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Posted By: Bristoe B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/status/1629117954347474944
Posted By: slumlord Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Love that sound
Posted By: okie Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Independence Day celebration with NATO flyovers....
Posted By: gonehuntin Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
Posted By: gunchamp Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
Couldnt agree more. We are heading to mass extinction
Posted By: SuperCub Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
That must be very disconcerting for those who live there.
Posted By: bruinruin Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
I have no knowledge about whether or not this would be a routine thing, (B-52's flying that close to Russia) but I sure hope it is.
Posted By: Hastings Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
That is the road we are on. Never in human history have there been advances in weaponry that were not used.
Posted By: rost495 Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by Hastings
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
That is the road we are on. Never in human history have there been advances in weaponry that were not used.
Nukes are ancient already. And rarely used. FWIW
Posted By: Hastings Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by rost495
Originally Posted by Hastings
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
That is the road we are on. Never in human history have there been advances in weaponry that were not used.
Nukes are ancient already. And rarely used. FWIW
We used to have people in charge that understood what would ensue from the use of nukes and avoided it at all costs.

Apparently they still understand and are OK with a huge worldwide catastrophe. Too many people, got to thin the herd. The number 500,000,000 keeps coming up as an acceptable worldwide human population. That means less than 1 in 14 would be the target number.
Posted By: ol_mike Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Posted By: gonehuntin Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
I look forward to Russian bombers flying up to Mexico City from Venezuela on a 'peace tour' - we deserve that.
Posted By: Gojoe Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by gunchamp
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
Couldnt agree more. We are heading to mass extinction


True, but the elites think that it won't include them.

But it will, assuredly.
Posted By: Clarkm Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
In 1986 I was working at a company of 400 people, mostly making electronics for the F16.
I received an RFQ, request for quotation, to replace B52 power supplies with a more modern design.
I set about dealing with those people and putting together a proposal on dozens of new power supply designs, when our management told me it was too big a job for our company.
The B52 people called me up and said I was their only hope.
All the other military power supply houses had already declined.
The B52 was too big for everybody.
Posted By: SupFoo Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
..... governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Posted By: oldwoody2 Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Years ago I was a Electronic Tech, wrenching on B-52's. They use a lot of power. Lovely beast, even caught a ride or two !!
Posted By: kingfisher Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Biden will kill us all to cover up the money laundering in Ukraine.

Actually Russian people are more like us than Europeans and middle east. Putin is doing exactly what we do if a country was fighting us by proxy on our borders. They now look at us as a weak perverted country. This is the time to strike with a vegetable as president. Little do they know we are all not like that. Heck, if we went to war the darn Antifa would sabotage our war machine.
Republicans are on board because it makes them rich funneling all the work to the defense sector. I benefit from this but don't feel safe with this administration. They better have chip making factories spread out across the country. You need to make sure we don't have all our capabilities on a couple, to easy to target.
Posted By: rainshot Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
They are poking the bear hoping for a strike. They are itching to jump in thinking they’ll win. What could go wrong?
Posted By: SupFoo Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by rainshot
They are poking the bear hoping for a strike. They are itching to jump in thinking they’ll win. What could go wrong?

Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb


[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Posted By: rickt300 Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by SupFoo
Originally Posted by rainshot
They are poking the bear hoping for a strike. They are itching to jump in thinking they’ll win. What could go wrong?

Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb


[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]

Hah! Cheerful bastard.
Posted By: Jcubed Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Literally nothing. The US does this all the time. As does Russia...look into their bombers being escorted by US fighters off Alaska.
Posted By: Hastings Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by kingfisher
Biden will kill us all to cover up the money laundering in Ukraine.

