power come up the valley over the ridge we were setting on a hundred or so feet off the deck. You talk about a rush.