Posted on 06/13/2014 7:49:31 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The Boeing B-52 - sometimes known as the Stratofortress - is a long-range, jet-powered strategic bomber which is widely expected to prop up the US Air Force well beyond the year 2045
Before our marathon eight-hour flight Captain Thomas Hyde, the commanding officer of one of the B-52 bombers, briefly describes the mission.
He says we will be doing a number of simulated bombing runs around what he calls "the island". He makes it sound like a short training flight over a remote abandoned outcrop of rock somewhere in the North Sea. But the island he is referring to is in fact Britain.
It is the first time the B-52s have returned to their European "home" for more than a decade.
RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire is one of the long range bombers' forward operating bases - alongside the more exotic islands of Guam and Diego Garcia.
Military muscle
The last time they were in Europe was in 2003 - the year America launched "shock and awe" on Iraq.
Now their arrival is more about flexing America's military muscle.
But it is seen as significant given Russia's recent intervention in Ukraine.
Colonel Leyland Bohannon of the US Air Force says the timing is "interesting" while insisting it is "not connected".
Though he adds wherever you fly a nuclear capable bomber "it does send a message".
The B-52 is a warrior of the Cold War. But it is still a symbol of American power.
The one we are flying in was built in 1961. It has since undergone numerous upgrades.
And while the B-52 was once used to conduct "carpet bombing" now it is more likely to carry cruise missiles and Laser Guided Bombs.
***They also ran 52s out of Kadena right before I got there but the Okinawans complained and they moved them to Guam.***
I was there at that time working on KC-135s. We were going into Koza City when there was a gaggle of B-52s taking off. The road ran near the end of the runway and there were dozens of Okinawans there taking camera snapshots.
This should give you nightmares.
One fully loaded B-52 did go down off the end of the runway at GUAM.
***Gear is steerable IIRC***
Back then it was called “Crosswind crab”.
full military power and MITO
- - - - -
Back in the early 90s I got to experience that (I assume) from a B52, about two miles away at Ellington field from a Natural Gas Storage facility. Every building was shaking and it drowned out normal conversation.
We had often seen practice landings and take-offs of military aircraft. That one stands out in my mind 2 decades later.
There 69-71....18 months.....but I don’t remember the runway running over Koza (I spent a LOT of time there!) As I recall it was sort of east-west. I’ve google-mapped it recently but I can’t recognize anything - they’ve sure changed the place since I was there.
This looks to me like the area is Georgia...Robins AFB. Nothing but pine trees.
Freepers are the best!
Thanks again!
Thank you!
13 hour flight had a high-powered crew (because of my presence), THREE Majors!
Highlights were attacking St Louis with Hound Dogs, refueling, and TWO frightening, violent, low level 'oil burner' bomb runs at La Junta, CO.
Now, I was in the USN, on a Presidential Command ship, have visited a dozen or more military airfields, and many other high tech, classified civilian and military facilities, including boomers. But the security and professionalism displayed by SAC at Kincheloe was just way higher than anything else I ever saw in my career. It was a nuke base, which explains part of it, but great leadership and dedication from top to bottom was apparent from the wing commander down to the Airman assigned as my driver.
In my eyes SAC stands alone as the highest standard of excellence in history for a large entity. Great admiration.
We had a double wing of BUFFs and tankers at Barksdale, and they’d generate all but the alert birds for an exercise called Global Shield. Then they’d MITO them. I talked to a BUFF pilot and you wanted to be the first bird in line. By the 3rd or 4th, you were all over the place in previous jet wash. In this case it was 30-40 birds, 12 seconds between the bombers and 15 seconds between the tankers.
The place to experience take offs of BUFFS and Stratobladders was at U-Tapao RTNB, Thailand.
At the end of the main runway was an outdoor theater (called the “Wash-out”) and a Thai restraint (called the “Green Latrine”). They were just west of the runway (about 1,000 ft) much closer than they could/would be in the CONUS.
A launch of an Arc Light strike, 3 x B-52Ds and 2-3 x KC-135s. The whole package getting off the ground in 5 minutes. All the aircraft used water augmentation to get airborne.
Five minutes of noise and vibrations. No sound tracks. No conversations.
On busy nights this went on every 30 minutes.
It was considered great fun to take newly arrived personnel to either the wash-out or green latrine just in time to experience a strike mission launch.
After experiencing just one, 30~40 that quick, without knowing it was test, would cause me to check in with my maker and let him know I was trying to be on good terms.
I meant the road that went around the end of the runway.
I was there when the fighter jet blew up on the runway in 1968.
thetrumpet.com is my source on world news.
I lived around McConnell AFB once and they had B-52, B-1 and KC-135R. I took a friend to the end of the runway and parked and pretended to consult a map when I saw a B-1 taking off towards us. He never looked to his right until the plane was over us and I remember him laughing hard and talking loud but I heard nothing except for jet engines.
Every once in a while late at night they would do what the media called a hot take-off. I think it was B-1s. The house I was in two miles away would shake and the noise was incredible. The plane would take off to the north, usually they went south, and then it would continue north until the nosie finally died a long time later.
F16 can indeed carry nukes.
I was there when they switched from F4 to F16.
I stood as close as anyone could get to the lovely
thing......but I would ride one down to the target :)
(in case your comment was not sarc)
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