I've shared his stuff in the past - always makes me chuckle. Thought the one on the B52 was pert good.

"coitus ditch"

Annnnd this one made me think of every vet I've ever known - you'll recognize the part.

BUFFs....don’t go to war without them.

The old man spent about 6 years flying those puppies.

Love them planes...

Well, that guy's talker sure ain't broke. When I ever hear about B-52's it isn't a US bomber that comes to mind. It's the mixed drink that my Duluth buddies introduced us to called the B-52. Now more affectionately known in our group as the "Minnesota Malted". Holy smokes, talk about one that goes down easily and then lights out, it's the B-52.

They're bad mofos. It's amazing when you consider how long the B-52 has persisted.

I've always thought they look like they fly in a slight nose-down attitude.

I always thought The B-52s were a party rock band from my misspent youth.

Nothing inspires quite like an Arc Light mission.

The Air Force seemed determined that I'd fly B-52s. Tried to assign me to them twice. I managed to wriggle free both times, but had to separate from active duty the second time to avoid being a Buff INSTRUCTOR pilot. Can you imagine the horror of that?

I worked across the flightline from them things for a few years.. Actually felt sorry for the ground crews, took them three times longer to generate them to get ready for an ORI than a tanker.

My daughter is with the 5th Bomb Wing out of Minot, ND. She recently returned from Al Udied Qatar and she brought me a certified flag with certificate from the B-52 crew who flew it over Afghanistan. Very cool.

Teal: I have been a B-52 "super-fan" since the first time I went with my family to watch one take off from Boeing Field (south Seattle) back in 1952.
We were banned from having cameras or taking pictures of them but I will never forget the roar and the smoke (they were very "smokey" back then - I don't know why?) as they took off.
I was born and raised just over the small ridge from where the B-52's were made and first flown from.
I was 7 years old when they first flew. I always ran out of my house when I would hear the distinctive sound of the B-52's taking off and watch them in awe.
Decades later we found out why we could NOT photograph them initially - the "wheel trucks" (landing gear) could "angle" at up to 17 degrees to keep the wings directly into the wind when taking off - thus providing more lift less drag. And the military folks did not want the "rooskies" to have that knowledge/technology.
Long live the B-52 - and the Boeing Company a fine American outfit!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Okay so...you look at this back in context of the 70's and try to believe this isn't some group from West Germany.

J-57s produces a lot of smoke. Add water injection for takeoff made them a lot worse.

Is that the plane that flew out of Carswell in Ft. Worth?

In the 1970's the BUFFs stationed at Blytheville AFB would make low level runs across the Arkansas rice fields. Entertaining especially when duck hunting and focused on the birds working the hole and then a few BUFF decide to make a low pass. Seemed like they would just barely clear the tree line; sure as hell sounded like it.

I often wondered how many ducks they would suck through their engines.

Carswell AFB had BUFFs stationed there...

Thought so, they would stage up over Benbrook Lake to refuel sometimes, if it was a night sorte, they would shake you out of bed.

First time I was there for that I was putting up a building across 820 from the base, scared the fooie out of me when I looked up and could actually see the guy's face through the window of the plane.

The B-52 autopilot system I worked on for several years had two "power steering" modes- - - - -air refuel and low level. Transducers in the control yokes sent signals to the autopilot servo motors, which assisted the pilot's control inputs. Air refuel was a smooth, gradual power boost. Low level could break the wings or tail off unless the accelerometers in the airframe kicked in to limit the output. That was used to sneak up on a target at extremely low altitude and hide in the ground clutter that kept radar signals from seeing them. A hotdog pilot could make that big MF'er do some impressive stuff!

I can think of a few fates worse than that! I'd give my left nut to be able to go back in time and take the turns in life that might have landed me in the cockpit of any military aircraft. I did the enlisted thing a couple of years after high school, then after I got out I did college taking my time. When I got my degree I went back to the Navy recruiter and inquired about the possibility of a commission and flight school. By then I was too old for the Navy and he suggested talking to the Army about flying helicopters. I spent a few minutes in the Army recruiter's office, then thought about it for a while. I nixed the idea because I didn't trust the recruiter. I wonder to this day what I would have found had I taken that path...

Rocky, I was at Castle AFB California where rookie BUF pilots learned to fly them. Taking a guy fresh out of a T-38 and putting him into a BUF made for some interesting takeoffs, and even more dramatic landings. Ever seen anybody land a BUF one gear at a time- - - - -including the wingtip protectors? I could always tell when the IP was at the controls- - - -they greased it in with no drama at all!

