is impressive and scary at the same time.

Amazing that the USAF has been running this same exercise in this same aircraft since I was in kindergarten! It is possible that the very aircrew aboard these B-52’s had grandfathers that were flying the very same aircraft (with major rebuilds) on the same exercise. Talk about legacy systems! Speaking of legacy systems perhaps we should scrap the M4 and re-issue rebuilt M1 Garand’s with bayonets?

Too bad the Air Force didn't maintain and rebuild their F-15s the way they did their B-52s. BTW, YouTube also videos covering B-52s during
Operation Linebacker. It's mostly audio, but their is excellent explanatory text. I am sure that the laconic transmissions as SAM launch after SAM launch rise up at them. When they are flying a radar beam, the EW officer jams trhem. But the NVA is firing salvos that are optically guided or fire on good guesses. You will hear at least 2 aircraft hit. One with 2 SAM hits makes it to Thailand, but crash lands. Another one goes down and their are 4 chutes with beepers. The men are captured.

The pilot and co-pilots' voices do not change as they report these events and only show the slightest strain when trying to maneuver between two missiles and offer conflicting options. You realize it would have been the same as they penetrated Soviet airspace. However, there would have been more fighters.

I don't think we want to be firing the M-1 in Afghanistan where the enemy could hear the empty clip hit hard earth or rock as in Korea. But, its brother, the M-14 is in service now as a sniper rifle with a 20 round box magazine, accurized, and scoped. Of course, the Army is spending money to replace it with an M-16 type rifle in the same caliber.

Great video, RVN! As much as I love to rib the USAF, I have to admit that they're awfully good at what they (love to) do. Very impressive.

I can imagine what it looked like in 1972 when the B-52's took off to conduct the 11-day bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong. Unlike the single-ship Arc Light raids into the South, large formations of B-52's (three or four times as many aircraft as in this this video) were lined up at Anderson AFB on Guam, and they all took off at minimum intervals, fully loaded with fuel and bombs. People on the ground at the time said that it was the most awesome and spectacular thing they'd ever seen. The pilots said lifting off was a hairy experience, not only because there was only just enough runway to get a heavily loaded bomber airborne, but also because the runway at Anderson was not level. It undulated over uneven terrain, so the pilots could not see the entire runway, which ended at a steep drop over a cliff!

However, the later mission over N. Viet-Nam came at a cost: you may not be aware that around the 1972 time frame, there was quite the fracas created by the more than a few crews flying out of Guam. It was due in part because of the inflexibility in planning of the altitude and flight paths on the bomb runs over the Red River, which lead to predictability for NVA SAM operators to shoot B-52s out of the sky. I was told by a former POW, now deceased Colonel Marvel USMC, they knew when a B-52 was hit, specifically with a payload on board, as the sky lit-up very brightly. . .Brave men going into harms way and knowing it could be done better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozSZ6Kj5-A0

The video is stills as this is a night raid in 5 parts. There will be text of some difficult to decipher transmissions and some very good explanations. The only time that there is any change in tone of voice when the pilot and co-pilot suggest different turns to thread their way through two SAMs straddling them. At least two bombers are hit. One goes down with 4 chutes and the other, hit by 2 missiles continues on to Thailand where it crashes at Udorn - tough plane.

If a SAM was linked to radar, they could jam it, but many were fired on good guesses and optically. These are not fighters, however, they can maneuver just so much. Some distant bombers were engaged by fighters and were the only aircraft forced off target. You just know that the same atmosphere would exist in the cockpit if they had had to penetrate Russian airspace. This raid came in from 4 different directions and altitudes.

There was another costly gaff. The pilots were told to check in with Thailand Air Control on the way in and out. NVA and their sympathizers walked the hills of Laos holding single channel radios to their ears. Somehow there was an alert system based upon their warnings. Whether we continued to check-in is unknown to me. Of course, there were also Russian trawlers to raise the alarm and they could monitor our control and warning system. In this raid, "Red Crown" was the Navy cruiser Long Beach whose radars monitored SAM launches and tried to keep track of all the bombers - especially the ones that are hit.

As they lift off, they initiate a turn and bank to avoid the previos aircraft's turbulence. Note the As we get down to the last 5 (of 15) aircraft, the takeoff roll becomes shorter. One pilot I consulted thinks that the previous bombers have dried the air in the runway area.