Actually Russian people are more like us than Europeans and middle east. Putin is doing exactly what we do if a country was fighting us by proxy on our borders. They now look at us as a weak perverted country. This is the time to strike with a vegetable as president. Little do they know we are all not like that. Heck, if we went to war the darn Antifa would sabotage our war machine.
Republicans are on board because it makes them rich funneling all the work to the defense sector. I benefit from this but don't feel safe with this administration. They better have chip making factories spread out across the country. You need to make sure we don't have all our capabilities on a couple, to easy to target.
You are right, they look at us as a weak perverted country. Don't you agree?
Posted By: akrange Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Before You Close the Hah Hah Door ..

Please..

Turn Out the Lights..
Posted By: ol_mike Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by Hastings
Originally Posted by kingfisher
Biden will kill us all to cover up the money laundering in Ukraine.

Actually Russian people are more like us than Europeans and middle east. Putin is doing exactly what we do if a country was fighting us by proxy on our borders. They now look at us as a weak perverted country. This is the time to strike with a vegetable as president. Little do they know we are all not like that. Heck, if we went to war the darn Antifa would sabotage our war machine.
Republicans are on board because it makes them rich funneling all the work to the defense sector. I benefit from this but don't feel safe with this administration. They better have chip making factories spread out across the country. You need to make sure we don't have all our capabilities on a couple, to easy to target.
You are right, they look at us as a weak perverted country. Don't you agree?
I know you aren't talking to me but...
No I don't agree, Putin has a very good idea of what the United States is made up of. Because an old greedy bass-turd named biden was cheated into office doesn't mean the world now thinks we're all lgbtxyz/blm zeros.
Rest assured Putin knows more about what's going on here than the majority of US citizens.
Posted By: navlav8r Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by Jcubed
Literally nothing. The US does this all the time. As does Russia...look into their bombers being escorted by US fighters off Alaska.

Yep. I’ve spent many hours flying on the wing of Russian Bear and Badger bombers, Mays, Coots and even an Iranian P-3. They were testing us all the time. Here’s a good example that happened in the North Pacific in about ‘81 or so.

In a Phantom one night off the Midway, Strike advised us that they thought my wingman had lost his radio. While I was plugged in, taking gas off our A-7 tanker, he joined up with his lights were flashing as the signal that he was lost comm.. “Damn, we’re just going to be boring holes waiting for our recovery.” After topping off our tanks we started out toward our designated station and the next thing you know Strike comes up and says we have a bogey 330 at 100 miles, angels high, “signal gait” meaning full afterburner, go as fast as you can to ID it.

Now, I hadn’t heard “signal gait” since my radar simulator hops years before but I asked if we had more tankers airborne because we would need more fuel pretty quickly and Strike confirmed there was more sweet tankers. My wingman was a nugget (“Bowser”) and his back seater was my roommate (Tracker), again with no radio. I’m thinking “Bowser you’d better hang on dude ‘cause here we go!” I went to min-burner and when I saw his burners light I figured “OK, he’s got the idea.” We accelerated in full burner to 450 kts and climbed to 25,000 where we pushed over to zero G to reduce the induced drag and at 1.4M resumed the climb eventually going 1.8 Mach at 40,000’+ We got a radar lock out about 40 miles and it showed that the target was doing about the same speed. Range continued to close quickly with closure approaching Mach 4 and through it all Bowser was hanging on like a good wingman should 😁 This was going to be a really interesting conversion turn to join, particularly at night.

We were setting up for the stern conversion but at about 12-15 miles the radar showed the closure was beginning to drop off as the bogey turned around and headed back to the northwest. Strike then told us to knock it and return overhead. “Wonder what the hell that was all about?”

So we headed back, took on enough gas to make it to recovery then flew out to the marshall stack, holding until it was time to come down. We brought the wingman down to about a mile and detached them with flashing lights and they landed uneventfully. Marshall (Approach Control) took us back around and they worked us into a gap on final and we landed no problem.

After landing, the first thing we always did was go through CVIC (Carrier Intelligence Center). Bowser and Tracker were already there at the counter and as we walked in, Bowser turned and asked, “WHAT THE PHOOK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?” 😳

“I don’t know, ask them!” meaning the intell guys.