Picture taken just before our crew flew the ORI May 1981 Grand Forks AFB ND 319 BMW 46 BMS. That’s an H Model in the background. I was a young Navigator at the time. Upgraded to RN Bombardier later. 1500 hours in G’s & H’s. The big guy at the top right was our Aircraft Commander Pilot Capt. Borkowski “BORK”. One of the best pilots I ever knew and a great person. I am 2nd from Upper Left. Note one of the Crew Chiefs is wearing mukluks in May !

Us maintenance pukes always claimed a BUF needed two navigators for reading and writing capabilities!
LOL!

Those portable AC heaters sure felt good in the middle of the No Dak winter!

Quack Bang is hilarious! I love his videos. Thanks for letting us know about his channel, teal.

LOL That’s a good one. Some truth in that.

Yes. They would fly thru the front door of the elem. school I attended and out the back door on west side of Ft. Worth. Then again in the wee morning hours at our house. Still remember the B-36’s flying over too!!

Edit;

Kid who lived down the street (Cuban expats) lost his father (pilot) on practice bomb run over Padre Island. Right into the Gulf. We all went to same school.

I was on maintenance flying status at Kadena - - - -rode the Avionics launch truck and fixed a few D models enroute to the target. Did the later models still use the MD-1 Astrotracker?

I worked with a retired B-52 tail gunner. He told me the "Chrome Dome missions were done with E & F models and that mission wore them out prematurely. He told me they would fly the northern route to Spain and back so the Russians never knew where they were.

Twas the summer of '73 I was on a B-5 stand inspecting the boom nozzle of a tanker during a postflight inspection. A BUFF has taxied to the far end of the runway preparing for takeoff. Making the turn onto the active runway too fast the right wingtip smacked the runway so hard that it broke the tip gear which caused it to bend outward rupturing the tip tank. The tank contacted the runway which lit the fuel running out of the tank and started the wing tip on fire. The pilot taxied the aircraft to the departure end (closer to the fire department), shut down the engines. Next thing I know the hatch drops open and the flight crew jump out and they're halling a$$ upwind. Firefighters put the fire out, eventually Boeing brought in a wing tip to replace the damaged one. So went my baptism on a broken arrow...

Quite true - saw a hotdog Lt. Colonel roll and demolish a B52 and all on board during a show-off demo flight over at Fairchild in the 90s. That was impressive.

One of my hunting buddies, Don, in this article.

Three generations in the Buff

Palomares crash was a G model...

A D model at Kaden tried to abort a takeoff past the go/no point when they lost two engines. 34 750 pounders plus 24 500's, and a full fuel load made quite a bonfire. The only survivor of the initial crash was the tail gunner, who popped the turret and dived onto the runway just before they hit the overrun. He died in the base hospital a couple of hours later. An E-3 bomb disposal troop made two stripes that day for defusing bombs between puddles of burning jet fuel. The base commander promoted him on the spot!

Yes. G’s & H’s in the early 1980’s. Sextant was inserted into the port for taking celestial fixes on Nav Legs. I believe that has now gone the way of the dinosaurs today.

Real nice refueling attitude in the pic. Photoshopped?

At Kadena in Febr of '68 waiting for a C-130 to give us a ride to vietnam we looked around at the B-52's that were parked there. We noticed some of the wingtips were 10' or so off the ground while others were knee high. Someone asked why the difference and we were told the one's close to the ground were full of fuel and waiting for a mission, the others had just come back and there was very little fuel left in the wings. Couldn't believe the wings bent that much.
Tet had started and no commercial aircraft were allowed to fly into vietnam so we rode in the 130's.
A week later we were at Khe Sanh and got to see arc light's on an almost daily basis. Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for all the air crews and the job they did.

Looks exciting, don't it?

No. My understanding is it was once a requirement for KC-135 IP candidates. Not sure for the BUFF crew.

The autopilot shop was responsible for maintaining the astrotracker. On Okinawa, we got an oddball writeup that none of the standard troubleshooting techniques could fix. We found that the gyro-stabilized tracker unit above the bomb bay had a damaged wiring harness. A sheet metal guy had managed to hit our wire bundle with over 50 wires in it 13 times with a 1/8" drill bit while installing a scab patch over some flak damage. It took us 3 days, working 24/7 to splice all the wires back together. We were working in the crawl space below the wing root. Okinawa in the summertime, on a flight line with no shade, right under he skin of a black-painted airplane, is not a nice place to be!