Rest assured, no vehicle will be permitted to block any aircraft. Should something like a vehicle's stalling occur; it will be shoved out of the way. You can bet they have an SOP for any contingency. At Rome, I might as well have been watching the movie, "Strategic Air Command." In that movie, an aircraft was having difficulty starting and the Deputy Wing Commander was down there to find out why and get it rolling. Well, at Rome, a KC-135 tanker was having trouble with an engine and guess what? The Deputy Wing Commander was down there and that fucker started.

The video didn't show it, but the deadly seriousness of their business was brought home when the Air Police Battalion went into action. Defensive machinegun positions suddenly appeared and the APs deployed around the base. F-102s appeared overhead as a CAP and returning B-52s were told to touch and go or go-round. Even the movie didn't show that. On the base, there was a third lane on all the roads. It was dedicated to alert crews. If they went to eat or to the PX, they went in a step-van and they were armed at all times.

Scary? You bet and they wanted the Russians to know exactly what was happening and that everything worked so they would be scared. I guess it worked. One of the first concessions we made in the disarmament talks was to cease the airborne alert with a percentage of our bombers in the air to avoid their destruction on the ground. Those bombers were of some concern to them!

i was told that early SAC aircraft pranged on the ground became such a problem that LeMay once threatened mandatory grounding for the next pilot to put a bird out of commission. This was in an era when the ready squadrons were dense-packed on the tarmac, so that the jet-blast from a lead bird's engine could crank up the first turbine on the next plane, and so on down the line. (This technique is still used for single engine tactical planes that have no self-start capability.)

A retired senior pilot that I used to work with nearly lost his flying job to LeMay's 'no accidents, no excuses' rule. An enterprising base commander decided that unchalking the wheels was taking a few to many seconds, and ordered planes to be left unchalked. This led to an unhappy un-parking accident, when this unbriefed pilot-instructor began demonstrating ground procedures that presumed the wheel wedges were there, as per SOP, to test an engine against.

WW, 'The Economist' says we spend more than the next 19 largest military budgets of various countries almost all of which are our allies.

"Question: does Skynet (or Xe spawn operating auto-drones) have Constitutional personhood, legal guarantee to freedom of speech under current US Supreme Court doctrine?"

If it doesn't, just pay the incorporation fee and it's good to go.

Ah yes the M-14 but I specifically chose the M1 Garand the rifle of 'the finest generation' of Iwo Jima and frozen Chosen. Anyway it is better balanced for drill than the M-14 even though a 1/2 pound heavier. And everyone here knows how I long for the old days of rifle drill when soldiers and Marines could actually look and act like soldiers and Marines. :-)

But like their USAF subsonic counterparts that were stationed in S. Korea, the USN A-4 drivers were expected to dig a radiation survivable dog-leg hole, six ft deep and six feet horizontally displaced, after the trailing surfaces of their aircraft melted off and forced ejection. After all, the US doesn't do suicide attacks. And nobody thought that there would be a carrier to return to, if it even lasted long enough to launch the A-4s. The F-4 Phantoms would have armed and launched first, I should think.

The list of US military nuclear accidents, many of them armed B-52 crashes in CONUS, is worth reading. Those were interesting times, even if our own missteps were classified and withheld (if possible) to protect culpable policymakers, while nuclear testing continued.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_nuclear_accidents#1960s

The A-4 and other tactical aircraft, even the venerable A-3 Skywarrior, used the loft technique in launching their weapons. They would go into a climb towards the target and near the top of the climb would release their weapon. The plane would then do a 180 and scoot away as fast as they could.

The A-4 was designed to deliver a nuclear weapon- the relatively long undercarriage of the A-4 allowed it to carry a special weapon at the centerline position.

How could a slower B-52? After a low-level penetration, how high were they expected to pop-up?

Believe it or not, the A1E Skyraider could carry a nuclear weapon along with additional crew for that purpose. It still had extended loiter capability and at one time, flew extended armed patrols off carriers. One such period may have been the Korean War.

An airborne command post with a general officer aboard still flies as far as I know, In addition, there are other aircraft to carry the President and the Secretary of Defense. All have similar C2 capabilities and EMP protection. I have no idea why we have given the Secretary of Defense this capability. He is not next in the chain of succession. The Vice President and Secretary of Defense are senior.

Secretary of State