Jump to content

B-52 MITO


DC10FE
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...

I was stationed at Travis AFB in 1968 and 1969. While there we had a broken arrow alert. This reminded me of that day. they launched either 9 or 10 B-52's and then Kc135's. They even launched the B-52's on the other side of the base that supposedly had nukes on board.

I worked transient maintenance while there. 1 day we were told to go to the other side and work a C-124 Shaky. When we got there the MP's made us get out of the truck while they searched it. they ran a Dog through the truck. Once they were happy they assigned us to a crew member and told not to waner away because the guns were loaded. I was told to service the oil tanks on the engines which is done over the wing. when we went inside I could see why all the security. There were about a dozen nukes on board. I didn't get the exact number as I wasn't given any time to count them. Ineresting experience to say the least.

Take care

Wil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a C-124 squadron at Kelly AFB (I think) that was PNAF quallified. I think they were A-models.

That brings up a question for the guys in the 37th. Are there still PNAF qualified crews there? When I was at Rhein Main, we had some really good PNAF trips. Just an awful lot of BS to put up with -- especually for the loadmasters.

Holy crap, I hijacked my own thread!

Don R.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SAC had a C-124 squadron they called a SSS Sqdn (triple S), they delivered the pits in bird cages. They brought a bunch of the bird cages into Greenham Common AB while I was there 1956 to 1960, the B-47s would bring the bomb case when they came TDY for 21 days, they did it that way until a plane from Upper Hayford, AB dropped a concrete drop test bomb over Oxford and made a large (10000 lb bombs make big holes) in the town square. After that we got a large shipment of bombs that were stored in a place called dry gulch. I was a crew chief on KC-135s at KI Sawyer 1960 to 1964, we had a max effort launch of B-52s and KC-135s, they alternated BUFF and tanker at 15 second interval, I thought we were going to lose a tanker because the turbulance was terrible and the tankers did not have power rudders. The tankers had replaced the fuel air starters with shotgun starters and the gas from all the starters formed a big cloud that did not blow away, we had several ground crew members on the ground as the gas cloud replaced the oxygen in the air. They all ended up in the hospital for a few hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a C-124 squadron at Kelly AFB (I think) that was PNAF quallified. I think they were A-models.

That brings up a question for the guys in the 37th. Are there still PNAF qualified crews there? When I was at Rhein Main, we had some really good PNAF trips. Just an awful lot of BS to put up with -- especually for the loadmasters.

Holy crap, I hijacked my own thread!

Don R.

When I was in the 36/37 TAS, 66/68 & 69/70, we practiced special weapons loading a lot. I remember quite well how pickey the evaluators were. It didn't take much to fail. Participated in one real mission. On rote to Mildenhall flew to a German Air Base in northen Germany to pick up their special weapons as their runway was closing for repair. Was surprised to find out, athough the weapons would be delivered by the Germans, they belonged to the USAF. The WSA was manned entirely by the USAF, including air cops, munitions maintenance, ect. When they delivered the bolsters to the acft. it was as if the stuff on the forklift were pallets of cornflakes. Plenty of security but no cordon. Nothing even close to how was it was practiced at Langley. Once on the acft., however, the LMs did their thing, by the book. Your right, big pain for the loads. Believe they used every chain and device on the acft. Once loaded we delivered to a base in southern Germany. Both bases were F104 bases so there wasn't much ramp space for a C130. On taxi in had to get out and pull concertina wire back from the taxiway. We flew one sortie per day for about three days. RON at the southern base were we met a German pilot. This guy took really good care of us. He was roughly the same rank as a USAF TSgt. Flew a G91. Looked like a small F86. Don't know how he did it, but he hung with us till the wee hours and still flew the first go, or so he said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only worked on the B-52H for about 7 months at KI Sawyer AFB, MI -- a very impressive airplane! Here's a clip of 120 TF-33P-3 engines rolling down the runway @ Minot.

Don R.

http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=4632948

Don,

Was surprised to see that bomber units still do this. From 58 to 62 was stationed at Mt. Home in the 9th BW. This was a B-47E outfit and we did MITOs the same as in your clip. As I recall there were three acft. on the runway at a time. One just lifting off, one at mid runway, and one just starting takeoff roll. I always thought this procedure took balls as after the first couple of acft. visability was nil. Just like earlier series B-52s and 135s, 47s used thrust augmentation for takeoff. However, on a 47 this augmentation consisted of 70% water and 30% alcohol. This mixture created a much darker exhaust trail, with nonexistent vis. As much as we did this over a period of several years there were no acft. losses. Although several times I thought a dipped wing tip was going to touch the ground. During winter on alert when the oat reached 29 degrees the water/alcohol tanks had to be drained. The only way to do that was to crank up and burn it off. So, at o dark thirty we would have 12 alert airplanes in the alert area running at takeoff power with water. One had to be very carefull not to get wacked by a flying B4 stand, MD-3, pickup or crew chief. Later there was a TCTO that installed a manual drain.

I guess the point of all this is when one considers how much tactics change over the years here is one that hasn't changed in 50. How often does that happen?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

15 B52s at one time! I've never seen so many aircraft parts flying in formation at once!

I was at DAFB when the 52s came back from Guam. The first hint they were back was the barracks shaking! Very impressive at any age, let alone for a 19 year-old country plow-boy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a C-124 squadron at Kelly AFB (I think) that was PNAF quallified. I think they were A-models.

That was the 19th MAS(S) the (S) was for "Special" .. I was assigned there in Feb '69 when I came back from CCK. The 124s were "C" models if I remember correctly. The biggest difference for the "Special" mission was the airplanes had 3 overhead cranes instead of the usual 2.. All we did while I was there was haul refurbished Hueys from Corpus Christi to Vietnam and return with "used" Hueys... having been on C130s for my entire career up to that time, the 18+ hour flights were quite a change!! From a crew duty standpoint, it was great - we would make a trip to RVN and back in about 10 days, and then we were out for the rest of the month 'cause we had our 90 hours (?) for the month!! I left for Language school in October of '69 and I think the 19th was disbanded in December..

Jim Houston

Edited by JimH
Spelling correction
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...