I was an engine mech at Fairchild 87-91. 92nd FMS. Worked in shop for a year rebuilding the j-57 and tf-33 That got boring so went to the test cell. being underneath a Jet engine at MRT while adjusting the fuel control Is indescribable. After that I spent the rest of my time in phase dock. One week a 135 g model. the next week A b-52 h. Lots of memories.

A bunch of F models ended up at Castle as trainers. "Worn out" is a good description! During a routine phase inspection a 10 foot long crack was discovered from the wing root going down the side of the fuselage on one plane. When they called Boeing to ask how to repair it, the answer was "Scrap it!" The wing commander had to ask for a volunteer crew to make one last flight to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan.

Usually the best pilots in our Squadron were given the opportunity fly the broken planes back to Boeing.
A lot of times it was the late Texan Gary Easton & my AC Borkowski. Gary retired and ended up as a personal pilot for a large Texas ranch.Not sure on the ranch. I loved flying with him. Cowboy hat and all just like Slim Pickens. He had the ability to navigate visually on clear days across the entire North American continent. He knew practically every crossroad, highway, diner, etc Just amazing.

I watched them practice flying below the mountain tops in the Boone NC area. I remember being on top of Howard’s Knob and looking down onto the top of one flying up the valley over Boone right at dawn. I’ll never forget it ! Looked like filled the valley.

Sometimes they did not make it over Mountain Tops. My 1st Gunner was killed just after he moved from GFAFB, ND down to Robins AFB. They took out the top of Square Top Mountain on a descent to a low level run out West. Another Gunner I knew that just left GFAFB died in a low level crash into a butte near LaJunta. Entire crew killed on both crashes. Early 1980’s had quite a few crashes & accidents. Also had one blow up on the ramp refueling at GFAFB & a bomber fire on Nuke alert there too.

First cousin piloted two tours over Viet Nam ( out of Otipau Thailand. Think I spelled it wrong), then came home and piloted a BUFF for SAC. Love hearing his tales about flying nukes. The most intriguing point, to me, was his description of how small the nuke is on board. I figured it would be some monstrosity but no…about 10’ x 3’ diameter if I remember correctly.

Good things come in small packages.

i worked in the 8th AF HQ back in the early 80's. barksdale had a schit ton of bufs. during ORI they would take off one after the other with about 30 seconds in between. the roar was constant. pretty impressive except when they did it when i was trying to sleep. our barracks was an old, bolted together metal box that sat a few hundred yards off the flightline. the whole friggen building would shake when those things took off.

Outboard of #1 engine (far right of picture).

Couple years ago I was in Minot on family business and made a drive up north to the base for old times' sake. About 8 B52's decided they would fly around just for me, so I headed west toward Lake Darling, stopping every once in a while to get out the glass. Man, you can see (and hear) those things a long way away.

I spent a few months at U-Tapao working with a detatchment that didn't exist- - - -fixing C-130's that didn't exist- - - -which were air dropping food and ammo to people who didn't exist- - - - - -in a southeast Asia country where we "didn't have any military presence". Of course it didn't happen- - - - -the "complete" USAF records I requested and received a year ago said I was in the Philippines at the time!

Knew a bit about them, just that they were important in Vietnam.

Used to see big planes over Western Ohio, near Dayton.
The flew over 70 a lot as I drove through. No big deal.

Then one day I was running with an older guy, possibly
a Vietnam Vet. He mentioned that we were near Wright-patterson,
And that B-52s flew over the road. Pretty low. "AND HERE COMES ONE!"

Well, with my new information I was impressed.
And mentioned the 4 big engines.

"Look again, there's two engines on each of those pods."


Then, I was really impressed.
He went on to talk about the raids in Vietnam.


After that, I became a fan, and always looked forward to seeing them.

Man I sure do miss ND! I had a lot of great times hunting & fishing up there.

Flew on EC-135s with an airborne radio maintenance type that had flown secret squirrel schidt on C-130s out of UT. He had some interesting stories...

Grew up down the road from GFAFB and as a kid it was an impressive sight all the B-52s along highway 2 heading west.

Happy Thanksgiving Brian... me and the wife hope this finds you well.