B-52 Fans (Not the Rock Group)

[Norm]

Some memorabilia and stuff.

[ApexOversteer]

My father had a set of pictures in his office, side by side. Same group of smiling 1st Cav guys, standing next to the same VietNamese trees, with the same smiles on their faces. The only difference is the picture on the right had a massive range of craggy mountains, many thousands of feet tall, hundreds of miles off in the distance, mountains not evident in the picture on the left.

Used to get double takes from anyone that saw them. They'd look from one to the other in confusion, until my father would tell them the "mountain range" was actually the result of a B52 strike, 80 miles away.

[Grey Ghost]

From an airshow a couple of yrs. ago.

[OddBall]

Awesomely cool

[Jeff '79]

Only if Skia would have started a thread like this......

[Dan Dlabay]

The B-52 is my favorite jet bomber. I remember back in the 60's when there was a SAC base at Wright Patterson Air Force base it was cool to watch the B-52's taking off on a practice mission. (at lest that's what we all hoped it was) Thanks for sharing.

[Norm]

Originally Posted by Jeff '79

Only if Skia would have started a thread like this......

Well yes he did, just piggy backing of his original idea. I think he'll like it. It's National B-52 Day, didn't you know?

[Jeff '79]

Originally Posted by Norm

Well yes he did, just piggy backing of his original idea. I think he'll like it. It's National B-52 Day, didn't you know?

I did not know that.... I'll take two please !....

[Norm]

My favorite B-52 pics with my old C5 at Andrews.

[69camfrk]

Oh joy, just what we need, more B-52 mafia shit. I'll take your POS Buff and raise you a B-1B!!! But of course you need to understand I'm an old B-1 guy too and I'm a little predjudice. Buff's are cool, but stats prove that the B-1's are more capable, and dammit, they are beautiful. Plus, they can fly upside down at warp speed. Yup, that's fast!!

[Flatbush Harry]

I went to AFROTC Summer Training at Pease AFB in Portsmouth, NH, home of the 509th BW. Some of you may recall that the 509th Composite Bomb Group, led by Col. Paul Tibbets, earned its fine motto, "Defensor Vindex" (Defender Avenger) from a brief stint at Tinian in 1945. Somewhere I still have my prized Zippo lighter with that unit crest enameled on it.

Harry

[Iron Chef]

Originally Posted by 69camfrk

Oh joy, just what we need, more B-52 mafia shit. I'll take your POS Buff and raise you a B-1B!!! But of course you need to understand I'm an old B-1 guy too and I'm a little predjudice. Buff's are cool, but stats prove that the B-1's are more capable, and dammit, they are beautiful. Plus, they can fly upside down at warp speed. Yup, that's fast!!

My favorite aircraft. Had the honor of working on the AN/ALQ-161 system for two years at Edwards AFB.

[Grey Ghost]

I had a HS friend that was a B-1 pilot. He tried to get a job with the airlines after leaving the AF. He really struggled after getting out. He went to Embry Riddle to further his education, etc...he committed suicide a few yrs. later. Some say that it was because he overextended himself financially with the purchase of an expensive home. You never know, but I think I would have made the AF a career. I still think about him every time a B-1 is mentioned.

[Iron Chef]

Originally Posted by Grey Ghost

I had a HS friend that was a B-1 pilot. He tried to get a job with the airlines after leaving the AF. He really struggled after getting out. He went to Embry Riddle to further his education, etc...he committed suicide a few yrs. later. Some say that it was because he overextended himself financially with the purchase of an expensive home. You never know, but I think I would have made the AF a career. I still think about him every time a B-1 is mentioned.

A good friend of mine who has over 4000 hours in the F-16 (not very common...also an Embry-Riddle grad) told me that when he graduated from flight school, the guy who graduated top of his class was given choice of assignment and he chose B-1. It is my understanding (and I could be wrong) that B-1 pilots are considered among the USAF's cream of the crop.

[69camfrk]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

A good friend of mine who has over 4000 hours in the F-16 (not very common...also an Embry-Riddle grad) told me that when he graduated from flight school, the guy who graduated top of his class was given choice of assignment and he chose B-1. It is my understanding (and I could be wrong) that B-1 pilots are considered among the USAF's cream of the crop.