Turns out that it was a Backfire bomber out of some Russian base and they were testing our response.

Bowser said, “here we were with no radio and the next thing we know is you lit the burners trying to run away from us,” 😁😳
Posted By: Bristoe Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/24/23
Originally Posted by ol_mike
[/quote]
I know you aren't talking to me but...
No I don't agree, Putin has a very good idea of what the United States is made up of. Because an old greedy bass-turd named biden was cheated into office doesn't mean the world now thinks we're all lgbtxyz/blm zeros.
Rest assured Putin knows more about what's going on here than the majority of US citizens.

No doubt about it. But Putin also understands that the American people have no ability to control events even if they *did* know what the hell is going on in America.

Everybody in the world has to deal with the power brokers. The people are just along for the ride.

The difference is, some leadership has the wellbeing of their nation in mind,...other nation's leadership are under the thumb of the power brokers.
Posted By: bruinruin Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by navlav8r
Originally Posted by Jcubed
Literally nothing. The US does this all the time. As does Russia...look into their bombers being escorted by US fighters off Alaska.

Yep. I’ve spent many hours flying on the wing of Russian Bear and Badger bombers, Mays, Coots and even an Iranian P-3. They were testing us all the time. Here’s a good example that happened in the North Pacific in about ‘81 or so.

In a Phantom one night off the Midway, Strike advised us that they thought my wingman had lost his radio. While I was plugged in, taking gas off our A-7 tanker, he joined up with his lights were flashing as the signal that he was lost comm.. “Damn, we’re just going to be boring holes waiting for our recovery.” After topping off our tanks we started out toward our designated station and the next thing you know Strike comes up and says we have a bogey 330 at 100 miles, angels high, “signal gait” meaning full afterburner, go as fast as you can to ID it.

Now, I hadn’t heard “signal gait” since my radar simulator hops years before but I asked if we had more tankers airborne because we would need more fuel pretty quickly and Strike confirmed there was more sweet tankers. My wingman was a nugget (“Bowser”) and his back seater was my roommate (Tracker), again with no radio. I’m thinking “Bowser you’d better hang on dude ‘cause here we go!” I went to min-burner and when I saw his burners light I figured “OK, he’s got the idea.” We accelerated in full burner to 450 kts and climbed to 25,000 where we pushed over to zero G to reduce the induced drag and at 1.4M resumed the climb eventually going 1.8 Mach at 40,000’+ We got a radar lock out about 40 miles and it showed that the target was doing about the same speed. Range continued to close quickly with closure approaching Mach 4 and through it all Bowser was hanging on like a good wingman should 😁 This was going to be a really interesting conversion turn to join, particularly at night.

We were setting up for the stern conversion but at about 12-15 miles the radar showed the closure was beginning to drop off as the bogey turned around and headed back to the northwest. Strike then told us to knock it and return overhead. “Wonder what the hell that was all about?”

So we headed back, took on enough gas to make it to recovery then flew out to the marshall stack, holding until it was time to come down. We brought the wingman down to about a mile and detached them with flashing lights and they landed uneventfully. Marshall (Approach Control) took us back around and they worked us into a gap on final and we landed no problem.

After landing, the first thing we always did was go through CVIC (Carrier Intelligence Center). Bowser and Tracker were already there at the counter and as we walked in, Bowser turned and asked, “WHAT THE PHOOK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?” 😳

“I don’t know, ask them!” meaning the intell guys.

Turns out that it was a Backfire bomber out of some Russian base and they were testing our response.

