PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: nddons on December 31, 2021, 09:14:10 AM
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I found this picture from Anderson AFB, Guam, just before Linebacker II. Look at all those B-52s. I sent my buddy (who flew KC-135s in the Gulf of Tonkin as well as for SAC after Vietnam) and Warbird mentor the following question:
Vic,
This was posted somewhere as being an aerial view of Anderson AFB circa December, 1972, just before Operation Linebacker II. Were you there? I had no idea that base was that big.
Stan
Here was his humble response:
“Yep,I was there during Linebacker 2.There was a Soviet sub right off the end of the runway that would relay when and how many Buffs took off and then they could figure when they could expect the raid and consequently be VERY ready.We would take off right before the Buffs and refuel them prestrike..There was still a Japanese soldier from WW2 on the island at that time.He thought the Buffs were still bombing Japan.He surrendered a few years later.It seemed you always took off over the 500' cliffs and then landed over them...Vic .”
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211231/1a69024dcf1b6926e5937564f5ce7b6d.jpeg)
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I lived on Guam from 1966 to 1968. My dad was stationed at COMNAVMAR and we had a nice duplex on Nimitz hill. We had a telescope that watched what he called the "Skunk". A Russian fishing boat just off the coast with all sorts of antennas. He said that there was nothing we could do about it. I remember the B52s flying overhead coming back from missions. We took occasional trips to the AFB to watch them arrive. Very sobering experience to see all that air power and that the war was just over the horizon, and what the crews experienced.
I had loads of fun exploring the boonies behind the house. Found some cool stuff from WWII. Lots of exploring old Japanese bunkers and gun emplacements. I still have a .50 bullet on my desk as a reminder.
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Flown out of there a few times. It's huge. It's about a 6 hour flight to Hanoi, so those guys had a 12 to 14 hour mission.
Clark AFB in Angeles City Ph was the diversion.
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I lived on Guam from 1966 to 1968. My dad was stationed at COMNAVMAR and we had a nice duplex on Nimitz hill. We had a telescope that watched what he called the "Skunk". A Russian fishing boat just off the coast with all sorts of antennas. He said that there was nothing we could do about it. I remember the B52s flying overhead coming back from missions. We took occasional trips to the AFB to watch them arrive. Very sobering experience to see all that air power and that the war was just over the horizon, and what the crews experienced.
I had loads of fun exploring the boonies behind the house. Found some cool stuff from WWII. Lots of exploring old Japanese bunkers and gun emplacements. I still have a .50 bullet on my desk as a reminder.
Vic told me G U A M was the acronym for Give Up And Masturbate. Lol
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This is well worth 43 minutes of time if you’re interested in actual radio broadcasts during Linebacker II.
https://youtu.be/60ihI7VU2OY
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of course, the various spy assets didn't really matter much with the filing of flight plans and the bombers using the same flight paths day after day.
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of course, the various spy assets didn't really matter much with the filing of flight plans and the bombers using the same flight paths day after day.
And you know this how?
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Those guys got seriously screwed by the idiotic rules of engagement micromanaged from the White House and that SecDef buffoon MacNamara. They didn’t allow interdiction of shipping bringing Russian SAMs into Haiphong harbor til too late, allowed SAM networks to be built untouched, didn’t allow NVA airfields to be bombed, then sent our B-52s into the meat grinder with zero element of surprise. Total shit show.
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McNamara was a first class (biden-esque) idiot.
Fucker.
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of course, the various spy assets didn't really matter much with the filing of flight plans and the bombers using the same flight paths day after day.
And you know this how?
Read the history. Johnson and McNamara micro managed the air war in Vietnam.
The B-52s flew the same routes inbound and outbound. NVA picked them off, often as they were egressing.
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Read the history. Johnson and McNamara micro managed the air war in Vietnam.
The B-52s flew the same routes inbound and outbound. NVA picked them off, often as they were egressing.
It gets a bit more complicated than Johnson and McNamara supposedly doing the flight planning for the AF.
I’ll agree that the WH did micromanage the targets.
VietNam was the beginning of the War for Profit industry. Just like our other “wars” since then, it’s not about winning, it’s all about lucrative contracts.
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hint: did the US military fly wherever/whenever they wanted without coordinating routes?
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hint: did the US military fly wherever/whenever they wanted without coordinating routes?
Hint. You have no fucking clue to military flight planning or mission planning, especially in the era under discussion.
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::)
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Hint. You have no fucking clue to military flight planning or mission planning, especially in the era under discussion.
And you know that how?
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And you know that how?
Been there, done that and have a few t-shirts in the closet.
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And you know that how?
Not only was he there, but he was there thousands of years earlier when Isildur took the One Ring rather than destroy it.
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Not only was he there, but he was there thousands of years earlier when Isildur took the One Ring rather than destroy it.