Well, I only wrenched on them, but I was fortunate enough to get a ride on one. It was back in '02 and I have video, but need to get it from 8mm to digital format. When I do, I will post it. My old airplane (tail 6-098) is at Dyess AFB in Abilene Tx. and the one I rode on (tail 071 "Mr Bones") is in the boneyard at Davis Monthan. I have a buddy that is full time Reserve at Barksdale and he took the Buff in the picture through a phased inspection recently.

Just so folks will know, the Bone was no easy creature to wrench on. I had no idea how hard I worked until we moved to a different airframe after we lost the B-1's. Chef, you having dealt with them surely remember the upper spring panels which required a shitty press to clamp down on them with a force of 4000 pounds to remove and install them. We had some hydraulic lines go bad that ran up through the wing pivot pin, and man, we were busy on that sucker for a minute. Yup, they could beat you up, but when you got it off the ground, it was worth every busted knuckle.

[LilRedCorvette]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

A good friend of mine who has over 4000 hours in the F-16 (not very common...also an Embry-Riddle grad) told me that when he graduated from flight school, the guy who graduated top of his class was given choice of assignment and he chose B-1. It is my understanding (and I could be wrong) that B-1 pilots are considered among the USAF's cream of the crop.

F-16s and B-2s are my absolute favorites...

[Grey Ghost]

Blown by the Bone

Embedding disabled. Pretty cool B1 clip, if you want to watch on YT.

THE ORIGINAL & GENUINE " BLOWN BY THE BONE" 2001 - YouTube

[beadist]

I've always loved them too.

My uncle was a navigator in them the whole of his career. As a 7-8 year old we went to see him at Dover AFB and he took us through one. I have always liked to wander off....and almost fell through one of the open bomb doors. I'll never forget that During Vietnam he was stationed on Guam a couple times. He has some stories...

When I lived in N. CA, I used to see them flying in and out of Travis AFB when we were heading to or from San Francisco. When I moved to Louisiana I hoped to see one every once in awhile, but sadly, no.

[Aflac]

Originally Posted by 69camfrk

Oh joy, just what we need, more B-52 mafia shit. I'll take your POS Buff and raise you a B-1B!!! But of course you need to understand I'm an old B-1 guy too and I'm a little predjudice. Buff's are cool, but stats prove that the B-1's are more capable, and dammit, they are beautiful. Plus, they can fly upside down at warp speed. Yup, that's fast!!

If you can get one off the ground! I remember them coming to Red Flag with us (they parked right beside us) and brought 4 airplanes and only one ever moved. The other 3 shit all over themselves. And the neat thing about the patch Harry posted is that is the only patch in the US military authorized to have the mushroom cloud in it. We (509 BW) dropped both of them in Japan.
I was one of the last in the original wave of airmen that were assigned to work these...

[mrvette]

One of my oldest friends used to fly C130 in Nam, and went to B52 before getting out, My cousin was stationed for all 4 years at the SAC base in North Little Rock, it switched to TAC for his last year/few months.....

I remember taking the kids to a air show at Andrews, and it being hot and humid that day in DC, we sat under the friendly wing of the Big Ugly Fat Fellow parked there, and finally near 11 am the fog/cloud lifted enough to allow the B2 to do a pass by over the runway....it came outta the clouds like an apparition, looked nasty as hell, and SLO, and stone quiet, he dipped his wing for us, and so we saw the sawtooth trailing edges of the craft.....as he got next to us the noise picked up and was loud as hell after he passed, very odd how on the approach it was stone quiet, talk about noise control, that's IT!!!!!

My kid's G'father on their mom's side used to work for AIL in the 70's-80's....he was head of their computer department, and so got to work on retainer/contract for developing the anti radar programming for the B1 , sort of a radar vs radar, our computer vs theirs...type gig....where as the B2 just snuck in there, the B1 was not capable of sneak, so they just stood up and be smarter.....

I suppose my jealous side shows, you guys lucky as hell to be crewing/working on them toys, what a GREAT job to have, I"d been happy as a pig in shit to be doing that.....