Bowser said, “here we were with no radio and the next thing we know is you lit the burners trying to run away from us,” 😁😳
This is the kind of [bleep] a guy like me can only read on the Campfire. Thanks for sharing that.
Posted By: AJ300MAG Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Always fun and games...
On one of our tracks flying a Silk Purse mission we'd enter the continent at Amsterdam, continue flying east into Germany and then turn right and fly south until we were perpendicular to Paris. Another right turn, fly west to the channel, turn north and head for Amsterdam to do it again. On a few occasions an Aeroflot jet joined us about half way through our southern leg, trailed our aircraft slightly behind us at the 8:30 position (close enough to get a good picture of it out of the pilot's #3 window). If French ATC would allow us to play we'd make a few minor course and altitude changes, the Aeroflot mirrored our every move.
Posted By: luv2safari Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Anyone think the Rothschilds aren't behind this and are making billions? It's what they do and how they amass and control 1/2 of the world's currency in one way or another. Hell, Hitler feared them and gave orders "hands off".

Their influence is great in Russia and Europe, but I'm not so sure about China. I have a hunch that China is their big competitor.
Posted By: JohnBurns Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
Originally Posted by gunchamp
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
This planet needs a nuclear enema, governments are out of control with hubris over perceived/contrived aggressions and ambitions.
Couldnt agree more. We are heading to mass extinction
Originally Posted by gonehuntin
I look forward to Russian bombers flying up to Mexico City from Venezuela on a 'peace tour' - we deserve that.

I am always suprised at the few anti America dead enders hoping for the end of the world here on the Fire.

Feel bad about their lives if the best thing to look forward to is nuke war.
Posted By: Mr_TooDogs Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]
Posted By: Seafire Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by Mr_TooDogs
[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]

That is NOT a nuclear blast.... that was a pic taken from the shore, of when Schtick was out on his boat fishing, and put waay too much fuel on the charcoal grill, and threw a match on it...

That is what happened, and is now the reason Schtick doesn't have any hair on the top of his head...

His dog Hutch told me that via a PM...when Schtick was drunk and passed out, face first in the cat's litter box...
Posted By: Seafire Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by AJ300MAG
Always fun and games...
On one of our tracks flying a Silk Purse mission we'd enter the continent at Amsterdam, continue flying east into Germany and then turn right and fly south until we were perpendicular to Paris. Another right turn, fly west to the channel, turn north and head for Amsterdam to do it again. On a few occasions an Aeroflot jet joined us about half way through our southern leg, trailed our aircraft slightly behind us at the 8:30 position (close enough to get a good picture of it out of the pilot's #3 window). If French ATC would allow us to play we'd make a few minor course and altitude changes, the Aeroflot mirrored our every move.


Somewhere I have pics that the old man gave me back when I was in High School in the 60s... They were photographs taken by RF4Cs of Russian Bombers and Recon A/C intercepted over Alaska...off the coast of Japan, and at various spots in Europe 8 x 10 Glossies... in each of the photos you can see the other 3 F4Cs ( non recon) escorting the Russian bombers and Recon platforms, back to where they came from...

some of the pics were from when he was one of the pilots flying with the F4 intercept....
Posted By: Pappy348 Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Love the B52, the 1911 of bombers.

I can remember seeing rows of them lines up at McCoy (?) in Orlando when I travelled there to visit my father.
Posted By: AJ300MAG Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by Seafire
Somewhere I have pics that the old man gave me back when I was in High School in the 60s... They were photographs taken by RF4Cs of Russian Bombers and Recon A/C intercepted over Alaska...off the coast of Japan, and at various spots in Europe 8 x 10 Glossies... in each of the photos you can see the other 3 F4Cs ( non recon) escorting the Russian bombers and Recon platforms, back to where they came from...

