This is why B-52s are still in the inventory…
And when/if they finally retire ’em, they will be 80 years old!
My cousins both flew Big Ugly Fat F**kers (BUFFs) in Nam, Linebacker, Arc Light and other ops and some of those same BUFFs were dropping bombs on the Republican Guards in Iraq in 1991. They accounted for only three percent of the sorties in the war, they delivered THIRTY-THREE percent of weapons on target!
This video is from 1991 and pretty descriptive about the missions and battle damage. 35 hours and 14,000 nm makes for a LONG day!!!
When you ‘really’ need to bomb ’em back to the stone age, just call for the BUFFs…
A Marine NCO buddy said the only time he ever felt sorry for somebody in combat was when he watch the B-52 drop bombs on Iraqis during during Desert Storm.
Gerry
I learn so much from you:)
Wonder how much Boeing learned from the B-52 went into their commercial airplanes?
There’s nothing quite like an ARCLIGHT with a full load of 1000 lb bombs going off. Even if you’re a respectable distance, it generates fear – and you just know that the language of hell will be Vietnamese…
I saw some BUFFs ‘up-close-&-personal’ {we-ell, as ‘u-c-&-p’ as the Air Farce would allow 😉 } back in the late 70’s. I was the only female member of an advance party to Yuma, & one of our stops was an AF base where they had B-52s. We were warned, before we got off our 53s, to NOT cross the line ………………. the AF even put on a little demo for us Jarheads, having one of their people cross the line, then enter the cavalry {a Jeep with 4-5 personnel with M-16s} who promptly splayed the walker face down “in the position” …………….. little military theater, doncha know? 😉
Semper Fi’
DM
During the old SAC and TAC days, the Buffs and KC-135s were the loudest, smokiest birds on the planet.
The -52’s rolling down the runway, forever, it seemed, followed by the -135’s, hooking up in orbit, tanking, then heading off to deliver presents.
An awesome sight.
Only thing that even remotely compares to it is when an aircraft carrier sees how fast it can launch all of its birds.
Who maintains these incredible airplanes? A bunch of kids from farms, the streets, college-dropouts, etc that seemingly nobody else in society wants. The military trains them, teaches them how to work as a team, and what you have is the finest fighting force in the world.
Good stuff.
–AOA
Still one of my favorite planes
Amazing that these things are still flying. Even more mind-numbing that are leadership won’t find a worthy replacement.
“bomb ’em back to the stone age”
No, NFO its Forward to the stone age. 😀
Ah, memories. I grew up around SAC bases. The sound of B-52’s taking off was enough to make a lot of us sit up and watch.
Amazing they nee a tail-gunner.
Gerry- True dat!
Agirl- Only because I’m an old fart 🙂
WSF- Quite a bit about reliability and wing/fuselage structure life 🙂
LL- Yep! And we ALWAYS tried to take off before they did in Guam and Utapao! Otherwise you might as well shut down and go take a break for an hour!!!
DM- I used to catch rides ‘home’ on them… 🙂
AOA- Yep, today the grandsons/daughters of the original folks are out there, and they’re STILL getting it done!!!
MrG- 🙂
Andy- There is literally NOTHING that can replace the BUFF for the total bomb load! The AF refuses to design something that capable again, because it’s not ‘stealthy’… sigh…
Ratus- Um… Point! 🙂
DB- Yep, and you always wondered… 12,000 feet and they’d use 10-11,000…
Ed- Rement of the B-29 days!
@DaddyBear – my father was an Air Force lifer. He always said the roar of B-52s taking off was the sound of freedom.
I remember seeing films of these guys dropping their bomb load in Viet Nam, and was stunned at how long it took for them to empty out.
And then they dropped what was on the external racks!
Seems like bombs were raining out of those big guys fir 5 minutes per plane!
Tim- That is was!
drjim- 76 500 lb bombs PER ACFT! 🙂
WoW!
Seventy-Six Thousand pounds of bombs!
Imagine what we could have done in WWII with that….
While looking at photos a friend took in Viet Nam in ’68, I asked what was special about a grove of trees. He explained it wasn’t trees, but a photo of a B-52 bomb run and those “trees” were miles away.
He described a constant low rumble as the ground shook. The aftermath, in his description, was like looking at the surface of the moon.
One of my (helicopter hunter-killer team) unit’s jobs in VN was to stand off about 5 klicks and wait for the “all clear”, then rush in to do a “B.D.O.”, (bomb damage assessment) as quickly as we could get there. Being that close we could feel the percussion of the bombs like someone banging on our chests as we orbited, waiting.
I will never forget the smoke/dust clearing from the 30-foot deep craters, one of which had an obvious hole in it, with a single set of human tracks climbing up the crater and into the jungle.
That enemy trooper’s ears HAD to be ringing!
A friend of mine was an SF’er who went into Afghanistan right after 9/11. He said his most effective weapons were a briefcase full of Cash and the Radio used to call in the BUFFs.
IMHO, the Gooberment should call Boeing, tell them to stretch the Crew Compartment a Bit, change out the engines, and make up a 1,000 Fresh BUFFs.
I served my time in Grand Forks AFB in the early ’70s. One of the only times I was frightened for humanity was the night Nixon gave his “we’re in Cambodia” speech.
During the speech, I heard a loud noise outside my quarters and saw B52s taking off in flights of 2. Only time I ever saw this. I closed the blinds and pulled the covers over my head.
I was driving on I-20 outside of Shreveport when a squadron came in to land at Barksdale. Flew right overhead, 300 feet up. Man, those are big birds!
drjim- Ended WWII a LOT earlier!
Jess- Yep, and 36 BUFFs at a time…
GB- Yeah, BDA was simple, NOTHING left… end of story, and that guy was probably deaf after that…
Les- During the first go round over there, an entire battalion of Republican Guards gave up to a Predator, cause they ‘knew’ it was going to do BDA after a Linebacker strike… 🙂
TC- Yep, we were flying out of Utapao when they started rolling in… It got ‘rather’ interesting for a few days!
BP- Yep, they don’t call ’em BUFFs for nothing 🙂
Makin’ me feel like an old fart here sir! 🙂
I bumped into the B-52 a couple of times in the late 60s and early 70s. I had the pleasure of working with “SKY KING” for a year as they lifted off from Guam and did their orbit shifts. Prayed every day we weren’t sending out “go codes”.
In the central highlands I spent a bit of time with the 4th ID and had an occasion to be very grateful for a B-52 drop when there were way too many bad guys way too close. A truly memorable experience.
I suspect the old girl will keep flying for a good long time yet – after all, what would we ever replace it with??
Long ago, far away . . . where the hell does time go anyway!!
It may not be your daddies AirForce, but it probably is his plane