some of the pics were from when he was one of the pilots flying with the F4 intercept....
The F-4 was my favorite USAF fighter, until the F-16 came out. My only gripe about them that we had to put alot of grease on the boom nozzel locking lugs if our tanker was going to do some air refueling with them. Otherwise they could damage the nozzel on break-away disconnect.
It wasn’t only the Russians...
We were flying a wire mission over the Bay of Biscay. When you've got approximately 25,000' of ¼" wire with a big orange basket on the end of it trailing behind you they close a big swath of airspace to ALL air traffic around you for a reason. The boomer goes back to the boom pod to watch that the drogue is stable as the last few hundred feet is being reeled in so that the aircraft tail doesn't get damaged. So anyways, the boomer comes running up into the cockpit, informs us that there is a RAF F-4 on our tail. Looking out the side window we see the F-4 fly come from over the top from right to left and parks himself even with the pilots window outside of the left wingtip. They were close enough to see that the GIB was wearing a helmet-mounted camera filming us the whole time. We didn't know it at the time, the Arc Royal was also in the area, guess they didn't appreciate us blasting them with 40k+ watts of VLF RF power.
It would have been ugly if that F-4 ran into our wire antenna...
Posted By: 6mmCreedmoor Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Been there several times. Lots of blondes!

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Posted By: 6mmCreedmoor Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Posted By: 6mmCreedmoor Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Posted By: 6mmCreedmoor Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
Posted By: navlav8r Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by Seafire
Originally Posted by AJ300MAG
Always fun and games...
On one of our tracks flying a Silk Purse mission we'd enter the continent at Amsterdam, continue flying east into Germany and then turn right and fly south until we were perpendicular to Paris. Another right turn, fly west to the channel, turn north and head for Amsterdam to do it again. On a few occasions an Aeroflot jet joined us about half way through our southern leg, trailed our aircraft slightly behind us at the 8:30 position (close enough to get a good picture of it out of the pilot's #3 window). If French ATC would allow us to play we'd make a few minor course and altitude changes, the Aeroflot mirrored our every move.


Somewhere I have pics that the old man gave me back when I was in High School in the 60s... They were photographs taken by RF4Cs of Russian Bombers and Recon A/C intercepted over Alaska...off the coast of Japan, and at various spots in Europe 8 x 10 Glossies... in each of the photos you can see the other 3 F4Cs ( non recon) escorting the Russian bombers and Recon platforms, back to where they came from...

some of the pics were from when he was one of the pilots flying with the F4 intercept....

We were required to carry a Navy issue Nikon 35mm camera on every flight to get pictures of any aircraft we might intercept. The Intell weenies would examine the pics for any changes on the individual aircraft over time to see if there were any new antennas, etc.

I have a bunch of pics of Bears up close enough to recognize faces in the observation windows. I have one I took through the gunsight as we approached a bear from about 400 yards astern with a radar lock and the pipper is superimposed on it. 😊

If we were escorting one around any of our ships we always tried to be between the Russkie and the ship. That way there would be one of us in the picture frame so it wouldn’t be as useful as propaganda to show that they could sneak in unobserved.

Their bomber crews in WESTPAC were real buttheads. They would try to fly close aboard a ship and then turn into you trying to wipe us off on the mast or drag us off on the water. At night, they’d take their searchlight and zap us with it after we joined up.

On the other hand, Bear crews that I escorted in the North Atlantic were pretty professional about it. I followed one around in the goo for almost four hours one day off the northwestern coast of Norway.

The E-2 called out a contact of interest and I saw this guy 80 miles away because he was in the “cons”. The controller was a little shocked when I acknowledged him with “talley” meaning “I see him”. 😁 We joined up on the right side of the Bear in clear air and not long after, the co-pilot gave me a descent signal similar to the signal we use and we popped into the clouds at around 30,000’.

I told my RIO that if we got below 1000’, call altitudes by hundreds of feet and let me know if, when and which direction he turns so we wouldn’t get dragged off in the water. Shortly the Co-pilot gave me a signal sort of like a thumbs up, to the right and he turned right followed a little later with a point straight ahead and they rolled out. They were “rigging” ships in the battle group probably to get signals intell and correlate them to a ship type/number.

We were finally down at a little less than 500’ and at that altitude we were in and out of the clouds and I eventually got bad vertigo seeing clouds, water, clouds, water, clouds, SHIP, clouds. Holy spit! Even though my RIO was calling out altitudes, it didn’t really register how low we were until the helo pad on one of our destroyers went by about 300’ below.

At one point the Bear climbed back into clear air and one of our A-7s was vectored to us so we were plugged in with the tanker who was flying off the Bear. A little later it was back down into the goo. I was soaked after we landed back on the boat.
Posted By: AJ300MAG Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Originally Posted by navlav8r
Originally Posted by Seafire
Originally Posted by AJ300MAG
Always fun and games...
On one of our tracks flying a Silk Purse mission we'd enter the continent at Amsterdam, continue flying east into Germany and then turn right and fly south until we were perpendicular to Paris. Another right turn, fly west to the channel, turn north and head for Amsterdam to do it again. On a few occasions an Aeroflot jet joined us about half way through our southern leg, trailed our aircraft slightly behind us at the 8:30 position (close enough to get a good picture of it out of the pilot's #3 window). If French ATC would allow us to play we'd make a few minor course and altitude changes, the Aeroflot mirrored our every move.


Somewhere I have pics that the old man gave me back when I was in High School in the 60s... They were photographs taken by RF4Cs of Russian Bombers and Recon A/C intercepted over Alaska...off the coast of Japan, and at various spots in Europe 8 x 10 Glossies... in each of the photos you can see the other 3 F4Cs ( non recon) escorting the Russian bombers and Recon platforms, back to where they came from...

some of the pics were from when he was one of the pilots flying with the F4 intercept....

We were required to carry a Navy issue Nikon 35mm camera on every flight to get pictures of any aircraft we might intercept. The Intell weenies would examine the pics for any changes on the individual aircraft over time to see if there were any new antennas, etc.

I have a bunch of pics of Bears up close enough to recognize faces in the observation windows. I have one I took through the gunsight as we approached a bear from about 400 yards astern with a radar lock and the pipper is superimposed on it. 😊

If we were escorting one around any of our ships we always tried to be between the Russkie and the ship. That way there would be one of us in the picture frame so it wouldn’t be as useful as propaganda to show that they could sneak in unobserved.

Their bomber crews in WESTPAC were real buttheads. They would try to fly close aboard a ship and then turn into you trying to wipe us off on the mast or drag us off on the water. At night, they’d take their searchlight and zap us with it after we joined up.

On the other hand, Bear crews that I escorted in the North Atlantic were pretty professional about it. I followed one around in the goo for almost four hours one day off the northwestern coast of Norway.

The E-2 called out a contact of interest and I saw this guy 80 miles away because he was in the “cons”. The controller was a little shocked when I acknowledged him with “talley” meaning “I see him”. 😁 We joined up on the right side of the Bear in clear air and not long after, the co-pilot gave me a descent signal similar to the signal we use and we popped into the clouds at around 30,000’.

I told my RIO that if we got below 1000’, call altitudes by hundreds of feet and let me know if, when and which direction he turns so we wouldn’t get dragged off in the water. Shortly the Co-pilot gave me a signal sort of like a thumbs up, to the right and he turned right followed a little later with a point straight ahead and they rolled out. They were “rigging” ships in the battle group probably to get signals intell and correlate them to a ship type/number.

We were finally down at a little less than 500’ and at that altitude we were in and out of the clouds and I eventually got bad vertigo seeing clouds, water, clouds, water, clouds, SHIP, clouds. Holy spit! Even though my RIO was calling out altitudes, it didn’t really register how low we were until the helo pad on one of our destroyers went by about 300’ below.

At one point the Bear climbed back into clear air and one of our A-7s was vectored to us so we were plugged in with the tanker who was flying off the Bear. A little later it was back down into the goo. I was soaked after we landed back on the boat.
And you were getting paid while having all of that fun... 😁
Posted By: navlav8r Re: B-52s over Estonia - 02/25/23
Paid extra. (Flight pay) 😁
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